We spent the whole week Newport, which after moving every single day was a welcomed change.

On Tuesday, my big day, Roan, Alec and Mark organized a tour of the Mansions. We did a “servants tour” at the Elms – very Downton Abbey-ish and visited three mansions: The Elms, The Breakers and the Marble House. We also walked part of the Cliff Walk. Our favorite was the The Breakers, the house itself was over the top (these people really had too much money) but the location is fantastic, what views! We all loved the outside spaces – terraces and balconies – the best. By 5 PM we were exhausted and all mansioned-out.

Newport was well set up for the cruiser. Laundromat and good grocery stores are half a mile walking from the new Maritime Center off Anne Street. This new center had showers (7 min for $1.75), a couple of new front loader washing machines and driers, free WIFI and a big dinghy dock. Everything was new and clean. We had three weeks of laundry so we used the laundromat to expedite the process as they had many more washing machines and driers.

On Thursday, John and Lory joined us for the Newport Boat Show. This was the opening or VIP day. It is a bit more expensive than Friday or the weekend, but it is also a lot less crowded. We visited several of the electronics and other sailing gadgets tents and spend the afternoon touring the new boats. Discovery Sailing, an organization to promote sailing, had free one hour sailing in several day sail models. The four of us went sailing on a J85 boat. It is such a different experience than sailing in Por Dos. It brought Mark and I some memories of our Frostbite Racing in the Boston Harbor. Mark even managed to convince the captain to put up the spinnaker (well! He really did not need much convincing). The kids and us had a blast.

Friday, we bid farewell to Newport and motored to Point Judith, where we would pick up Tim, Gail, Matt and Marg and sail to Block Island for the weekend.