Newport Rhode Island - we've found our new home!

Well, we've both decided this is the most beautiful city we've seen so far.  It is spectacularly situated on a rugged section of coastline, historic and luxurious!  We began the day touring the old, historic section of the waterfront with houses dating from the late 1600's.

 Newport is much more famous for its numerous mansions, built by some of the most wealthy families in the history of the US.  We decided the mansion tour was a must-do, but choosing which ones to see was difficult.  We settled on "The Breakers" named for the crashing waves breaking on its property and built by the Vanderbilts.  At 48,000 sq. feet and valued at 6 billion dollars today, it did not disappoint! In it's heyday, it took 80 servants to keep the place running, and keep in mind this was just a summer home!  Couldn't take pictures inside, but here's what the exterior looks like.

 and here's the "backyard"...

We also toured "Marble House", another Vanderbilt mansion built using all marble, inside and out.  It was famous for the protests held to secure the right for women to vote held on the lawn by Aida Vanderbilt, who made sure she served tea on the thick rugs laid out for protesters!  After that, we walked/drove by so many mansions, we lost count, but scroll down to look at a selection.  

...and those were just the ones on the main road!  Never thought we'd get tired of seeing mansions, but we did, so decided the 5-1/2 km famous cliff walk would be a nice respite.  The rugged coastline was beautiful with steep cliffs and crashing surf, but try as we may, we just couldn't get away from mansions!  Here are a few views from the coast. 

Now that we've decided to move to Newport, all we need to do is purchase a house on this street.

Luckily we had prepared ourselves for all this luxury as Priceline secured us a sweet deal in a swish, boutique hotel at the top of "Mansion Row".  For $70 bucks, we lived like the Vanderbilts, even dining on the special for the evening... $9.95 for a full lobster dinner, including a glass of wine!  Just the way we like to do it - live like the rich and famous, but spend like teachers!  Here's our digs for the night and if you can ever get here, the place to stay is the Viking Hotel.

Boston & Cape Cod

What an historic part of North America!  Even though we've both been to Boston, we had a new experience by exploring the Freedom Trail on bikes (Jim was sooo happy.)  The trail covers the most important historical events of the US becoming a nation.  It starts at Boston Common, a beautiful park below the Massachusetts State House seen here.

You stroll (or bike!) through old, cobblestone streets and see the oldest cemetery in Boston where famous people like John Hancock, Paul Revere and Ben Franklin's parents are buried.  Also fascinating was the Old State House Museum where they first read the Declaration of Independence from the cast iron balcony in July, 1776



Once again, Jim was looking for different modes of transportation...  Can you spot the ass?

We stopped for dinner at a restaurant in Little Italy which was on the same street as Paul Revere's house (circa 1680).  This little wooden building housed his 16 children (good Catholic?!) and was where he left from for the midnight ride.

Negotiating our bikes over cobblestones after a nice big Italian meal and wine was much more challenging!

Next day was a 1 hour drive south to Plymouth, to see the "Rock"! (not the wrestler...)  Again, fascinating to think that 102 people were brave enough to cross the Atlantic in a wooden boat this size.  Only 51 survived the trip and the following  winter.

It was a little chilly to ride bikes on Cape Cod (4 degrees), so we settled for driving and checking out Hyannis in hopes of seeing some Kennedys.  While the only one we saw was the artist's rendition at the memorial for JFK, you could still get a sense of how the rich and famous "summer".

We settled for a round of golf at the Hyannis Golf Club (NOT), to see if we could at least meet someone who knew someone who knew where the Kennedy's lived!

Next stop - Newport, Rhode Island to see the mansions of the Vanderbilts & friends!

Portland Maine

We've had 2 spring days of coastal Maine weather - rainy and foggy!  Today we walked around Old Port in Portland, which is a beautifully preserved seaport.  Heavy fog was rolling in off the ocean to the sounds of seagulls squawking, foghorns blowing and buoy bells ringing. How typically Maine...

A large portion of Portland burned in a July 4th fire in 1866, so the cobbled streets and old buildings are mostly Victorian.  The city prides itself on its preseveration efforts and the fact its waterfront still has many working piers filled with fishing boats.  It's also filled with fantastic restaurants, bakeries, and speciality shops - it was voted the "foodie capital" of USA.

Jim was once again tempted to leave via a different mode of transportation - so had to stop him from absconding with Forest Gump's fishing boat!!

We ended the day with a drive over the causeway to Cape Elizabeth, but not until we waited for 10 minutes as the drawbridge lifted to let tugs pull a massive ocean vessel  underneath.  The last pic is of the famous Portland Head Lighthouse - beautiful!



Sugarloaf Mountain Maine

The weather gods were smiling on us yet again, as we had a beautiful, sunny day skiing with Cel's cousins at Sugarloaf Mountain and it's huge!  With a vertical drop of 2800 feet, it's 3-1/2 times the height of Blue Mountain.  The views were spectacular, and we were surrounded by mountains as far as the eye could see.  We were pretty tired after skiing steep, long cruising runs, glade skiing through the trees and catching air in terrain parks.  We even survived riding the chairlift which made the news last December when a section of it crashed to the ground (you know how Jim likes to flirt with danger...) It was fantastic to finally ski with Cel's family after planning it for so many years!

Skiing heaven!

We had a dream day of skiing at Le Massif, about an hour north of Quebec City in the beautiful Charlevoix region.  The sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky and the snow conditions were to die for!  Pics below show the fantastic view of the St. Lawrence and mountains. Celia sat and soaked up some rays on the deck in the afternoon, while 2-speed Jimmy (speeds are really fast, or sleep) kept skiing.

A short drive north to an adorable B&B (courtesy of our great friends Sue & Paul!) in an historic house in Baie St. Paul.  The hostess was so accommodating, but barely spoke English, so had fun practising French again. It's a cute little town with many art galleries and nice restaurants, but we went with Nancy's recommendation of the Montreal smoked meat sandwiches for dinner.  They were fantastic!

 In the morning we were treated to an unbelievably delicious breakfast at our B&B - fresh O.J., homemade lemon yogurt with fruit & Muesli, homemade croissants, french toast baked in maple syrup with sausages & carmelized apples, et finalment... fresh scones with maple butter!   It felt as thought we'd eaten 4 desserts for breakfast, but I bet you're hungry now!

Then it was off to Maine via Quebec City, with a nice stop at St. Anne de Beaupre church,where we arrived just in time for an 11:30 mass.  The drive was scenic through the foothills, with typical French architecture along the way.

Unfortunately, we got hit with a huge snowstorm, so the drive to Sugarloaf Maine took 6-1/2 hours instead of the expected 3, but the upside was 10" of fresh snow for skiing today!  Hey, we should expect some bad weather on a road trip...  Appropriately, about 100m after we crossed the Maine border, we spotted a huge bald eagle sitting in a tree, just staring down at us.  Welcome to the US of A!

 

Having a great visit with Cel's cousin and family in their cosy chalet with a full ski mountain view, so next post will be some more ski pics with them!  Here's a picture of the view from the chalet window today.