New York and Rhode Island ~ Where are the Jays

New York

After leaving Baltimore, we headed for a friend's house in Long Island. It was the first time we drove to their house. He teased us about how horrible the drive would be when he gave us advice on how to get to their place. We feared fast moving traffic with cars weaving instead we found very bumpy roads and slow moving traffic - just above idling. The traffic was so slow google maps had to add well over an hour to our time! Happily we got there sane and in one piece and started a nice visit with friends.

We are incrementally seeing the New York city area. This time our friends took us out on Long Island to some wineries and then we went into the city some too. We visited Duck Walk Vineyards and Sparkling Pointe. It was a pretty day so we were happy to sit outside, taste some wine and eat some cheese and crackers. At Duck Walk, you had several wines to choose from to make up your 4 sample taste. Three of us tasted the wines - they were nice and in fact our friends bought a bottle. We sat outside listening to a very good guitar player. As the name suggests, our second winery had sparkling wines. Their tastings were a little more regimented with preset choices for you. Jeff and I made a point of choosing different flights. Being the sucker that I am for sparkling, we took a bottle home. Then it was time to go back home. The area is very remote, but also kind of geared to visits from the suburban and city folks with lots of farm stores, you pick em places, little bakeries - all sorts of great food and drink.

The Vessel from inside

The next day it was city time. It also was a very hot day. We took the train into the city with the plan of visiting the Vessel and Hi Line park with lunch mixed in. First stop was the Vessel. When it first opened, I had read about it and thought it would be fun to visit, unfortunately I had forgotten about it. Fortunately our friend had not. We got tickets for it and then started climbing and looking out from all the various vantage spots. Like I said it was a hot day, so we quickly became enamored with the Hudson River side because it had a breeze! When we had our fill of the Vessel we headed off to lunch only to get wooed into a totally different restaurant - The Tailor's Pub. We had a mixture of healthy and pub food all of which was pretty good. While there, I realized how close we were to Mood Fabric store and made a pitch for stopping there. Since it was so hot out, the guys were agreeable. I found some buttons I needed to finish a project and some fabric to make a couple of other things (getting back to my sewing machine may be required for the new projects though).

Rhode Island

The next day we were off for Providence, Rhode Island which was our next planned home base. We stayed at an Omni hotel at the convention center which is being renovated. Our room had already received a refresh and looked good - best looking/cleanest carpet ever! After relaxing and unpacking, we headed out for a walk around the area. Were on the edge of an arts district and not far from both Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design. As we started walking we found an art deco street clock and several nice murals. Like most art areas, you could tell the district had suffered during covid, but happily there were signs of life returning too.

School of Economics at Brown

When we stopped at the front desk to ask about walking to Brown, they had said it was atop a big hill and you should drive there. To us, that was challenge on - we walked to it and around the area which had some very nice houses. Being urban and older, the houses tended to have well tended gardens with big old trees, some nice rhododendrons and lots of flowers from spring to early summer blooming plants.

Newport

We went to Newport for the day. We had heard about the "cottages" from the super rich of the early 20th century and the cliff walk plus knew it as a good sailing spot. We parked in town and started walking -we walked alot that day. Of course, it was unseasonably hot. I kept wondering about the rich ladies in their long dresses in the day and how they survived, but then when we got to the cliffs and where their houses were it was much cooler. The most famous house is the the "breakers" which was owned by a Vanderbilt and so named because the water breaks (waves) right outside their land. It is an impressive place with ornamentation everywhere. Hard to imagine this being the norm for a child, but it was.

Breakers from Cliff Walk

Entry Hall of Breakers

a bedroom

part of the kitchen

After the Breakers we visited the Marble House which was owned by a different Vanderbilt. This one had a strong willed wife who divorced him shortly after building the house and went on to be a leader in the suffragist movement. She even had china made which is displayed in a cabinet.

Marble House

The marble house is so named because it is heavily made of marble. It also has a couple of unique rooms like the one above known as the gothic room. It includes some very unique and special artwork from that time and scholars used to make reservations to come and study the works.

The lady of the house had tried to make the interior of Marble House very European so she decided she needed something Asian also thus she had this pavilion built in her backyard close to the cliffs. True to the gilded age lifestyle, she opened it with a huge ball.

kitchen of the Marble House

As we walked back to town after viewing those 2 house, we saw many other quite nice homes. There are signs along the sidewalk describing how many of them fell from favor and were almost razed. Several of them now make up much of the campus of the Catholic University Salve Regina.

another view from the cliff walk

New Bedford

On our way to Cape Cod, we stopped in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Jeff had read about a whaling museum there and wanted to stop. It is a well known museum since others later suggested we visit it. It is part of the National Park Service. At one time, New Bedford was a major whaling seaport. They say the top place, but I noticed some other towns around Cape Cod claiming the same thing!