Adventures: McGowns Visit + Seals

McGowns Visit

Simon and Jeannine took the train from NYC to visit us for a weekend! We explored some beautiful Newport neighborhoods, and a bell tower.

 We took a tour of the post-revolutionary Fort Adams.

We visited the ponies and pony-donkeys.

Another abandoned structure has some cool graphiffi. 

Stephen played old movies on his projector. 

We took the tour of the Elms, and also the "Behind the Scene's servant's life tour" which included the third floor servant's quarters, basement laundry rooms, trunk room, wine cellar, pastry room, and the huge coal furnaces. (The owner of the Elms was a coal baron.)

Seal Tour

Seth and Nicki's son Gabriel had his 4th birthday! We went out a seal-watching tour, right here in Newport. Seals are in Narragansett Bay most of the winter, and some like to hang out on rocks near the Newport Bridge and Rose Island.

Adventures: Honey Visits

Stephen's mom Diana (aka Honey) came to visit for two weeks. We tried to have lots of spooky Halloween fun- starting with the Lizzie Borden House. It's in Fall River, MA, about 30 minutes from Newport.

Unlike most house tours, Lizze Borden is a Bed and Breakfast. You can stay in the rooms where Lizzie Borden alledgedly murdered both her parents with an axe in 1892. The tour guides walked us through the events of that day, the investigation, and the suspects. Lizzie was aquited, but it seems very likely she was guilty.

aaaah there's a body! 

The same day we drove up to Salem, MA to the Salem Witch Museum. The first half was an interesting presentation of the story of the Salem Witch trials of 1692. Everyone sat in a dark room while the different displays were illuminated as the recorded narrator shared the story. Their research suggested that the young girls who seemed possesed were acting for the attention (they had boring restricted lives) and the adults went overboard. 

At home, right after Ginger finished baking shaped Halloween cookies, we lost power thanks to Hurrican Sandy. (These were decorated by candlelight- not bad, right?) The power was out 32 hours this time, and there was a lot of wind. Otherwise, nothing terrifying. Honey was glad she was with us instead of watching scary news reports at home and thinking it was worse. Honey does excellent shadow puppets- bunnies, dogs, and a camel.

 

After the town had some time to clean up, we visited the mansion Rough Point. We could see marks in the yard where the waves came up over the cliff walk. The tour guide said the water reached the edge of the house.

The Ocean! Honey enjoyed talking photos of the high waves.

 

We went to the Belcourt Castle Ghost Tour on Halloween night. The owner gave the tour herself and shared her many experiences of living there 50 years. She's been on several ghost hunter TV shows. We didn't see anything frightening, but the stories were entertaining. 

Honey at the old Mill, and Stephen's list of everything we did:

  

 Honey brought her Christmas projects along to work on the airplane and when we were at work: crochet for grandkids! Spunky pink mix for Sophia, baby pink for Finley, "Hulk green" for Lukas and masculine blues for Bailey.

While Honey was visiting us, Rene went to Angleton, TX for his dad's 80th birthday. It was good that San Benito Jr. got to see all his seven children that day, because he passed away several days later. His obituary.

San Benito and his wife Marjorie in the 1950s. She passed away in 1998.

San Benito with his seven children- San Benito III (Beno), Earl (Stoney), Rene, Theresa, Jacqueline, Marilyn, Elizabeth (Liz). 

Adventures: Fall in Newport RI

Reflections on our wonderful summer home in Newport. 

Ginger worked for Majestic Cruise Company, selling tickets for 1-hour cruises that include narrated tours of the harbor. She also got to give the tours one day when the guides were all out. Some days had fancy lunch and dinner cruises. 

We went swimming in the ocean on a stormy but warm day, and enjoyed rain while being mostly under water already...

We renewed our membership to Newport Mansions and got Tim to join us in some tours. Below, Chateau Sur Mer. 

Our puppy Clementine is now 9 months old, and weighs 33 pounds, probably her full adult size. That's big enough to drive, right?

Our landlord, Paul, let us use his kayaks at the north point of the island.

 

 

Paul and Stephen did a lot of work on the apartment over the summer, including installing a fireplace.

We didn't buy tickets to the Newport Folk Festival this year, but we did listen from the water with Phoebe on her dingy. There was a huge community of people listening from their boats, swimming, and having fun. Phoebe found several people she knew as we drove around.

Stores on the wharf boarded up for hurricane Irene, often with mocking signs:

Newport didn't suffer much building damage, but the storm was hard on the trees, and we lost most of our fall leaves.

 

We lost our electricty right after the news channel downgraded Irene to a tropical storm. We took some steaks out of our freezer and went to Tim's house to use his electric gas stove. We also drove to the shore to see the waves. All beaches were carefully monitered by police. After 36 hours, our power returned.

 

We did some apple-picking at Sweetberry Farm.

 

and took more silly photos!

On Stephen's birthday, we visited Kingscote Mansion.