Nautical Newport

This weekend Dylan and I visited Newport, Rhode Island, an upscale town known for attracting a yachting and sailing summer crowd and luxury-craving mansion gawkers all year round. The Newport mansions were - and still are, in many cases - summer playground homes for families who built America, including the Vanderbilts, the Astors, and other family names we now know for Avenues and universities with their namesake. Newport's most popular attraction is a shameless, indulgent tour of the opulent residences that have been preserved as historic landmarks. Next door to these open museums, complete with the "Servant Life" tour and modern upgraded restrooms, are acres of artfully landscaped thick, curling branches and bushes that half-shield the still private mansions from touristic view. The blatant showiness of past and present has a distinctly American Dream quality that, coupled with nautical stripes and rocky coastlines, makes for an extremely scenic and escape-happy weekend just a few hours from the city.

There is a Peter Pan/Greyhound bus from New York Port Authority, but I would warn potential visitors that the bus makes several stops and takes over six hours to arrive. I chose to take a two-and-a-half hour bus to Hartford, CT on Friday night, then drive down to Newport early in the morning (about one hour and forty minutes.) Splitting up the drive made it seem even closer, and I got to have some quality road trip time with my favorite traveler. Plus, to enter Newport you must drive over two iconic suspension bridges that hurtle you down the descent with the beautiful blue bay water, complete with lighthouses and sailboats, on either side.

Since Dylan was in Newport for a work event at St. George's School on Friday night, we were lucky enough to super-treat ourselves to a stay at the Newport  Marriott, right downtown on America's Cup Avenue. Though i would have liked to stay at one of Newport's many bed and breakfasts or inns, the Newport Marriott was a welcome indulgence after a tough and sleepless week of work. The lobby is designed to look like the interior of a cruise ship, with interior balconies in many rooms and canvas swaths on the walls and ropes hanging from the ceiling. The ship vibe even stretched to our room's bathroom, which featured a hug round painting of ocean waves, as if we were looking out a porthole.

Lunch in a parking lot

The best thing about our weekend in Newport was that we were able to walk the entire town and enjoy the first beautiful and warm day of spring, without the unbearable summer crowd. We walked from the hotel down Thames Street, which is full of nautical boutiques and oysters served up on sunny patios, and up one block to the Rosemary and Thyme Artisan Bakery, which I had read about on Yelp. We grabbed sandwiches (proscuitto, mozzarella, basil, oil and vinegar for me and pork loin and carmelized onion for Dylan) and cold-brewed iced coffee and walked toward the water, ending up on a bench in a sunny, open parking lot. It was an unconventional and messy lunch, but the sunniness and good bites revved us up for our day of walking.

 Caution | Cliff Walk 

Thanks to my Fitbit, I can tell you that three solid hours of walking across Newport to the start of the Cliff Walk, a paved trail that runs several miles along the rocky coast of the island, and back along Bellevue Avenue to peer over the twisted hedges, will run you about 25,000 steps. The Cliff Walk is also framed by a series of astounding mansion properties, both historic and currently lived in. Salve Regina university has also converted several of the stately homes and oceanfront property into academic and administrative buildings - it kind of had me wishing I had applied to more coastal and/or palatial schools.

While there are several museums, forts, and outdoor preserves in the Newport area, I think a perfect and fulfilling weekend was made by just wandering through the manicured grounds of the open houses, people watching and ocean breezing along the cliff walk, and eating and shopping in the touristy downtown stretch. We had dinner at Stoneacre Pantry, highly recommended for brunch as well, where we were able to stare into the open kitchen as the chefs prepared and plated our gourmet meals. I had the scallops, but only because Dylan ordered the chicken first - the restaurant is best for simple favorites done to sophisticated perfection.

Welcome to our Home | The Elms

Another sunny day on Sunday was the perfect time to force each other out of bed for a leisurely jog through town. Avoiding the crowds that were already out on the main road, we turned up past the town square and ran through the locals' town center: the court house, police station, and schools are all just as quaint and colonial as the less practical attractions down by the water. Our short jog brought us back to the grounds of the The Elms, where we ran in a lengthy circle around the open grounds and pretended to be fancy 19th-century promenaders (that Lorde song "so we'll never be Royals..." seemed to fit) before chowing into a casual lunch at the Midtown Oyster Bar.

We drove back to Hartford in mid-afternoon in time for me to catch a 5 o'clock bus back to New York City. You could certainly spend several days in Newport experiencing the sailing, beaches, nature preserves, and of course more of the mansions. But it is also the perfect getaway when a day off work isn't quite a possibility - all you need are some comfortable walking shoes, an appetite, and hopefully a cloudless sky to transport yourself to the nautical, societal scene of America's patriotic playground.

You can call me Mrs Vanderbilt