Saturday.
Rhode Island trip.
I received a wonderful set of driving directions to the Ocean State from Jon, that were so helpful I hope to pass them onto my children one day. The "tricky" or "counter intuitive" parts of the drive were highlighted and included tips like,"the goal is to STAY on 24 S" and a reassuring, "don't worry if you miss it." There were also hand-drawn maps with castles and oceans.
I drove and Ashley navigated and we arrived just before noon. Obviously the first thing to do was eat and get ice cream. We parked at the public library and walked until we found Benjamen's Raw Bar where we could watch the world cup and enjoy chicken avocado lettuce wraps.
We wandered around town and I found my ceramic tile to add to my collection. Eventually, we got to Ben and Jerry's ice cream and it wasn't long before I had a four inch spill of chocolate ice cream down my white shirt. Oopsies. Rhode Island has already left it's mark on me.
We decided to walk from the main street of the town to the Newport Mansions which looks closer together on a map than actual walking. On our way we stopped in St. Mary's Cathedral which JFK and JK were married. It was a bit eery due to the sign that asked us to be "prayerfully silent," so we quickly walked out.
We then found the International Tennis Hall of Fame and beheld a grass tennis court that the first U.S. Open was played on.
We continued on, finally arriving at The Breakers. Different than the New York City Breakers, but both have character. Everything you've heard about the mansion is true. It's awesome. Mansion is also spelled like mansion not mantion.
According to the audio-tour man, the summer cottage was home to the Cornelius Vanderbilt family and was only used for a few months each year. There were dolphins in the decor with meant we were welcome. It was huge. I felt like I was in a European castle. My favorite room was one of the daughters. It overlooked the ocean and walked out onto a large porch. The bathroom connected to the bedroom had white curtains that blew from the ocean breeze. They call it The Breakers because of the waves that crashed against the rocks on the coast. The kitchen, library, music room, billiards, grand hall were also very awesome.
We made the trek back to the car and I've never been so happy to finally see Spring Street. Funny that we were still walking and I still had a huge drip down my shirt.
Just when you thought we were pulling into the drive way of the house, we're here to tell you that we didn't. Infact, we went straight to the new stake center on Binney Street. No, it isn't in "that" direction, and thank you to the lady that came out of her house to give us directions.
We arrived there for the last few songs of the choir concert and really for the cookies and fruit because we hadn't eaten since Benjamen's.
We found our other YSA friends at the concert and put together a crew to go candle pin bowling, which come to find out, isn't a functioning candle pin bowling place as of now.
At this point mind you, we're both starving and Ashley is much better at handling that than I am. She found out all too soon that I am much better off when I've eaten.
Fortunately, they was a Chipotle close and we got chicken burritos, again. Happy once more.
The bowling crew settled with ice cream and we sat and chatted with a stellar street performer playing background music. Really, I wish he had a CD.
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