Newport, Rhode Island

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We had a long day's stay in Rockland, dropping anchor at 2am and pulling it up at 11pm. Then we spent Saturday "at sea" cruising from Rockland to Newport, RI. For us, the "at sea" day meant lounging around and reading, with no need to do anything but go to meals. Newport is another port where we could not dock and so took a tender in to meet our tour guides and buses. When we left the ship at 8:45am it was a little overcast and cool, but there was no rain in the forecast so that was a plus. The tender trip was longer than usual as we had to wend our way through the many boats in the harbor at a slow speed. Our bus tour was called Vanderbilts' Newport and was a trip through the main part of town, then out to Fort Adams for shots of the harbor and finally into the leafy streets of Newport, home to "the mansions." We think we live in a period where there is a lot of wealth, but it is nothing compared to the wealth it must have taken to build these "summer cottages" in the late 1800s-early 1900s. Our tour took us to two of the cottages owned by the Vanderbilt family members. The first had been a gift to Alva Vanderbilt from her husband, William, for her 39^th birthday, although it was not a surprise as she oversaw the building of what is called "Marble House." Almost every surface is made of some cut of marble and it is mind boggling, if you like that ostentatious sort of thing. Imagine that the families only visited these homes in July and August and mainly to hold parties to protect their social standing. For Alva it was an opportunity to one-up Mrs. Astor who was the social grande dame of Newport. Since the Vanderbilts owned railroads, they had the cash to keep the homes up all year round. Alva divorced William not long after the house was completed and when she remarried, moved to another home in the area, using Marble House as an extended closet as the laundry services were better than in her new home. Marble House allowed the sons, William and Harold, to participate in sailing events and they were responsible for sponsoring and winning the original America's Cup. The daughter, Consuelo, was groomed by her mother to marry the Duke of Marlborough and live in Blenheim Castle in Britain. (Consuelo was not allowed to make decisions for herself and Alva even had her strapped to an iron rod down her back in order to improve her posture. It must be assumed that Consuelo would do anything for a change.) After giving him two sons, she also got a divorce and remarried a Frenchman, Jacques Balsan, with whom she was very happy. We were not allowed to take any photos inside the houses, so will have to go on Amazon and buy a book so we can see the interiors again. After 1+ hours at Marble House, we boarded the bus and headed for Breakers, built by the second Vanderbilt brother, Cornelius, who met his wife teaching Sunday School and built a family home for them and their numerous children. He had a stroke one year after it was complete and died a couple of years thereafter. It had more of a home feel, if you can consider 100,000 sq ft and 76 rooms homey (that's the consensus opinion of its size among some of our busmates and us.) You can get some idea of its size from the exterior photos, like the rolling back lawn. The third floor was completely set aside for rooms for the staff. Unlike many of the houses of that era, Breakers had more bathrooms (20) than bedrooms. After Breakers, the other homes around seemed less significant. One family named Goulet donated homes and land and Salve Regina University sits smack in the middle of the mansion area. The bus rolled back through more homes and the historic buildings in town and deposited us by the tender landing. We headed back to grab a hamburger and then get our packing done as much as possible as the bags have to go out to the hall by 10:30pm for disembarkation tomorrow morning. We need to be out of our cabin by 8am so that the crew can turn over the cabins by 1pm. Regatta will go from NYC to Bermuda and then head down to Manaus, Brazil. We will go to a hotel in NYC for two nights and dinners with friends and visits to museums.