We woke up this morning to fog, hoping it would get better as the day went on but nope, it was not to be. It's a pretty sad thing when you're right on the ocean and you can't see the ocean.
But, on a much better note, we also woke up to an amazing breakfast that our host, Stuart, made for us. We had blueberry covered Yorkshire pancakes and sausage, with pomegranate juice on the side.
Then, rested and nourished, we made our way into Newport to see the mansions. We started at The Breakers and here's a picture of the front.
We found out very quickly that some people just plain have too much money. I mean, seriously, were they just looking for places to spend it? Apparently! The Breakers was my favorite partly because it seemed more like a home, and partly because I think I could have been friends with ol' Cornelius and Alice (Vanderbilt, of course). They met while they were both teaching Sunday School and, even though four out of their seven children died young, "their faith brought them through those times".
This next picture shows how bad the annoying fog was. We're looking out from the upstairs balcony at the lawn and................fog! We just assumed the ocean was out there because they told us it was.
Okay, remember how I said I thought I might be friends with Alice Vanderbilt? Well, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been friends with her sister-in-law, Alva, who built The Marble House. If for no other reason than that she also had this monstrocity built in her back yard. Maybe it was considered pretty back then and maybe I'm offending some of you right now by dissing it but it's definitely not my taste. And I also didn't like her much because she divorced good ol' Cornelius' brother, William after only 14 years and, honestly, it sounded like she did it because it just wasn't done and she wanted to be the first to start the trend or something. Anyway, here's the Chinese Tea Room with the elusive ocean in the background. Can you tell I'm bitter about the fog?
Obviously I'm not too distressed about it because I look pretty happy here in the back yard of The Marble House. Note my Ebby t-shirt I won at Ebby School.
Since we were in Alva's back yard we went ahead and walked all the way back to the cliffs and Kaylee got this shot of the ocean, more fog, and some other oppulant homes in the distance.
After a drive around to Land's End and the southern tip of Newport we picked up a pizza and came back to our little haven to watch the Presidential debate. Priorities, right?
