Newport Rhode Island

 See more on Flickr

click photo to enlarge		 We started the day getting dropped off at the visitor’s center in Newport and we had 2 hours to walk the shops, the wharves and grab a bite to eat. Then we got on the bus with a guide who took us through an area where the rich and famous lived before we arrived at the Breakers, the Vanderbilt summer cottage. Yes, the place to the left was considered a summer cottage for the Vanderbilt's during the gilded age. This period of about 1870 to 1900 saw our nations rich and elite building mansions from fortunes amassed from the expansion of the railroads, steel and fossil fuels industries.

click photo to enlarge		 We were at the Vanderbilt's Biltmore mansion near Ashville North Carolina back in the 90's which is the largest privately owned house in the United States at 178,926 sq. feet. The breakers mansion in Rhode Island is only a paltry 125,339 sq. feet. Hmm we grew up in a house of only about 600 sq. feet and my two brothers and I slept in one bedroom 10 x 10. So their mansion near Ashville was 300 times larger then the house I grew up in. Our hotel for the night was the Red Jacket Resort in South Yarmouth MA. Our room had a balcony overlooking the sunset and was very pretty. This night we had a New England Lobster bake that was wonderful.

click photo to enlarge