Traveling Disers are lost and adrift somewhere?

[castlegazer]

I think the balloon ride was my favorite by far!!!

AWESOME!

 

[suzannen]

Incredible sights on this balloon ride, but since I have a fear of heights, I'm closing my eyes. Let me know when we've safely landed.....

 

[castlegazer]

I will have to leave the Boston hospitality up to Ed today. I need to get some work done today and then leave early for the wake.

And my former workplace:

 

[castlegazer]

Um, Goodmorning. I don't know where we are. I don't know what we did. And I don't know where we are going.

OK, so come along, join the fun.

 

[edcrbnsoul]

Sorry about that we left NYC yesterday and we are now making our first stop in Newport R.I. then onto Boston , Bar harbor , St Johns NB, Halifax NS,

 

[castlegazer]

Welcome to Newport!!!!!!!

 

[castlegazer]

Our first stop: The Breakers

The Breakers is the grandest of Newport's summer "cottages" and a symbol of the Vanderbilt family's social and financial preeminence in turn of the century America. Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) established the family fortune in steamships and later in the New York Central Railroad, which was a pivotal development in the industrial growth of the nation during the late 19th century.

The Commodore's grandson, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, became Chairman and President of the New York Central Railroad system in 1885, and purchased a wooden house called The Breakers in Newport during that same year.

In 1893, he commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design a villa to replace the earlier wood-framed house which was destroyed by fire the previous year. Hunt directed an international team of craftsmen and artisans to create a 70 room Italian Renaissance- style palazzo inspired by the 16th century palaces of Genoa and Turin. Allard and Sons of Paris assisted Hunt with furnishings and fixtures, Austro-American sculptor Karl Bitter designed relief sculpture, and Boston architect Ogden Codman decorated the family quarters.

The Vanderbilts had seven children. Their youngest daughter, Gladys, who married Count Laszlo Szechenyi of Hungary, inherited the house on her mother's death in 1934. An ardent supporter of The Preservation Society of Newport County, she opened The Breakers in 1948 to raise funds for the Society. In 1972, the Preservation Society purchased the house from her heirs. Today, the house is designated a National Historic Landmark.

 

[castlegazer]

After we get our fill of oppulent lifestyles, we can hit Bowen's Wharf for some shopping and eating

 

[deadheadbelle]

Looks great! I'm in. Is it too early to stop somewhere for a cocktail?

 

[castlegazer]

No way man! I have had many 'a cocktail sitting right here.

Wanna join me for some of these?

 

[deadheadbelle]

Heck yea! I'm in. Looks like a lovely spot on this lovely afternoon.

 

[suzannen]

I'm so glad you guys could stop by and visit my "summer cottage" aka The Breakers. There's enough bedrooms if everyone wants to spend the night. Pool party at midnight, okay?

My entire staff will be there to serve your every whim.

 

[goofy4tink]

Please move down a bit...just trying to squeeze in here...ah, that's better. NO, I'm not joining in the comsumtion of those slimey, yucky things. But, I will hoist a glass with you all. Just can't eat oysters. Dh loves them, not me. Very nice spot you've found.

 

[ilovepcot]

And suddenly everyone goes pale as they look across the street and see a "familiar" face being put, once again, in the back of a police car.

 

[castlegazer]

You can't help but go through these houses and wonder what it would be like to live there. Thanks for inviting us to dream a little with you Suzannen! I can't wait to play billiards in that beautiful billiards room overlooking the ocean.

OK - off now to Marble House, my second favorite.

Marble House was built between 1888 and 1892 for Mr. and Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, a summer house, or "cottage", as Newporters called them in remembrance of the modest houses of the early 19th century. But Marble House was much more; it was a social and architectural landmark that set the pace for Newport's subsequent transformation from a quiet summer colony of wooden houses to the legendary resort of opulent stone palaces.

Mr. Vanderbilt was the grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, who established the family's fortune in steamships and the New York Central Railroad. His older brother was Cornelius II, who built The Breakers. Alva Vanderbilt was a leading hostess in Newport society, and envisioned Marble House as her "temple to the arts" in America. It was designed by the architect Richard Morris Hunt, inspired by the Petit Trianon at Versailles. The cost of the house was reported in contemporary press accounts to be $11 million, of which $7 million was spent on 500,000 cubic feet of marble. Upon its completion, Mr. Vanderbilt gave the house to his wife as a 39th birthday present.

The Vanderbilts had 3 children: Consuelo, who became the 9th Duchess of Marlborough; William K., Jr., a prominent figure in pioneering the sport of auto racing in America; and Harold, one of the finest yachtsmen of his era who successfully defended the America's Cup three times.

The Vanderbilts divorced in 1895 and Alva married Oliver H.P. Belmont, moving down the street to Belcourt. After his death, she reopened Marble House, and had a Chinese Tea House built on the seaside cliffs, where she hosted rallies for women's right to vote. She sold the house to Frederick H. Prince in 1932. The Preservation Society acquired the house in 1963 from the Prince estate.

 

[edcrbnsoul]

I love PCOT.... you dont show all summer long...the 1st day back in your in cuffs already and you got arrested too! I'll go bail her out.... order me a beer and some Cherrystones!

 

[castlegazer]

I Love P Cot, what the hell did you do now????? It was good to see you for a minute there!!!! Come on, we'll bail you out to just come along and dream with us.

Can you imagine serving dinner in this room?

or dancing in this room

Or walking up these stairs daily

Marble House is considered one of the finest and most extravagant summer "cottages" built in Newport, Rhode Island, and for that matter during America's Gilded Age. Using the Vanderbilt fortunes amassed through steam shipping and
railroading over the previous two generations, William K. and Alva Vanderbilt commissioned Richard Morris Hunt to design and build along the Bellvue Avenue ocean lot the "finest cottage money can buy". Four years, over 300 European artisans and 11 million dollars later, the Vanderbilt's were one step closer to buying their way into high society.

 

[castlegazer]

OK, these will be waiting for you, but hurry. I am really hungry!

 

[ilovepcot]

Bless you for coming to my aid once again! As usual, I've been FALSELY ACCUSED!!! Seems while on a tour of one of the mansions, security was closely observing me on closed circuit cameras. They "claim" some valuable items suddenly went missing as I passed. Well, I never! You know my reputation. You know I'm INNOCENT!!!

 

[edcrbnsoul]

OK so we bailed out PCOT once again in time to move to Boston... anyone know anything about this place?


Just kidding

Although the metropolitan area of BOSTON has long since expanded to fill the shoreline of Massachusetts Bay, and stretches for miles inland as well, the seventeenth-century port at its heart is still discernible. Forget the neat grids of modern urban America; the twisting streets clustered around Boston Common are a reminder of how the nation started out, and the city is enjoyably human in scale.

Boston was, until 1755, the biggest city in America; as the one most directly affected by the latest whims of the British Crown, it was the natural birthplace for the opposition that culminated in the Revolutionary War. Numerous evocative sites from that era are preserved along the Freedom Trail through downtown. Since then, however, Boston has in effect turned its back on the sea. As the third busiest port in the British Empire (after London and Bristol), it stood on a narrow peninsula. What is now Washington Street provided the only access by land, and when the British set off to Lexington in 1775 they embarked in ships from the Common itself. During the nineteenth century, the Charles River marshlands were filled in to create the posh Back Bay residential area. Central Boston is now slightly set back from the water, separated by the hideous John Fitzgerald Expressway that carries I-93 across downtown. The city has been working on routing the traffic underground and disposing of this eyesore (a project a decade in the making known as "the Big Dig"), though the monumental task won't likely be completed before 2004, much to the frustration of locals.

There is a certain truth in the charge leveled by other Americans that Boston likes to live in the past; echoes of the "Brahmins" of a century ago can be heard in the upper-class drawl of the posher districts. But this is by no means just a city of WASPs: the Irish who began to arrive in large numbers after the Great Famine had produced their first mayor as early as 1885, and the president of the whole country within a hundred years. The liberal tradition that spawned the Kennedys remains alive, fed in part by the presence in the city of more than one hundred universities and colleges, the most famous of which – Harvard University – actually stands in the city of Cambridge, just across the Charles River, and is fully integrated into the tourist experience thanks to the area's excellent subway system.

The slump of the Depression seemed to linger in Boston for years – even in the 1950s, the population was actually dwindling – but these days the place definitely has a rejuvenated feel to it. Quincy Market has served as a blueprint for urban development worldwide, and with its busy street life, imaginative museums and galleries, fine architecture and palpable history, Boston is the one destination in New England there's no excuse for missing