Joe and Jamie’s Blog

Today was a horrible day. It stormed since Wednesday night and hasn’t stopped yet. Because of this, all we did today was visit one mansion and then have dinner at Ruby Tuesdays.

We chose to see the Chateau-sur-Mer, which is French for castle on the water (see those 2 years of French did pay off I guess, didn’t have to Google that one). Chateau-sur-Mer was built as an Italianate-style villa for China trade merchant William Shepard Wetmore. It was completed in 1852 and was the largest house until Vanderbilt built the Marble House in 1888.

After we got in the car and left we went through this arch and past this house on the grounds that I am guessing was for the workers in the house. The tour guide was pretty bad so we didn’t learn much about this place.

The Chateau-sur-Mer is currently undergoing restoration by the Preservation Society of Newport County and is to be completed this year.

Wednesday was a very cloudy day with some rain in the evening. Due to the weather, we decided to go on the tour of the some of Newport’s mansions. We visited the Elms and the Marble House mansions. We topped off the night with dinner at the Brick Alley, a very popular restaurant in the area. 

The first house we went to was the Marble House. It was built between 1888 and 1892 for Mr. and Mr. William Vanderbilt as a summer home. It is made out of over 500,000 cubic feet of marble. The total cost is estimated around $11 million dollars in the 1890’s, I can’t imagine what it would cost today. On the grounds is a Chinese Tea House that was built after Mr. Vanderbilt died which was after their divorce anyway.

Photography is prohibited inside the mansions, so unfortunately you need to go see them yourselves to view their beauty.

Thirsty little one.

Chinese Tea House. I guess the rich need something this large just to drink tea in…..

The Elms was the summer residence of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Julius Berwind. The house was completed in 1901 and cost roughly $1.4 million dollars. On the grounds is a carriage house and a beautiful garden. Not as prestigious at the Marble House, but Mr. Berwind loved the latest technology and was one of the few houses of the time to have certain gadgets and full electricity.

Look at the detail they put into the roof, it’s amazing what you can do with infinite money.

Jamie liked this tree because of how large it was so we have to share it with you too.

In the background of some of my pictures of the beach I noticed a castle looking building that stood above the rest. I followed the shore line until I found out what it was. It is St. George’s Church on the school grounds. It has an amazing view of the Sachuest beach and bay.

As I said earlier we ate at the Brick Alley Pub and Restaurant. It has won numerous awards for the best restaurant in Newport. Every day we walked past there it was busy and had a wait. Well we go it and the food was great. You can find out more information about them here.

Tuesday was a very hot day. Jamie and I decided to check out the famous Cliff Walk that was located only a few blocks down the road from our hotel. We had no idea that it was 3 1/2 miles long, but fortunately there were stopping points where we can pick up the trail another day. We weren’t very prepared for a 7 mile walk, we had just woken up and didn’t eat yet.

The scenes from the cliff are amazing. My pictures and words truly cannot define the beauty of the seaside and the fresh ocean smell in the air. If I were in better shape I would jog here everyday. We went 1 1/2 miles down the Cliff Walk and then headed back to Easton’s Beach to cool off in the water. Since it was cloudy the water was much cooler today, but it was perfect after such a long walk.

After eating at Ninety Nine, a popular North Eastern restaurant chain like Applebees, we went for a sunset cruise on the Amazing Grace around Narragansett Bay. The guide was very knowledgeable, he spent his whole life in Newport. Later in the week we want to go on a long cruise that visits all the lighthouses and goes into further depth of the whole bay. We are also planning on going kyacking in the bay when the weather is nice out.

On one of the stops along the Cliff Walk there was the famous Forty Steps. During Newport’s Golden Age, the Forty Steps were a gathering place for the servants and workers from the nearby mansions. Here they would hold weekend dances and play the Irish songs and music that reminded them of home.

This is the last part of the Cliff Walk that we have not done yet. We plan on finishing this before the vacation is over.

After diner we went for a sunset cruise around the bay on the Amazing Grace boat tour. We saw all the sites from the bay’s view, which is so much better because at the time everything was built there was no road, everyone traveled in via the bay.

This is the Newport-Pel Bridge. It was built in 1962 to allow more traffic between the islands. Before the bridge the only way to get back and forth was the ferry, which couldn’t hold as many cars as the bridge and took over an hour round trip.

This is part of the old Fort Adams that was used back in the 1700’s and 1800’s to protect the bay. Throughout the past it was used as various training facilities and stations for the Navy. It currently isn’t active but a museum.

Sorry of the delay in the posting. I have had major issues with my hosting company in the past few days that didn’t allow me to post this. I will have day four and five up tonight.

We woke up a bit too late today, so we made it a beach day. The sun was out and it was very hot, so perfect weather for the beach, not a cloud in the sky. We took the long trek across the street to the beach after spending the morning deciding what to do for the week.

We decided to eat at the Red Parrot Restaurant tonight. They had a very good selection of local seafood and Caribbean dishes. Jamie and I both chose the surf and turf.

Jamie and I posing at Brown Howard Warf.

Look at the size of some of these yachts. Everyone around here is loaded. That big one to the right is well over a million dollars.

Hustle and bussle down Bannister’s Warf.

Sites from the main road, America’s Cup Ave.

This is Trinity Church which I thought was pretty cool because of the huge clock on the side of it.

We completed our night with a stoll on Easton’s Beach taking in the nice sunset…

but not before ice cream at Roba Dolce.

Yesterday Jamie and I made the trip out to Newport, Rhode Island. It isn’t a bad ride at all, about 3 1/2 hours from Poughkeepsie. We hit no traffic and it was a beautiful day. We arrived at the Newport Beach Hotel and Suites around check in time. We walked around to see what was near by while we waited for the room to be ready.

The beach is litteraly right across the street which is just awesome. Unfortunately our room doesn’t have a view of the beach, but that is only because their new hotel the built next to ours blocked our view; one year ago we would have had a view. :/

So far we like Newport. We walked all last night down by the warfs and had some food at one of the restaurants on Bowen’s Warf called the Landing Restaurant and Tavern. We tried some of the native quahog clams. We actually have never heard of them before but they were delicious. Apparently clams are the big fare around here. Jamie enjoyed her salmon dish and I tried some of their fried clams, along with clams casino for an appetizer.

We ended the night by picking out spots where to eat tonight and at the arcade. I kicked butt on one game and won over 1,000 tickets!

Shot of the hotel from the beach.

Views of the beach and surrounding area.

This little gull was determined to keep that clam. It was funny watching him trying to keep it in his mouth and play keep away from the other gulls. It’s a full clam, so I’de like to know how they were going to get it open.

This is where we had dinner.

Picture of Bowen’s warf, one of several warfs in Newport.

Here’s the arcade where I won all of those tickets. Jamie beat me in the other games. :)

My goal is to post pictures from each day, so check back each day to see what we did!

Jamie’s sister Casey and her husband Andrew just recently moved into their new house. The guy before them left it very dirty so we all pitched in to clean up. All week long Jamie and I kept going back to help unpack and paint. The house looks so good now that it is painted and clean. Casey and Andrew are very happy.

Here are some of the shots of what it looks like now. I’m killing myself for always forgetting the before pictures.

This is the kitchen. It’s hard to tell but it’s not white but a very, very light green.

Here’s the living room, it really looks great with the yellow and fresh white on the trim and windows.

Casey and Jamie enjoying a drink after all their hard work.

Their dog Webber and I just hanging around…

This past Tuesday was my mother’s birthday. We celebrated most of it on Sunday since everyone would be home and another celebration on the actual day. Basically I guess we like it when everyone’s home so we do it as much as possible, plus the cake is always good.

Jamie and I got her a gift certificate to one of her clothing stores and a reed difusser from Yankee Candle to put in the bathroom. She liked her gifts very much.

Here’s some of the pictures from the day.

Here’s the ice cream cake from the actual day. No one was at the store to put the word “mom” under Happy Birthday so I made it in the candles.

Jamie’s car needed new tires two weeks ago to pass inspection. You can read more on that in the previous post. I decided to get four of Firestone’s Firehawk GT’s. This is an all-season tire with a 460 treadwear, so we’ll get about 50-60,000 miles out of it, which is about 3 years for us on that car. Its rating is A for both traction and temperature. For the northeast I don’t recommend anything less than A/A.

The tire looks really good on her car. Since its an RSX and a bit sporty, the tire fits in well. The tire has the look and feel of a sports tire because its a bit wider and sleeker, but has the dependability of an all-season tire and less rapid treadwear of a sports tire (like mine). It also is pretty decently priced, only about $100 a tire.

You can check out more at the manufacturer’s website here.
The Firehawk GT’s asymmetrical design provides optimal balance and evacuation of water. It’s advanced technology called Veri-Pitch Noise Reduction helps reduce road noise. It has a high-silica compound and wider tread profile for improved cornering coefficient for superb handling.