Newport Mansions + Pell Bridge Run

Things were a bit busier than usual this weekend! We took advantage of some of the fun opportunities around Newport, to make sure we saw as much of this place as possible before it’s time to PCS again in 8 months!

In a not so recent blog post, I mentioned saving the Newport mansion tours for when the cooler weather rolled in. That time is now! It seems like we basically bypassed fall and went straight to winter. The tours of the Newport mansions are mostly indoors, so it’s the perfect way to see important pieces of Newport without freezing our bums off!

One of the great things about our housing neighborhood is that unlike other military housing in the area, we actually live in the city of Newport. Newport residents are afforded some pretty neat perks, and one of them is free admission to the mansion tours. Since none of our IDs have a Newport license, we keep a copy of our lease handy for stuff like this!

I wasn’t sure about the rules regarding photography, so I played it safe and left my DSLR at home. I definitely plan on going back sans kids, with the big camera, and possibly taking one of the more in-depth tours. There are behind the scenes servant tours that I’m DYING to do!

The Elms

The first house we toured was The Elms. It was the smaller of the two houses we toured and had far less visitors than the next house!

Once inside, we presented our tickets and were each given a phone with a set of headphones for an audio tour. The audio tour guides you through the house very well, making mention of some of the major aspects of each room. There’s an option for more in-depth information on each of the audio tour slides, but with the three girls in tow, we found it best to stick with the basics.

The Breakers

The second mansion we visited is the The Breakers. The house gets it’s name from the ocean waves breaking on the shore on the Cliff Walk behind the house.

Unlike The Elms, this house was PACKED! There were so many people and parking was scarce, so we had to loop the parking lot a few times. The Breakers is significantly larger than The Elms, but there were still plenty of people in each room, where as at The Elms, we were basically walking around solo.

One of the aspects I really loved about this tour was that there was an audio tour specifically for kids. I listened to it briefly, so that I could be on the same page as the girls, but eventually had to switch over to the adult version so that I could get some real info. It seemed like both the adult and kids tours touched on the same topics and followed the same timelines.

Each house tour was about an hour long, so although we had planned to try going to another tour, the girls were done after two. The holiday ball is being held at the third house we had planned to check out. The ticket prices are astronomical, but we put in for the lottery anyway, just in case! Plus, if we end up not going to the ball, we can always take a free tour some other time.

 

Newport Pell Bridge Run

I hadn’t planned on participating in the Pell Bridge Walk/Run until my neighbor messaged me Wednesday night and asked if I wanted to join. I signed up Thursday morning for a Sunday race. Oy.

I believe that this race is the only time the bridge is open for foot traffic, so the original plan was to casually stroll, while watching the sunrise. I should have learned by now that nothing in life ever goes according to plan.

It was cold and rainy when my neighbor and I reached the race start point Sunday morning. Because we signed up a bit later, we were on the first round of buses out to the starting point. We had to wake up a bit earlier, but it worked out in our favor, as we were able to find shelter from the rain under an awning.

Unlike what I had hoped for, the sun never really rose and the cold wind was blowing strong at our backs. We made sure to catch a few bridge selfies, but mostly, I think we were in a hurry to get back to the car. The wind helped push us down the bridge pretty quickly. It also blew freezing water into our ears.

There definitely weren’t any records set, but for not having run in a while, I’d say we did pretty well! It was a memorable experience, that’s for sure!

I hadn’t slept well the night before and work up much earlier than I’m used to, so I crashed on the couch most of the afternoon. Now that it’s Monday and the kids are all at school, I’m going to take the opportunity to clean up the house and get some laundry done.

Hope y’all had a memorable weekend and your week is off to a wonderful start!