Events of Friday, October 29, 2010

          Today we woke up to a bright, sunny, crisp fall day in the beautiful state of Rhode Island. Daddy stuck some bagels in the oven, our substitute toaster, and we dressed and then congregated at the table. We had a delicious breakfast, but we had a few mishaps that just went to show that we weren’t fully awake, such as when I put cream cheese on my bagel when I thought I was putting butter on, etc. However, due to the cold, we were soon fully awake, as we noticed that there was steam coming out of our mouths in the supposedly heated RV. We completed our teardown of camp, which was rather easy after a boondock night in the Walmart parking lot, and hit the road.

          First thing on the agenda was to drive along Newport’s beautiful Ocean Drive. We had driven along it at dusk last night, but quickly lost the view in the fading light. Now, with the sun out and the dazzling ocean, we could see it in the day light. It was beautiful, and we saw many fishermen along the shores, seagulls above the ocean, and waves crashing against the coastline. The homes lining Ocean Drive weren’t too shabby either.  

          While it was still sunny, we made our way to the beginning of the Cliff Walk. The Cliff Walk is a 3.5 mile scenic hike along the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean. We packed our backpacks with lunch and layers, donned our hiking boots, and began the Cliff Walk. The Cliff walk provided both a sparkling view of the ocean and a stunning view of the famous Newport “summer cottages”, which are basically huge mansions! The first half of the trail had nice sidewalks while the other half was OK, but sometimes you were just walking across pretty large rocks, that resulted in an occasional tweak of the ankle. As we walked along the Cliff Walk, enjoying it immensely, Ben told me that, in my blog, I had to say that this was the most perfect day. If you haven’t already concluded that, I am here to tell you that this was the perfect day – in weather, in sightseeing, and in food. I’ll get into the food part later, though. Right now, we were enjoying the weather and the views, glimpses of substantial mansions on your right through the fences and bushes, and a sparkling ocean, blue as blue can be, crashing on your left.

          As we walked along, we saw some of the mansions that we had toured, and other mansions that we had just heard about. Alva Vanderbilt, owner of Marble House, had a Chinese tea house built close to the water, at the far reaches of her property. On the Cliff Walk we were able to view this up close, and were amazed at its incredible detail. Colorful Oriental characters and animals adorned the sides of the rather boat-shaped tea house. Shortly after seeing this, we saw a dog in someone’s backyard, a chocolate Labrador that followed us down the path for quite a while, the full extent of his humongous back yard. Soon, we got to the rough part, and, among this adventurous path, encountered two tunnels. One curved through a hillside and was an excellent place for echoes. The other one was shorter and oval shaped, giving it a weird look. Within two hours, we had reached the end of the Cliff Walk and we were all ready for lunch. Right before the end of the trail, there was a sandy beach and then quite a few large rocks.

          We walked over to the large rocks, and sat down for lunch. As if on cue, the clouds started to come in and we pulled out jackets and ate a delicious lunch of French bread, cheese, carrots, nuts, and raisins as the sky became grayer and grayer. The water now looked a rich gray. Originally, I had wanted to wade in the Atlantic Ocean, but, as it grew quite chilly, I decided against it. Now we were at the end of the trail, but our RV was at the beginning of the trail. We decided to separate but we were sure to take our phones with us. Daddy took the fastest route to the RV while Mom and the kids took Bellevue Avenue, which had educational signs along the way. So, while Daddy hurried back to the RV, we learned about each individual mansion on that famous street. Soon, our phone was ringing, and we told Daddy our location and said that we would continue along the road that we were on until we found each other. We were crossing an intersection when I saw Harvey coming down the road that we were crossing. I started yelling and jumping up and down like crazy, creating, to others passing by, quite an amusing scene. We were soon reunited. We parked by a Stop and Shop to pack up our hiking boots, change drivers and figure out where we were headed next and how to get there and look for a Post Office.

          Driving over a humongous bridge out of Newport, we headed for the Roger Williams National Memorial in Providence. We found, with some difficulty, the Visitor Center, and we headed inside. We were greeted by Ranger John, and we watched a five- minute video about Roger William’s life. His birth and death dates are unknown and same with what he looked like. He had come to America for freedom of religion, for he had not agreed with the Church of England. Williams got in trouble in his original settlement for having dangerous and new opinions on religion. When he found out that he was to be sent to England, he left his wife and children and ran to his friends, the Native Americans. They led him to what today is Rhode Island, and there he built a settlement for people who wanted religious freedom. However, if he didn’t get permission from the King of England, the people in Massachusetts could just come down and claim the land for their own. He went to England and convinced the king to give him a charter. This charter gave them permission to have complete freedom of religion and to govern with their own government. He was welcomed back to America with great celebration. Although all that Roger Williams did might seem rather unimportant to you, his ideas were the basis of the 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights and gave us the freedom of religion that we have in our country today.

          We left the Visitor center and drove away, in the direction of our campsite for the night. Grandma Joanne had told us about a restaurant, called Iggy’s Doughboys and Chowder House, with delicious clam cakes and chowder. Sadly, this restaurant was closed for the season, probably because of the clam season has ended, and we drove on to our campground. We drove and drove into the darkness and thought we had landed on the beach, but it turned out to be our campground. We set up camp, and we prepared a delicious meal of mac and cheese. For dessert, we had vanilla ice cream with hot fudge, a classic yet forever yummy dessert. While Ben washed dishes, the girls got ready for bed, and then we watched part of the second movie in the trilogy of The Lord of the Ring: The Two Towers. Tired but happy, we headed to bed. Who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow?