We woke up to thick fog. Damn. I guess were n leaving as early as we thought…We finally left New Bedford around 8:30am and arrived in Newport about 1pm. The trip was thirty two miles from anchorage to anchorage. We turned in to the bay and were met with tons of boat traffic. Sailboats abound and they were traveling in every direction. It gets a little stressful for me trying to watch every direction and dodge boats. The sailboats seem to think they always have the right of way, even in a narrow channel. We eventually arrived to the anchorage which was in a large mooring field. We found a spot between some moored boats and anchored boats and we dropped our anchor. It was a little tight, but we found room. Once we were comfortable it had set, we hung out and watched the show of boats and yachts coming and going through the harbor. It was finally time to head to shore and walk Frank. The dinghy dock wasn’t too far away. We walked Frank along the park and returned for the bikes. We were hungry so we went to Newport Lobster Shack. We ordered a lobster dinner, a lobster roll and some Chowder. Yeah- we’re liking Cape Cod. We then rode to the ‘Cliff Walk’. “The Cliff Walk along the eastern shore of Newport, RI is world famous as a public access walk that combines the natural beauty of the Newport shoreline with the architectural history of Newport’s gilded age, along some of the most beautiful coastline in all of New England. Much of it goes through the property on which many of the Newport mansions are situated.” We hiked along and enjoying the scenery. We returned to town, then returned back to the boat for the evening.
Day 2- As I was walking Frank I saw a food truck (pizza) parked nearby. I talked Lauren into stopping for a pie before we started biking. We then rode the bikes to Fort Adams which is now a state park and explored the grounds. Lauren has found out about Newport’s Famous Ten Mile Drive and wanted to bike it. I protested a bit, but finally relented. Off we went! The ride was quite awesome and the hills were evenly distributed up and down. The views were fantastic and it was a nice ride. We made our way back in to town and stopped at a grocery store for some water and supplies. We stopped for ice cream at Cold Fusion Gelato to get refreshed and finally back to the boat. The rest of the night was spent having dinner and planning our next stop, but we are staying one more day here.
Day 3- We took the bikes and found Cardines Field: “It is believed to be one of the oldest ballparks in the United States. A local historical debate continues as to whether baseball was played prior to 1900, making Cardines one of the oldest existing ballparks in the country, or if play didn’t begin until 1908, the earliest documented proof of stadium construction”. We couldn’t get inside, but we could see through the fence. We then headed to St. Mary’s Church, where Jacqueline Lee Bouvier married then-Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy. After getting some pictures there we continued on toward a brewery we thought was closer than it actually was. We rode the bikes for a bit, then decided it wasn’t worth it as we were along a busy highway, so we turned around and headed back. We detoured back through town and did some light shopping, picking up a hat and magnet to add to our collection. Finally we made it back to the boat, took Frank to shore and made our plans for tomorrow. We are going to check out Jamestown, but we want to swim as it has been hot, so our plan is to find a good swimming hole and take it from there.
