Last June, I had some time off. We all know that flying Non-Rev anywhere (let alone out of the country) is damned near impossible. Because of this, I decided to stay domestic. It's still difficult, but you have more options in the summer. I like to take time off in the summer to get a break from the summer travelers, which we all know can be VERY trying at times. I couldn't decide where to go, however, my family helped make that decision for me. I got a call from my cousin who informed me that the family was planning to take a road trip from Pittsburgh to Boston. I'd never been to Boston (and hadn't seen my family since Christmas), so I decided to join them. I took a flight from Chicago to Boston to meet them. The flight was pretty nice and had no problems getting on the flight (getting home was another story). We did all the stuff available in the Boston Metro Area (and I will cover that beautiful city in another article). We each had a day where we got to pick what we'd do that day. When my day came about, I suggested we go to Newport, Rhode Island.
I've been to Newport on many of my layovers to Providence. My crew often rents a car on long layovers and we drive there. It's about a 30 minute drive from Providence to Newport. It's about an hour and a half from Boston to Newport. My family had never been there, so I thought it would be nice to take them there. Everyone was pretty much burnt out on Boston after the 3rd day, so it took no arm-twisting at all.
We took the nearly 2 hr drive to Newport. It was a pleasant drive for all of us. We even did a diversion outside of Boston to the JFK Presidential Library. My cousin is a major JFK history buff, so she was in heaven when she learned it was on the way. Regardless of your political point of view, visiting a Presidential Library is an amazing experience (I want to visit as many as possible being a history buff), but I'll also cover that in a later article. We arrived in downtown Newport and quickly found a place to park. It was approx $7 for the entire day. We walked along the bayfront stopping at every shop that came our way. It came time to eat. I've always loved a restaurant called Red Parrot. It's a nice and well-known seafood restaurant located in downtown Newport. When you're there, you HAVE to order the local Clam Chowder. I introduced my family members to it and they are now spoiled for life since it's so AWESOME! I ordered a dish with pasta, seafood (lobster, shrimp, scallops, & clam), Alfredo sauce, sundried tomatoes and vegetables. That's my favorite thing on the menu. I Also enjoyed a couple of beers with my meals. We finished our meals and continued on our journey.
We walked around downtown and checked out the shops along the Main Street area. The family managed to find a number of souvenirs. To be honest, I've been to Newport many times, and thought it was really cool to be able to share a bit of my job with my family. They always joke they live vicariously through me and it made me happy to to allow them to experience some of the things that make me love my job. The trip even had a more satisfying after we got some iced cream at the place next to The Red Parrot. We walked back to our van, which was parked next to a beautiful old church. It was St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church. My cousin read the historic plaque in front of it and discovered it was the church that her historic idol, JFK, was married in. I can't describe how happy her excitement made me.
Newport is famous for its mansions that were built during the guilded age. Many people spend a fortune to tour the inside of those beautiful mansions. I just can't bring myself to spend upward of $50 to tour the places (especially when you can spend $10 to get a book with pics of the houses). We drove along the bluff, where the mansions were built, and really enjoyed the beautiful views of the houses and the Atlantic Ocean. We stopped along the way and waded in the beaches along the bluff. We also took a lot of pics during that adventure. After that, we decided to visit the official beaches. The beach had some nice sand (not the quality you'd find in Cancun or along the gulf, but wasn't bad). There were people 'boarding' and we found a nice place to lay out. There were also plenty of boulders to lay on if you got tired of the sand. We swam and spent another 2 hours laying out. It was a beautiful summer day and we took full advantage of it. We finally decided to head back to Boston and enjoyed another 2 hr drive back to the Boston hotel.
Being the type who wants the people I'm traveling with to have a good time, I was worried if everyone had a good time and thought it was time well spent. Well, I was quite pleased to learn that everyone agreed that our day in Newport was the best day of the entire week vacation. I was quite relieved and very happy.
So there's my journey to Newport, Rhode Island. I hope you go there and have as good a time as I have.
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