DAY TWELVE--NEWPORT, RI

Good Morning! And, welcome to Newport, Rhode Island.  Well, perhaps not "welcome" in the way we might think of "welcome".  Too much of Newport is hidden behind elaborate gates, strongly worded signs, and tall wooden fences designed, no doubt, to keep the cruise excursion riff-raff and other tourist-types at a comfortable distance.  Comfortable for them...but, darn it, I'm having trouble getting a good view.  Remember, but for an accident of birth I might have been here.  Let me see what I missed.   

 

 

 

 

 

This is the famed Breakers estate, built by Cornelius Vanderbilt for the eight-week Newport Summer Season.  Eight weeks!  Now that has to qualify as real wealth.  We toured this beauty, and if you're ready for a few statistics, here they are:  65,000 square feet.  The rather lavish dining room contains 2,400 square feet.  It was not my imagination telling me it was larger than my year-around house.  That dining room is one of 70 rooms.  Cornelius paid $12 million for this beauty, which would be $355 million in today's dollars.  It's owned by the Preservation Society of Newport County and open for tours.  Not the apartment behind the windows on the third floor, however.  That luxury suite is periodically occupied by Anderson Cooper of CNN fame and some of his Vanderbilt/Whitney cousins.  I don't think they were home.

Newport is a charming place although today was a bit foggy and hazy.  Except for the tourists who come to gape at the historic mansions, and a few remaining wealthy souls who rebuild and remodel a home here and there, the economy depends on the fact that Naval Station Newport is based here, with its Naval War College, Naval Undersea Warfare Center (not for me, thank you) and a large US Navy Training Center.

The famed Newport Cliff Walk is a wonderful way to spend a few hours wandering beside the harbor and enjoying views of the mansions built along this stretch of water.  This one will certainly do.  It's gorgeous. And who is the lucky owner?  Salve Regina University.  Salve Regina University?  Tough times fell on Newport in the 1930s and, frankly, in some of the years since.  Salve Regina seems to have been the recipient of a number of gifts of huge homes in need of maintenance, remodeling and upkeep.  This is Ochre Court, Salve Regina's first gift and its first home.

 

Here's another example of a Salve Regina building.  Once owned by the Lorillard family (cigarettes and other tobacco abominations), it was also bequeathed to the university.  It wasn't a surprise to learn that Salve Regina is known to have one of the most beautiful campuses in the United States. 

 

Even if one ignores the mansions, known as "cottages" in their day, the Cliff Walk is beautiful.

Goodness.  Where did this come from?  I think it's my reminder that even in Newport we can find a bit of squalor with the splendor.  Call the maintenance man, people!

DAY ELEVEN--BOSTON

The Eurodam docked in Gloucester, Massachusetts, early this morning and, very much to my surprise, BC wanted to join the excursion going to Boston rather than explore the setting of "The Perfect Storm".  We had spent a couple of weeks in Boston a few years ago attending a great program called Senior Summer School, and he wanted to go back.  Now BC is not a city guy at all...not at all; but, he did like Boston.  He liked Boston a lot.  But, really, who wouldn't?

One of our first stops of the day was at Copley Square in the Back Bay.  This is the stylish, wealthy area of Boston and, as always, I can see myself settling here.  I'm also fascinated by the Back Bay, because it's built on fill dirt hauled in from about 1857 to 1882, as part of a huge construction project to increase the livable area of this not so large city. The photo is my take on the popular attempt to capture Trinity Church as reflected by the John Hancock Tower.  Apparently, the Bostonians threw a fit when it became known that the Hancock Tower would overshadow Trinity Church but, from my point of view, it adds to the whole area.  Then again, I'm not from Boston and never had to walk through the neighborhood in the '70s dodging falling glass when the Hancock Tower was popping windows out all over the neighborhood.    

And here's a glimpse of that beloved Trinity Church...the perfect example of "the devil is in the detail."

 

 

Well, you haven't seen Boston if you haven't toured the Olde North Church of Paul Revere fame.  Technically, it's "Christ Church in the City of Boston", located in the North End, that haven of great Italian restaurants, street scenes and festivities.  It just smells good there.  If you're our age, or close, you will remember memorizing:  "One if by land, two if by sea, and I, on the opposite shore will be, ready to ride and spread the alarm to every middlesex, village and farm."  If you're my age and went to school with the nuns, you will remember the shock and embarrassment every time you had to say Middlesex.  It was just as bad as:  "I think that I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree.  A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed, against the earth's sweet flowing breast."  Yikes!  That made for a red face every time!!  

Some would say that Longfellow's poem made Paul Revere more famous than he really was, and that he might have placed rhyme and rhythm above facts.  But, it was simply Revere's luck to be immortalized and remain forever above the crowds.  I do think he enjoys the tourists though.

 BC does love Clam Chowder.  Here, the choices go on and on...

Oyster Bay or Fisherman's Net?  Actually, the line was the longest at Boston Chowda so, obviously, Boston Chowda it is.  These Quincy Market tourists surely know their Clam Chowder.

With Chowda in hand, we fought our way through the indoor crowds, found a tiny table for two, and enjoyed.

I know...I would like to be really cool, but I'm as touristy as anyone else--just not quite as stylish (or skinny) as these two rather chic young girls who may, or may not, share a weakness for Macy's, but can style their scarves really well.

 

We did enjoy a nice overview of Boston during the trip.  We walked through some of Harvard, spent a few minutes at Harvard Square, took a peak at the USS Constitution, paused in front of the State Capital and heard a short biography of Anne Hutchinson, drove past Cheers, and followed a bit of the Freedom Trail.  Oh, the balcony?  If, in my doddering old age I should move to Boston, I want a balcony just like this one.

ORANGUTANS CAN WHAT???

According to a short article in this morning's Arizona Republic, four orangutans at the Louisville, KY, zoo received iPads with selected apps for Christmas.  They are, quite happily, playing on iPad drums and a xylophone.  They're poking at fish in an iPad koi pond between bouts of blasting iPad rocks.  And, they're interacting with other orangutans through iPad photos and videos.

Interestingly enough, BC and I also received an iPad plus iTunes gift cards for Christmas.  We are, in contrast to the orangutans, downloading our own applications but, after reading the app list for the orangutans, NPR, Pandora, CNBC and even K-State Sports seem a bit dull. 

Orangutans are considered to be highly intelligent and "require mental stimulation to keep from growing bored and depressed".  We are also intelligent.  "Highly" intelligent might be open to question, but we, too, require mental stimulation to keep from growing bored, depressed, and certifiably ga-ga.  Whereas, orangutans are participating in an animal-enrichment program which gives them freedom of choice ("critical to their well-being"), we are participating in a human-enrichment program designed to give us patience and forebearance when dealing with yet another technological marvel.

For example:  Upon initial set-up of our iPad, I entered our family e-mail as our Apple ID.  Later, in a less conscious moment, I entered a different e-mail address in our iCloud set-up.  Then, I forgot the passwords that matched each of those IDs.  Within a few days, I forgot that I had two IDs for different Apple applications and one would not easily translate to the other.  Then, to my horror, I realized I had written none of this down, so there were no records for iPad vs. iPod vs. iTunes vs. iCloud.  Had I bought an iPhone when I really wanted to and, in my ignorance, created even more IDs and passwords, well...it would have been unsolvable. 

Today, I spent nearly five hours straightening up the ID/Password situation, before beginning to struggle with Apple Support to bring the iPad back to life. It had begun refusing to respond to any request we tentatively made. 

In the Louisville zoo, however, Amber, Bella, Segundo and Teak spent those same five hours merrily exercising their highly intelligent brains and "innate ability to work with touchscreen technology" by enjoying their favorite interactive apps, "Colors and Sounds".  I'm very happy for them...really I am.  But I hate that an orangutan--no matter how sweet or cute--can interact with others through an iPad, and I need a cheat-sheet to Skype.  Oh, I'm sorry...Face Time.