More fun.... *WARNING - Lots of pictures!! * LOL

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay in posting but we were enjoying our visit with Mom and Dad. I was too tired at night to post so I am playing a little catch up! On Wednesday we drove down to Newport, RI and toured a couple of mansions. One of them was called "The Breakers" and the other one was "The Marble House". They were AMAZING!! Both of the mansions were beautiful but I think I liked The Breakers the best. It was over 100,000 square feet and had so much gold leaf plating on the walls it was crazy!! I couldn't take pictures inside of it so I googled the mansion images so you can see how pretty it was. If you ever get the chance to go see these DO IT! First we started with:

"The Breakers"

I got this info about the Breakers from the main website:

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.

This is the grand staircase. Unfortunately this was not open to the public. But you could walk around it and see it from the second floor.

This is the dining room. The picture doesn't do it justice! The golden walls and all of the details were breathtaking!

This is the kitchen in the Breakers. It is 1700 square feet and was equipped with enough space to cook for 500 people.

Then we went to view "The Marble House". It was also very beautiful inside. Since we couldn't take pictures inside just like the Breakers I got some images off of Google images (I took the one of the outside buildings)

"The Marble House"

I got this info off of the main website for the mansions:

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.

This is the dining room in the Marble House. Each chair weighs 70 pounds and the chairs with the arms weigh 100!! They are made from bronze coated in gold. Amazing!!

This is the gold ballroom...absolutely takes your breath away! I couldn't imagine how much these mansions would be worth these days!

This is the Tea House on the back of the Marble House property. It is so beautiful and so is the water view!

We had such a beautiful day! We went to lunch at the Brick Alley Pub & Restaurant and it was soooo good!!

We then decided to head home. By the time we got done with the tours it was too late to go to Cape Cod. We will save that for their next trip out here! :)

Someone else was very excited to see us come home...

LOL!! That's my boy!!

The next day we decided to do an easy drive since we had been going all week and then have Friday be our relax day before taking Mom and Dad to the airport. We went to the JFK Museum. Here are a few pictures I took:

The outside of the museum...

This is a replica of JFK's desk....

This was Robert Kennedy's desk. It had his glasses, old rotary phone and some of his papers on his desk...it was really cool!

This was a picture on the wall that I loved...

After we did this we headed down to Marina Bay which is only about 10 minutes from our house and had a great lunch at a restaurant called "Captain Fishbones". I had the best fish and chips from there and Mom and Dad shared a lobster roll.

On the way back home in the parking lot I stopped to take a picture of this beautiful Azalea...

Then we headed home and crashed...Friday we spent the morning at home...went to the Southshore Mall and had a quick lunch, walked around the mall a little bit and then took Mom and Dad to the airport:( We had a WONDERFUL visit!! We loved showing them around! Love you Mom and Dad!!

I hope I have made up for my lack of blogging...LOL...take care and we will blog more soon!