Saturday, December 13^th

We landed at Boston airport in the early aftenoon. Once we got our rental car, we headed out toward our weeks trip in Rhode Island. My co-pilots weren't exactly on the program, but we found our way heading towards the timeshare we were to spend the next week at.

Our sojourn to the Wyndham was interupted by the need to try out a casino en route. I think the one we hit was called the Twin Rivers Casino. I don't remember anyone winning big, but we ate there. The fish and chips was ok fine. We then headed south to our WyndHam timeshare. We were pretty late getting to the area. It took several stops for information to find the place. The answers sent us all over the place, and I was embaraced by entering somones party at their residence that matched the explanation I recieved.

Sunday, December 14^th

Remy arranged to meet up with Divino and his wife Leti at their church,St Barnabas in Portsmouth, just across the bay from where we were staying. Visiting them was another side reason for this trip. After Mass Divino took us to a new Seafood Smorgasbord Restaurant. They had a huge selection of every kind of seafood you could wish for. It was to die for. Afterwords we followed him to his house where we had some wine and viewed the antique cars he collected. Included in his garage was the Mercedes that he chauffeured Remy and I on our wedding night 35 years ago. When mom planned most of the venues, etc. no one thought of a chauffeur for the trip. Divino was there for this detail. Thanks! I didn't know this was going to happen, so had no camera with me. I couldn't picture the car now so I posted some images from back then:

Monday, December 15^th
For some reason Remy got it in her head that we needed to visit Cape Cod while we were "so close". I tried to convince her it was ghost town this time of year and we weren't as close as she thought. She wasn't convinced. So we spent several hours driving there to find a ghost town. There were a couple of stores that were still open, but they were in the process of closing that week so we got some good deals on some clothes. I got some running shorts and the new metallic green shirts that I've been seeing around these days.

Tuesday, December 16^th
Today we drove to Providence to visit the campus of Johnson & Wales University. Dave and Aida's granddaughter is going to school there, and I'm interested in cooking, so I had e-mailed ahead about interest in attending classes there. So they set up a grand tour of the facilities. Alexandra was out tour guide. Remy stayed behind at their library/museum. We got to see some cakes that they made and decorated with candy flowers, etc. We saw a wine tasting class where the students are expected to determine where they are given several of the same type of wine and they need to determine where the grape was grown by just tasting it. After we completed the tour we visited Shelby and saw here room and her room mates.

Wednesday, December 17^th
Today we crossed the bridge to Newport and set out to visit the mansions. We bought a 3 mansion ticket, good for any open during the winter season except the Hunter House. We only saw two of them, so I guess it's still good for the next winter season trip.

The first we saw is the "Breakers." This 70 room summer estate was built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II with his Central Railroad fortune. These huge estates were only used a few days in the summer by these folks. This one is known for its marble, alabaster and gilded walls. The winter season visit features Christmas decorations. In the kitchen was display of Ginger Bread Architecture winners. They put the Johnson & Wales freshmen to shame. Click on the railroad display of the mansion above that they had set up in one of the rooms to see some images I took.

Next we went to the Marble House. This was created by Alva Vanderbilt modeled after some place in France. It contains a lot of Marble. The camera cops were a little more serious about the no photos inside rule. So we weren't permitted to take a lot of inside pictures. Apparently Alva Vanderbilt, her daughter Consuelo and others used this vacation home for some political posturing having to do with women's voting. They also had a pretty elaborate bar-b-cue house out back.

We got incorrect directions on finding a place to eat lunch that led us on a complete tour of the city. Eventually we found a place and had some pretty good quiche. After that the touring of a third house was outvoted by the call of the casino we had passed by several times earlier.

Thursday, December 18^th
We walked along the shore from the Wyndham facility, and later we drove around the Island to get a day time view of our late night adventure is getting here. That evening we drove back into Providence to see a Play. The Ocean state Theatre Company put on the Musical "Mee me in St. Louis." The action took place around a family's residence in St. Louis Missouri around the time of the opening of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in the spring of 1904.

Friday, December 19^th
I don't remember what we did in the morning, so it must have been shopping or something. In the evening we went back to Providence for their Friday River on fire lighting ceremony.

I'm not sure it is possible to dress enough for a cold moist wind. It got pretty cold and windy when the sun went down and they started lighting the river up. We had a burger near by for dinner after we saw enough fire and smoke.