Day 15: Rest Day
Welcome
Yesterday we enjoyed another day of rest in Newport, Rhode Island.
It felt like a good idea to rebound from our day of movie watching with a big walk. I managed to convince Tristan and Gabe to join me, and we set off from the hotel late in the morning, heading for the centre of Newport. The City by the Sea was busy with pedestrian traffic when we arrived, and we joined the bustling crowds enjoying the waterfront on this warm, sunny day. There were plenty of stores selling nautical supplies like straw hats and polo shirts, as well as some very expensive-looking seafood restaurants.
None of us had eaten breakfast so we decided to seek out a slightly less expensive seafood restaurant, ending up at Benjamin’s which was not right on the water but made up for this fact with a shiny oxblood paint job and some charming interior design. Hanging proudly in the centre of the wall when we entered was a fine painting that reminded of the sailing history of this town, host to the America’s Cup regatta for over fifty years.
We sat down and enjoyed a meal of foods from the sea. I had a lobster roll, fries, coleslaw, and a Clam Portuguese – a baked, stuffed clam with herbs, spices, breadcrumbs, and chorizo.
Our walk recommenced and we continued south along Bellevue Avenue, passing countless opulent mansions, the summer homes of the 19th Century’s ultra-wealthy. While most of these houses are garish and gaudy, I did enjoy the seeing the Weeping Beech trees that grace many of the lawns, their bushy breadth thwarting the prying eyes of passers-by. Lawncare teams were out in force, equipped with ride-on mowers and powerful leaf blowers to tackle the dangerously high volumes of grass and carry out preventative landscaping.
After a while we reached the ocean, right down at the southeast tip of Rhode Island (the island, not the state). A rocky, rugged coastline is dominated by even larger mansions than before, perched on their clifftop estates that look out over dark and choppy Atlantic waters. One of the better-known Newport attractions is The Cliff Walk, a 5km public walkway that runs along this piece of coast, providing spectacular views of Easton Bay and out into the Rhode Island Sound.
It is clear that the inhabitants of this area must witness some spectacular and breath-taking performances from the sea, as many of the mansions wear evocative names like The Waves, The Breakers, Ocean Lawn, and Rough Point.
We began the Cliff Walk, setting out along a gravel trail that is wedged in between the rocky shoreline and a precisely manicured lawnline, enjoying our proximity to the sea and the thick breeze that provided some relief from the mid-afternoon sun. Our water bottles were soon depleted though and after a few kilometres we were parched and wishing that somebody had been thoughtful enough to install a drinking fountain at the bottom of their property, or even better, a pub.
This problem disappeared once we made it back to Newport, and we found ourselves a spot where we could enjoy a quenching drink and give our feet a well-earned rest. As evening fell, we sampled the local public transport, catching the number 60 bus back up to Middletown, a service with very reasonable $2 cash fare and an unfortunate 90-minute interval on the schedule.
We ended the evening at a Chinese takeaway a few blocks from the hotel, appreciating the simple white tile walls and the large artwork that for a change wasn’t a photograph of a lighthouse.
Artist: Unknown
Medium: Backlit photograph in wooden frame.