Friday, July 02, 2010
Newport, Rhode Island and Cape Cod, Days 7-12
After camping in Connecticut, Erika and I had arranged to rent an apartment in Newport, Rhode Island for three nights. The place we got was pretty sweet. All the amenities of home and right smack in the middle of town. In a historic home, no less. It was nice to relax, watch the tube, do some laundry and Harper loved that she had full reign of the place to crawl it up.
Historic Newport is a very small, walkable place full of beautiful old homes. It is known as the summer retreat for the filthy rich of the Gilded Age, and their insanely large estates dot the coast. Good for a lot of walking and gawking mainly.
One of the best parts of our rental was the backyard - flowers and big trees, firepit, table and chairs...
...and a fun swing (grown-ups only!).
These blue hydrangeas were everywhere...
Giving Harper some active time on the back lawn of the Breakers after she tolerated what had to have been a boring tour for her. Sorry, no audioguides for infants!
Erika enjoying the view from the second floor terrace.
We reluctantly left our home away from home in Newport and drove east down the bicep of Cape Cod to its elbow village, Chatham. This quaint little place is the home of a sea captain's house circa 1790 that now serves as a bed and breakfast named The Bow Roof House. Run for 31 years by a waddling old lady named Vera, it proved to be a fine base for exploring Cape Cod and Nantucket.
The exterior of The Bow Roof House with daylillies. I had to duck to get in the entrance and our key was one of those old-school skeleton types. Pretty cool!
Harper excitedly doing laps up and down the old hallway. She gets so thrilled when she's released from car seats, strollers and carriers to crawl for long stretches. We were worried that she'd cry or disturb the other guests, but it all worked out just fine.
We heard that there was a Chatham Angler baseball game our first night there. Each little town on the Cape has a summer team made up of college players, and we grabbed a pizza and sat down for some good ol' small town Americana.
Kids were getting balls signed, old men were shouting at the ump, and the cool ocean air made the whole scene just perfect.
The next day we hit the Cape Cod National Seashore. Tons of undeveloped dune-lined beaches open to the public. This was Harper's first experience with sand and ocean. Not a big fan quite yet, particularly the sand part (us either - it got everywhere!).
Excited dad and not-quite-sure-what-to-think daughter
We happened upon this cute little scene of oceanside portrait painting
We happened upon this cute little scene of oceanside portrait painting
Of all the nearby islands, we chose to daytrip to Nantucket. We had heard it was a little smaller and more interesting than the others, and it did not disappoint. Erika and I felt like we were walking around a movie location. It has the highest concentration of pre-1850 homes in America and, once again, was in full summer bloom.
All excited on Harper's first boat ride out
Arriving at Nantucket, we were greeted by countless wooden sailing boats and distinctive uniform style of architecture.
An island shuttle took us to Sconset, a ridiculously adorable little town on the other side of the island. Not only were the beautiful and meticulously manicured gardens crawling up the walls of these quaint old homes, they oftentimes continued up the roofs!
Many homes had a name ("The Beehive", "The Seven Gables", etc.) and most posted a year of contruction, mostly 18th and 19th century. And all of this in relative seclusion and on a beach! It was just delightful (and I don't use that word often) strolling around and enjoying the scene.
And, finally, here are a couple obligatory cute shots of Harper at the picnic seating of our delicious restaurant and bakery for lunch. She can now make monkey sounds, touch her nose and so far is an all-star little travel-mate:
Many homes had a name ("The Beehive", "The Seven Gables", etc.) and most posted a year of contruction, mostly 18th and 19th century. And all of this in relative seclusion and on a beach! It was just delightful (and I don't use that word often) strolling around and enjoying the scene.
And, finally, here are a couple obligatory cute shots of Harper at the picnic seating of our delicious restaurant and bakery for lunch. She can now make monkey sounds, touch her nose and so far is an all-star little travel-mate:
I almost can't handle the cuteness of this one!
The rocking of the ferry was too much to resist for this tuckered-out little girl.
One final random pic:
Erika required a little assistance getting to the beach on Cape Cod from this all-terrain wheelchair...not really, just thought it was a funny little get-grandma-to-the-beach option. Can this keep going as a floating oceangoing wheelchair as well?
We're now in an Ikea-decorated tee-niny apartment in Boston's North End to celebrate Independence Day in the birthplace of America. Enjoy your 4th!
-Brent
