New England Trip - Day Nine

28 degrees. That should have warned us off, but I always get a little zealous about getting exercise before we start our day. We bundled up and strapped Jack in the Ergo. We then walked along the Cliff Walk near our hotel. This is, as you would expect, a walk along a cliff. On one side is the ocean and on the other side are beautiful homes overlooking the water. We enjoyed this part of the walk, even Jack who worked on his new word "dog" every time one would pass.

We went a little too far and ended up with a LONG, COLD walk back. We ended up walking at least 5 miles. Happily we found a bakery along the way and loaded up with morning sweets for us - bagel for Jack. That bagel worked magic throughout the day.

After 45 minutes to settle down, Jack napped and Jake read and I checked my work email (for the first time on the trip) and did some catching up. We then headed out to the Newport Mansions. Apparently, Newport was the summer resort town for the wealthiest Americans back in the late 1800's, early 1900's. We hadn't bought tickets for anything our whole trip, so we decided to splurge and got passes to tour 3 of the mansions. We weren't thinking that each house had a complimentary audio guide, fun for us, but how would Jack handle it?

With Jack on Jake's back, we went in the first mansion, the Breakers - a Vanderbilt home much like the Biltmore.


I had the last of Jack's bagel in my pocket and kept sneaking him bites to keep him entertained. He liked looking around and was great for the first 45 minutes, but then he demanded out (in rooms that echo). I ended up carrying him the last 15 and wrestling him for the audio guide which looked too much like a phone. (He's not the lightest of babies)



We then went to the second mansion (the Elms)

and this time I wore Jack on my front. He liked this better and continued to snack on his bagel.


Toward the end, he was getting tired and kept pulling the audio guide away and changing the track, so I'd be listening to the bathroom overview in the kitchen, etc.

For the last house, Jake wore him on his front and he was sweet, occasionally resting his head on Jake's chest. We were quite proud of our cultured baby who made it through all 3 mansions (3 hours) with no crying. I think if he'd had his own audio guide, he would have been perfect!

Naptime again. Then dinner on the town where Jack enjoyed some pita bread and hummus. We ended the day playing on the floor with Jack's new toys. We are working hard to teach him "horse" (he is borrowing a horse toy we bought for cousin Wyatt). We say "huh-huh-huh-horse" and Jack laughs "ha-ha" back :)

I'm going to miss all these fun moments that have come from having no agenda and lots of time!