Newport Pleasure Breakers

We toured The Breakers and Cliff Walk on our first full day in Newport, Rhode Island.

We walked to a nice, inexpensive Greek diner for breakfast. On the way back to our hotel, we walked along streets with old houses, flowers, and a community garden.

The park behind the garden had an elephant statue from India representing a specific elephant. We would see more of these elephants at other locations around Newport.

Hydrangea were very common in Newport. Linda said she read the title of an article that said Hydrangea are doing very well in the Northeast this year. She didn’t read the article, so, we don’t know why that is the case. Maybe the heat?

There were a few roses looking healthy. Not quite as amazing as the roses in Montreal last year, but pretty nice.

Camilla Posed by a restaurant near our hotel.

Whenever we walked back to the hotel, Camilla would hide along the columns.

And Linda would follow, walking at vacation speed ;).

We parked on a side street near The Breakers and walked to the famous house.

At first, we started to walk down the driveway of a large building of (Salve Regina University)[https://salve.edu/] by mistake.

Then we headed for The Beakers along a sidewalk near a mossy fence.

The Breakers was built as a summer cottage by the Vanderbilt family.

The main room of The Breakers was huge with a painted ceiling. Chairs had been placed for a music concert on the main floor. There were numerous events around Newport this summer showcasing music at different venues.

Behind a grand stairway to the left of the main room was a fountain and sitting area. Linda said this might be her favorite place to sleep here because she could hear the sound of the water.

The left room looked like this.

The walls often had paintings of the family members and symbols that were meaningful to the family.

Acorns and oak leaves were important symbols for the Vandebilts, representing strength and longevity. They appear on the family crest.

Here is Gladys Moore Vanderbilt.

The room on the right of the main room included a piano. Someone was married in that room.

Upstairs were bedrooms for the family.

Some rooms had old phones like this.

The bedrooms for the family typically had bathrooms with two tubs.

The main bath tub had four knobs to control water. These supplied hot and cold fresh water as well as hot and cold salt water.

The family members often changed clothes up to seven times a day, bathing between changing, and possibly napping. To bathe the lower half to freshen up, they could use these smaller soaking tubs.

Some servants could freshen clothes in the closets, prepare the bath, and change the bedding (multiple times a day) using hidden passageways. They could be contacted using a call system which activated indicators on a panel.

There was a great open patio off the main floor from which you could see the back yard and ocean below the cliffs.

Outside there was a herd of elephants from India like the one we saw walking back from breakfast earlier in the day.

The backyard bordered the cliffs to the sea. On the other side of the fence was an entrance to the Cliff Walk which extends a few miles along the coast.

The side of the house had a mossy railing.

We walked back around the front of the house to exit and follow the road on the right of the house down to the Cliff Walk so we could walk in front of The Breakers and eventually reach the Forty Steps park near our car.

There were a lot of wild flowers along the path outside the grounds.

We looked over the sea from the cliffs.

Linda and Camilla Walked down forty steps to the sea from the park along the Cliff Walk.

Camilla pondered many things looking down to the sea.

Once we got back to our hotel, we walked to the marina to see some birds, flowers, and the Lobster Shack. We didn’t eat at the Lobster Sack, but did find lobster rolls at another restaurant in Newport.

The seagulls were surprisingly large compared to what we see at the beaches in Florida. There isn’t anything in this picture to give a reference for the size of this seagull. Just imagine that the post in the picture the seagull is standing on is as big as an elephant - a small elephant.

Later we drove to a store across from the International Tennis Hall of Fame Museum. We didn’t look inside, but, recognized it by all the flags above the entrance.

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