Newport,Rhode Island

We departed at 7am from Boston, waved goodbye to Wendy and Billy on the dock as they headed to Logan airport and set out on the deep blue...headed to the Cape. 

I love to see the suns shimmer on the sea.

Perfect cruising weather once again...And it's...

We had to make way for a huge tug heading up the Cape Cod canal.

and then it was time to pull into the Newport harbor after an 8 hour cruise from Boston.

Newport, Rhode Island was one VERY busy harbor!

Lots of megayachts here!

We pulled into our slip at Lee's Wharf...smack in the middle of town. A great location!

Our friends Andrew & Karen arrived that evening to start the next leg of our adventure. 

The sun was setting on the bay...idyllic.

We made our way to dinner after a sassy pic of course.

The hydrangeas in town were healthy as a horse. Good thing they were out in abundance at The White Horse Tavern where we had dinner. We look like we are about to crawl in the flower bed. HA!

This was the oldest tavern in America and was done so well. They've really kept it as a nice dining establishment and not a stanky bar. 

Hundreds of years old.. 1673 to be exact and not worse for wear. I'm talking about the tavern of course and not the boys below. Ha! 

After dinner we found our way to the Clarke Cook House.

 It was the hot spot in town and we spent quite a few hours there entertaining ourselves and laughing the night away. We loved that place! 

The next day we made a break for it and took an über out to see The Breakers. 

The Breakers is a Vanderbilt mansion located on Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, United States on the Atlantic Ocean. It is a National Historic Landmark, a contributing property to the Bellevue Avenue Historic District, and is owned and operated by the Preservation Society of Newport County.

The Breakers was built as the Newport summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy United States Vanderbilt family. It is built in an Italian Renaissance style. Designed by renowned architect Richard Morris Hunt, with interior decoration by Jules Allard and Sons and Ogden Codman, Jr., the 70-room mansion has a gross area of 125,339 square feet and 62,482 square feet of living area on five floors.^[3] The house was constructed between 1893 and 1895. The Ochre Point Avenue entrance is marked by sculpted iron gates and the 30-foot-high (9.1 m) walkway gates are part of a 12-foot-high limestone-and-iron fence that borders the property on all but the ocean side. The footprint of the house covers approximately an acre of the 13-acre estate on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

It was a great estate that Vanderbilt created down to every last detail. It was exquisite.

This momentous occasion called for our signature pose of course. 

A monolith of a home. 

Cornelius Vanderbilt II (his good friends called him Corny...lol!) purchased the grounds in 1885 for $450,000. (That was a lot of moolah back then!) When the previous mansion on the property owned by Pierre Lorillard IV burned on November 25, 1892, Cornelius Vanderbilt II commissioned famed architect Richard Morris Hunt to rebuild it in splendor. Vanderbilt insisted that the building be made as fireproof as possible and as such, the structure of the building used steel trusses and no wooden parts. He even required that the boiler be located away from the house, in an underground space below the front lawn.^[4]

The designers created an interior using marble imported from Italy and Africa, and rare woods and mosaics from countries around the world. It also included architectural elements (such as the library mantel) purchased from chateaux in France. Expansion was finally finished in 1892.^[5]

The Breakers is the architectural and social archetype of the "Gilded Age," a period when members of the Vanderbilt family were among the major industrialists of America.^[6] In 1895, the year of its completion, The Breakers was the largest, most opulent house in the Newport area. It represents the taste of an American upper class—socially ambitious but lacking a noble pedigree—who were determined to imitate and surpass the European aristocracy in lifestyle; a taste and ambition which was cynically noted by many members of the European upper-classes. However, this cynicism, coupled with assumptions of vulgarity, was not so deeply rooted that it prevented the daughters of these lavish houses and their associated dollars from marrying into the European aristocracy.^[7]

Vanderbilt died from a cerebral hemorrhage caused by a second stroke in 1899 at the age of 55, leaving The Breakers to his wife, Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt. She outlived her husband by 35 years and died at the age of 89 in 1934. In her will, The Breakers was given to her youngest daughter, Countess Gladys Széchenyi (1886–1965), essentially because Gladys lacked American property. Also, none of Alice's other children were interested in the property, while Gladys had always loved the estate.

The Breakers survived the great New England Hurricane of 1938 with minimal damage and minor flooding of the grounds.

In 1948, Gladys leased the high-maintenance property to The Preservation Society of Newport County for $1 a year. The Preservation Society bought The Breakers and approximately 90% of its furnishings in 1972 for $365,000 from Countess Sylvia Szapary, the daughter of Gladys. However, the agreement with the Society granted life tenancy to the Countess Szapary. Upon her death in 1998, The Preservation Society agreed to allow the family to continue to live on the third floor, which is not open to the public.^[8]

It is now the most-visited attraction in Rhode Island with approximately 400,000 visitors annually and is open year-round for tours. 

These beauties spiced it up too.

What a view.

We did their general tour & learned so much about this magnificent estate.

Karen was a busy shutterbug.

And the sea below. Awesome.

It was a gorgeous day out (we have been so lucky with good weather this entire trip!) and we went from checking out ocean walk...

To the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

This place exuded a country club feel, and we even had lunch there courtside.

No tank tops boys! (e-gads)

They were strict with their dress code obviously. 

They serve a fantastic lunch courtside here at the Tennis Hall of Fame. 

Just to play on that beautiful grass court would be such an experience.

 These cute boys would have liked it too!

The tennis museum.

A wonderful monument to Fred Perry was front & center. No wonder he had his own apparel line!

Town was filed with oodles of summer tourists..including us.

There was more Americana in this town than at the flag raising at the US Embassy in Cuba.

Andypants was relaxed as can be and at home on the boat.

Andrew & I discussed CIA recruitment tactics.

Bish prepared his "Bishtastic" nuggets. 

And then we were off for an evening surprise...

to the New York Yacht Club's private locale called Harbour Court in Newport, RI. This über French chateau was such a stunner! It was commissioned in 1988 as the clubs first waterfront facility. It's on 8 acres overlooking Bartons Cove, and was completed in 1906  for the John Nicholas Brown family. He was commodore of the NYYC in 1952-54 as well.

The natural alliance between the New York Yacht Club and Newport, Rhode Island began three days after the club's founding on Friday, August 2, 1844, when a fleet of the founders' eight yachts got underway from the Battery bound for Newport on the first summer Cruise. Many summer Cruises – known as the Annual Cruise -- included a stop in Newport. Then beginning in 1930 the NYYC conducted the America's Cup in Newport -- first in J-Class yachts and then 12 Metres -- until losing it in 1983.

John Nicholas Brown died in 1979 while aboard the Malagueña. After his wife Anne Brown’s death in 1985, her children put the property on the market. Meanwhile, some members of the New York Yacht Club were thinking that the club could benefit from owning a waterfront property. John Nicholas Brown had on occasion mused that Harbour Court would make a fine yacht club. The NYYC purchased the property in 1987. Yay for them!

It's a place you can escape to. Where you won't run into Kris Jenner & Bruce...I mean Cailtlyn.

Following the loss of the America's Cup Harbour Court created a new energy and focus at the NYYC. The facility became the national- and international-focal point of many of yachting's premier events. In 1994, it hosted its Sesquicentennial Celebration, for 2,000 members and friends. In 1998, the NYYC hosted the first Race Week at Newport, presented by Rolex, the Disabled World Sailing Championship and the ILC Maxi World Championship. In 2000, as part of Race Week, the NYYC hosted the Rolex IMS Offshore World Championship. In 2003, the club hosted the Laser Masters North Americans and the Swan North Americans. In 2005 the club conducted the Swan American Regatta, the 12-Metre Worlds and the Grey Goose ISAF Team Racing Worlds. The eighth edition of Race Week at Newport, presented by Rolex, was in 2012. The NYYC has also hosted the IFDS Blind Sailing World Championship.

Even the motor court was perfect as we pulled up in our Uber.

Karen & Andrew were ready for our evening festivities to commence.

We opted for our signature move.

And..we are going in.

What a view it is over the harbor from the club!

Mr. Fancypants was happy as a clam.

The setting there couldn't have been more perfect!

Karen & I took in the sights and could have sat outside under the stars all night.

We loved every minute of our special night at the New York Yacht Clubs' Newport RI locale.
Thank you so much Linda & Val for the invite!! What a treat that was.