Mansions of Glory

Yesterday we headed into Newport, RI with my mom and dad to tour some of the historic mansions. Newport was a favorite summer retreat of the Gilded Age millionaires such as the Vanderbilts and the Astors. These "summer houses" look like museums - recessed ceilings, moldings and marble everywhere, gold leaf and platinum on the walls...they have to be seen to be believed. France - Versailles in particular - was pretty popular with this set: lots of busts of Louis XIV; reliefs of Marie Antionette. Even more amazing than the decor is that in some cases the families that built these mansions only spent 1-3 summers there before succumbing to poor health or perhaps bigger mansions by way of divorce.

Photography was not permitted inside, but here are some exterior photos of the Breakers, Rosecliff, and Marble House.

I think Noe and I need some statuary at our house


I sort of feel like we should be marching in a circle
singing "Doe, a Deer" at Rosecliff


Marble House exterior


Chilling in the backyard at the Breakers

Something Newport

I had Monday off work (yay Catholics!) so Noe and I decided to drive over to Newport, Rhode Island. Newport is about an hour or so north east-ish from New London, right on the water. (I still don't understand why Rhode Island is its own state - or called an island - but I can't deny they have some nice coastline.) To reach the town itself, we drove over something that looked like a mini Mackinac Bridge.

Mini Mac?

Being a Monday afternoon, Newport was pretty dead. Noe and I bummed around by the piers for a little while and browsed some shops - including one where you could essentially buy your lobster fresh off the boat - but we got bored quickly and headed down to the Tennis Hall of Fame.

The International Tennis Hall of Fame

I had sort of imagined the Tennis Hall of Fame as a large estate on expansive grounds. It's not. It is in an old casino wedged into a row of shops across the street from a thoroughly modern strip mall.

It may not look like much from the front, but once you walk under the green awning, you're transported into an entirely different time and place. You step off the streets of Newport and onto the oldest grass tennis court in America.

That's more like it.

I have been intrigued by the idea of grass courts ever since I seriously began watching tennis about three years ago. I really had failed to notice up to that point that tennis was played on different surfaces. I guess I thought everyone played on hard courts, which I now realize is pretty stupid, considering the only tennis event I could have named back then - Wimbledon - is famously played on grass.

I want to play on a grass court because I want to see how the softer surface affects the bounce and speed of the ball. Since I have only played on hard courts, the idea of playing on grass is completely exotic.

I digress.

Ten bucks buys you admission to the museum and the grounds, so we poked around the museum first (Noe and I are such nerds, I know). The displays cover everything from the origins of the game - Henry VIII was an avid "court tennis" player - to the modern hall of famers. There's a large display devoted to the infamous Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs showdown, some fun displays of old-time tennis outfits, and a LOT of racquets.

I think I want the one with the bow.

When we were finished inside (meaning Noe had successfully pried me away from the life-size photos of Andy Roddick and Rafa Nadal) we explored the grounds.

Hello.

I had no trouble at all imagining people in turn-of-the-century clothing sitting in the grandstands, taking in a game and drinking lemonade. I desperately wanted to run out on the courts, but the presence of two suspicious lawn boys kept my behavior in check.

On my best - reluctant - behavior.

Visiting the hall of fame reminded me how much I really miss tennis. I started playing right before we moved, played that entire summer, and haven't played since. Well, when we got home from Newport I went online, and lo and behold, I found tennis lessons through the Groton Parks and Rec department. I know I'm not going to luck out the way I did in Ann Arbor with Ryan and Gary, but at least, I'll get to play again. I start next week and I am already dreading how rusty I am sure to be.

Noe and I finished our day in Newport by walking part of the Cliff Walk, a 3.5 mile stretch on the bluffs overlooking the ocean. We stuck around Salve Regina University and the Bellevue mansions - pretty nice digs.

Me on the Cliff Walk

The Breakers

It was a nice, relaxing day off made even better by the promise of tennis on the horizon. So far I'd say spring is off to a good start.

Rhode Warrior

When you think of interesting places to go, Rhode Island probably doesn't immediately come to mind. It's super-small, wedged weirdly between Connecticut and Massachusetts, and takes like an hour to drive all the way across - the long way. And yet somehow Noe and I ended up spending the majority of our weekend in the "ocean state."

It all started on Saturday when we wanted to check out something new but still be outside (we had great weather here this weekend). We eventually decided to drive up toward Providence and check out the Roger Williams Park Zoo.

First of all, I know better than to go to the zoo on a Saturday afternoon. I may like zoos, but I don't particularly like children (especially large numbers of them at one time) and most zoos just happen to be crawling with kids on weekends. But I obviously wasn't thinking clearly and we spent a good portion of the afternoon dodging errant strollers.

(A quick note on strollers - what happened to the strollers that were around when I was a kid? The ones that were essentially one piece of cloth attached to some wheels and handles and folded up like an umbrella? They were also about the size of an umbrella. Strollers today are apparently gigantic hard plastic things with more storage space than my Ford Taurus. Seriously, these things wouldn't fit through your average grocery check-out lane. Are they really necessary?)

Anyway, aside from throngs of screaming children - one of which I'm pretty sure had chicken pox and should NOT have been out in public - the zoo was all right. Noe and I were a little disappointed - we both really like the Toledo Zoo in Ohio, and Noe is partial to the Indianapolis Zoo while I have a serious love affair with the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. Roger Williams Park Zoo felt tiny and cramped - the spaces to view the animals were small and somewhat enclosed, unlike the nice wide walking paths of the aforementioned zoos.


Also, the animal selection was a bit disappointing. There were three giraffes and a couple elephants, but no big cats (save one snow leopard) or polar bears, my two favorite zoo species. Noe felt there was a lack of monkeys, although the few we saw were pretty active. The most amusing part of the afternoon was a tree kangaroo - a smallish, sweet-faced animal - who climbed up in a tree and wouldn't come down and hissed violently at the handler that tried to coax her to the ground.



After the zoo, we decided to drive a little farther north and actually head into Providence itself. Providence is sort of weird - it feels kind of squished into it's parcel of land near the highway - but it's a pretty cool little city, Brown University has a beautiful campus, and the area around the capital building has been fixed up in a way that reminds me of the Canal Walk in Indianapolis. We also noticed a lot of good-looking restaurants we want to go back and try (although on this trip we had to satisfy Noe's sweet tooth so we just went to the Cheesecake Factory). I'm anxious to go back to Providence in the evening, grab a nice dinner and see the WaterFire exhibit all lit up.

On our way back to Connecticut, we pulled off 95 to fill up the gas tank and drove the back way home. When we drove through Westerly, RI - the town right next to the CT border - we noticed an art show in the town park. Since we had an even more gorgeous day on our hands today (definitely mid-70's) we went back to Westerly to check it out.

The Virtu Art festival in Wilcox Park was small (well, anything is small compared to the Ann Arbor Art Fairs, which are a total madhouse) but we saw some quality art. My personal favorites were a series of 8x8 photographic prints of strikingly-colored fruits and vegetables on black backgrounds. The artist, Charles E. Hull, was selling them for a very reasonable price. (View them here: http://cehullphotography.com/newestaddtions1.html) I didn't purchase them today, but I may try to order them or catch him at another local art show - I want these for my kitchen!

After poking around the art show, we hit one of the local cafes for lunch. The Prime Time Cafe has a nice location overlooking the Pawcatuck River (it's actually in Pawcatuck, CT rather than Westerly, RI - the two towns run into each other).

Noe enjoyed his grilled "Luhan" sandwich - smoked turkey, bacon, mozerella, and tomatoes on the house-made bread - although he said they may have put too much butter on the bread before putting it on the grill. My pan-sauteed goat cheese salad was a little bit disappointing. The cheese was great - fried golden on the outside and warm and delicious on the inside - but the salad it came on could have been better. For one thing, I would have gone with thin slices of apples rather than huge cubes. Also, the apples were kind of grainy and the variety they chose was too mild - a more tart apple, such as a granny smith, would have worked better. The toasted walnuts were a little burned, and I was somewhat put off by the appearance of tomatoes in this salad - they didn't go well with the other flavors at all.

Service was slow - the restaurant should have staffed appropriately with an event in town - but our server was pleasant and helpful. I would be interested in giving this cafe another go, perhaps for breakfast or brunch, before I decide how I feel about it. And thus ended our second afternoon in Rhode Island, a place we never really thought about going but will certainly be heading back to in the future.

On a separate note: I hope everybody is having a good holiday weekend, and be on the lookout for some hockey blogging this week. Sorry to those of you who prefer my non-sports blogs - my team and my second-favorite team are facing off in the Stanley Cup finals, and I can't ignore it any longer. Go Wings!