Boston Vacation, Day 6

This somewhat overcast, off-and-on sprinkly day started out with us leaving Taunton, Massachusetts, and heading out toward New Bedford, Massachusetts, where there is/was big whaling industry.  We began with a walking tour from the National Park Services'  historical building.  (We have discovered on this vacation in particular that the NPS give very good tours.)

This was a type of boarding house for sailors.  It still basically is, but it has been closed for a couple of years for repairs and renovations, but we were told that up until the point where it closed it was still renting rooms for $10 to folks who could show their seaman's papers. 

This is the Seaman's Bethel, or house of worship....still in use for nondenominational services.

I just liked these views from near the harbor in New Bedford...it looks like I had pictured New England area to look like. I also like on top of this building, the weather vane does not have a rooster, but a whale....

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From New Bedford we traveled to Falls River, Massachusetts; it was a fine enough little village; and then moved on to Newport, Rhode Island. It was the first time that any of us had been to Rhode Island. What I didn't know, that Bruce did know, was that Newport is known for it's "Mansion Row"...there are many, many turn of the 20th century (late 1800s, early 1900s) mansions still standing, and many of them utilized as museums now for tours. 


Which one to go to? We were going to try to find the Astor-Beechwood (I've heard of the Astors), but we ran across one that pointed us toward one called "The Breakers", which was the "granddaddy" of them all, I guess.  It is part of the Vanderbilt family history.  Below is "The Breakers".

We have toured many old home and mansions on our travels around the U.S. (one of my favorites in Charleston, SC), but this was one of the largest I must say, but also the most expensive one to get in to tour, I would think.  But on the upside, it was a self-guided walking tour, but with audio so we all had headphones, and for kids 8-12 there is a "Family Tour"...Allison and I took that one.  It was actually very good, and Allison got a kick out of it.   When we were finished, in fact, she asked if we could go back and do it again.  

The bottom two pictures (above) are, believe it or not, of the children's playhouse in the side yard.  Yes, the children had a playhouse that could very well pass of as a small residence in some areas of the country. :)  It was very cute inside, too.  What fun!

We are, tonight, in the Providence, Rhode Island, area, preparing to look around here in the morning, and then progress back up to the Boston area for a late afternoon flight back to Kansas City. I'm fine with coming home, it's probably time. Bruce on the other hand is starting to pout, and it's not a lot of fun being around him when he's like this.  

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