Newport, Rhode Island

There are lots of restored homes, churches, buildings, yachts and other stuff in this town. It is really beautiful and everything looks really old but very nice and restored. I think they call themselves "the playground of the rich and famous". We went on a tour here called "The Breakers and Cliff Walk". The Breakers is a mansion that was built by the Vanderbilt's in 1890 something. As far as I could tell, after the generation that built it passed on, the family could not afford to keep it up and they donated it to the historical society. We also saw Trinity church where George Washington worshiped 3 times and the church where John F. Kennedy and Jackie got married.

This is the "Cliff Walk". It was very pretty, but we wanted to go much farther. They only let us walk less than a mile. We decided that we are not "get on the bus and go for a tour people".

We will not be doing any more cruises. Everyone should do Alaska, but I can't recommend the Caribbean or this cruise. We wish we had gone to Maine and stayed there 2 weeks. On the other hand, if we had done that, we would have never gone to NYC, which we enjoyed very much. But I'm not taking it back. No more cruises for me. Everything on the ship is lovely, but tour buses do not do it for us.

Tons and tons of yachts and sailboats in the harbor. America's Cup used to be here, I think some tour guide told us.

The Newport Bridge and Goat's Island. Yes, I think there are goats there.

Here and also in Acadia, the ship cannot dock in the harbor. You have to go ashore in tenders. (The little boat) Takes a lot of time to get 3,000 people off that ship in those little boats. And then...they have to get them all back on!

This is the Atlantic Ocean behind The Breakers. There was a hurricane coming in so these guys were catching some big ones.

And, the long awaited Vanderbilt's mansion. They gave you little ipods and you listened to it while you walked through the house. It was very interesting to me to hear about their lives and see their stuff.

Salve Regina University is next door. It began as a Nursing School for nuns, but is a co- educational university now. They still have Florence's (Nightingale) lamp in their seal, though.
My resident expert said the 4 gold bars are for the 4 gospels.

This is the "wedding tree" on campus. I guess it was named that after the nuns left.

And more of the cliff walk.

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

I have been working on my pictures. I made a 5x7 20 page "everyday book" on Snapfish (with a coupon) for a lady we met while hiking in Acadia National Park. She forgot her camera and we promised to send her some pictures. It just cost me $2.04 to have it shipped to her. I also made another book on line for us with a coupon and just paid for shipping. I love making those books on line and can't resist free coupons.

This is another photo from our walk in Brooklyn on Saturday morning. It's a Brooklyn style garage sale. We also walked by this very pretty Community Garden.

You can volunteer and work in the these gardens in many Brooklyn communities. They grow flowers as well as vegetables.

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens: The Japanese Garden

Sometimes we take pictures of each other taking pictures.

Is that weird?

Brooklyn: Walking to Prospect Park

Saturday morning before we boarded the ship, we walked from our hotel in Brooklyn to Prospect Park,which the books said was a mile. It was uphill and seemed longer but it was beautiful and very interesting. This is an example of the beautiful brownstones in the Park Sloop neighborhood, an upscale area of Brooklyn. One of these little apartments is over a million dollars.
Many of them have a tiny little area beside the stoop for a garden and they plant flowers and vegetables and many people were out on the stoops cleaning up after the storm and visiting with their neighbors on Saturday morning. We also saw several young fathers pushing strollers or holding the hands of preschoolers.

We found this tribute to Brooklyn fireman on the sidewalk among the resturants and apartments.

We saw many veterinary clinics. One guide told us many New Yorkers live alone and are very attached to their pets. This one is just for cats.

It is easy to see why New Yorkers don't cook. There are all kinds of restaurants, carts and deli's everywhere. The smell of food on the street is wonderful and tempting.

The building with the gold top is One Hanson Place, the most expensive apartment building in Brooklyn, with one apartment available now for $8.4 million. Google it. They have a beautiful web site.

There are beautiful murals everywhere...and some not so beautiful, but still just as interesting.

As we neared the park, we found the Green Market, open every Saturday with baked goods and farm fresh vegetables. We found something to drink!

And lots of music

Grand Army Plaza, one entrance to the park, is a tribute to the Civil War.

We walked by the library,

and finally arrived at the Botanical Gardens, established in the 1920's, just one of many beautiful features of the 585 acre park.

First Day:Manhattan

We took millions of photos on our trip and it is going to take me a while to edit them and show them to you, but here a few of the experiences we that were most exciting to me.

NYC was the most scary and exciting part of the trip for me. I checked out every book from the library, bought books and maps, studied every web site I could find, asked the peas (twopeasinabucket.com) and spent at least a month trying to learn everything I could about NYC and what we should do there. From all that advice, I made a list of the things I most wanted to do and we were able to do them all except one.

1. Three Hour Circle line boat tour of Manhattan Island

We saw 3 rivers, seven bridges, five boroughs and 25 renown landmarks. It was a very good choice and I'm glad we did this first.

2. Central Park
One thing I wanted to see in Central Park was dog walkers. I was thrilled to find these guys. They were just finishing their walk and were telling each other good bye when we found them.

We found everyone in NYC to be very friendly and helpful (including the taxi drivers) and every where we went we saw people gathered in the parks and outside their apartments visiting with neighbors and friends.

3. Top of the Rock

The advice I got was to go here instead of The Empire State Building, because it is easier to get there and you can see the same thing. (It is Rockefeller Center where the Today show is taped.) I took this with the cell phone so we could email it to everyone. We got there about 4:30 and stayed until dark taking photos in the daylight, sunset and dark.

4. Riding the subway

If Basil looks a little spooked here, it is because we were a little anxious about how to get back to our hotel in Brooklyn on the subway. We had printed instructions, but we still had to ask 2 people for help. They were very nice and we got back with no problems. I studied the subway more than any other thing about NYC and was assured that it was easy, but I found it very complicated.

The one thing on my list that we did not get to do was walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. We saw it several times and took lots of photos of it but there was a storm when we got to Brooklyn the first night so we did not get a chance to actually walk over it. We were going to try again before we left for home, but it was too complicated to manage with luggage.

Movie Stars

Everyone on our flight from Baltimore to DFW was surprised when this guy walked on to the plane and sat down right behind first class. We learned he is a movie star. He starred in Air Bud. The flight attendant was the first to take his photo, then everyone else got a chance while we were stuck on the runway waiting for clearance to take off. By the time it was my turn, he had settled down in the floor for a nap.

We also found this movie being filmed in Central Park. The next day we read in the paper that Madonna is directing and it is about the romance of King Edward and Wallis Simpson.

We didn't see Madonna.