Friday, October 31, 2014

Newport Mansions

While in Newport Rhode Island we got to see the "Newport Mansions", many of which are built along the coast and have beautiful views of the ocean.
Some are owned by The Preservation Society of Newport County and are available to tour.  Some are still owned by individuals and lived in as regular homes.
The house in this picture is cool, but seriously, this tree has great character :)



We walked around the neighborhood and I snapped several photos of homes that were unique and interesting, or the walls around the homes that were interesting - like this photo on the left.


 Most have gated drives....


The one we chose to tour is this one, called The Breakers, built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II in 1895.  He made his fortune in the railroad industry.  You cannot take pictures inside, but as the brochure says, "It's interiors feature rare marble, alabaster, and gilded woods throughout."
I am a Downton Abbey fan so I felt a little bit like I was walking through Highclere Castle.  We took an audio tour so it was very interesting to see the furnishings and hearing about their lives during that time period.

The next morning we took an ocean walk which runs along the backside of many of these mansions.  It was a beautiful walk.  This picture is just below the backyard of The Breakers.



The pictures below are views from The Breakers "backyard".








Here is The Breakers from the back - the ocean is right behind me as I'm taking this picture.


Another pretty mansion - not sure what this one is called, and it is not on the tour.




I have a thing about interesting trees.


I believe this is the backside of Rosecliff, but I am not positive.  If it is, it is one that can be toured.  We just saw it on our ocean walk.

I kind of feel like I've been to Downton Abbey!

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Newport, Rhode Island

We spent another day in another seaside town - Newport, Rhode Island.  We did a lot of walking here and thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful New England town.
It was a beautiful Fall day and we happened upon a pumpkin festival AND a seafood festival. Yes...I went to a Seafood Festival!  I do not like seafood, but I found some DELICIOUS Butternut Squash soup with roasted pine nuts - yummy!


A LOT of people were out enjoying the day!







Several bands were playing in different parts of the wharf.





Beautiful flowers and interesting buses - they looked like Trolley Cars.





Yes, they even had interesting carpet at the hotel.





The lamps, dresser and chair at the hotel were unique and interesting too!










I had to get a picture of this little shop across the street from our hotel.  I love the hot pink door.  Even the shingles are interesting!  It's a very happy looking little shop :)



Wednesday, October 29, 2014

A Day at the Beach

Sorry I am subjecting you to more vacation photos, but I am sharing them with my family this way too!
We spent at night at our friends' beach cottage in Connecticut and had a wonderful time there.  This community is in the Long Island Sound so they don't get the big huge waves, it's very peaceful, quiet and pretty.  I'm sure it's hopping in the summer time, but there was a lot going on even in October.




Apparently some of the cottages or houses are year round homes, but most of them are summer homes that have to be closed up in November and "tucked in" for the winter.








Check out this nifty device used to get those large boats out of the water!




Where the neighbors gather....


There were American flags everywhere in this community.  That was fun to see.  These houses face the ocean.  The street in the right of the picture runs right along the beach.


Very patriotic place - I loved it!










I guess when they have those big coastal storms we hear about, the water can get high!






Time to get to work!  Have a great day!




Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Interesting Sculptures at Whiting Mills

We saw some very interesting sculptures at the Whiting Mills Art Building in Winston, CT.  They were hanging, or floating sculptures.  This first one was made of small pieces of metal.  It looked like fishing line was used to float the pieces of metal to make the sculptures.  Very unique and interesting.  Apparently these sculptures won prizes in a competition somewhere - but I did not quite get the whole story.


The dragon was made with buttons and beads.  If you look closely you will see that the dragon has a broken heart.  The gentlemen in the model railroad store turned on the lights and the fans which caused the sculptures to move a bit - very pretty.



Thousands of gold buttons make up the dragon.



This one was made of small pieces of wood.  I can't even imagine how someone dreamed up these sculptures and then created them.  It would take hours and hours, plus hours and hours to recreate every time you move them!  They are beautiful though.





Very fun place to visit!



Another beautiful picture of Connecticut.

Have a happy Fall day :)