A Day in Newport Rhode Island

  John had a difficult night again, but he was able to sleep fairly well from about 4am to 7am.  I woke up about 7:30 and by 8:00 we were both working on putting things away in preparation for our move to RI today.  We had some breakfast and said goodbye to the Gateway to Cape Cod CG at 10:15.  Other than a headache, John feels better, but his cough is still bad. Harvey needed gas, so we didn't hook up the Jeep until after we stopped for gas just a few miles from the CG.  It was a pretty easy drive and we entered the Newport Naval Depot CG by 11:30.  Kylie was sure glad it was a short drive!!  Set up was easy, too, because we are only staying one night... no need to get anything out.  The CG is right on the water... we have a beautiful view. 

There are only 6 sites here.  We are in #5 with #1-4 behind us.

 

Here are some of the views of the water behind us.

 

 

 

Boats are going by all the time!

We had some lunch and made some phone calls and then John took a nap to try to get rid of his headache.  I went outside to check out the water and the grounds.  There is a fence around the whole CG, so I couldn't get down to the water, but I realized that the grounds looked as if it had at some point been a beach.  I looked for any possible treasures and found a piece of sea glass!  We cleaned up and then about 3:00 drove into Newport to check out the Naval Base.  We went to the Exchange/Px and looked around a bit, but all we bought was some cough drops. 

This picture was taken from the Naval Base.
The bridge connects the Newport mainland to the harbor areas.

A beautiful day for parasailing by the bridge!

A docking area in the Base.

We also stopped at a store called, "Bennys" that I had heard someone talk about while at the pool at the last CG.  It was sort of a glorified hardware store except it had more toys.  Didn't find anything there we couldn't live without.  Then on to downtown Newport.  I wanted to have some seafood so we ate at a restaurant called, "The Landing".  It was right on the water in the harbor.  There was every kind of boat docked there from a tiny little motor boat to a couple of million dollar yachts.  It was a gorgeous setting!

From the dock just outside the restaurant.

John enjoying his clam chowder.  Doesn't he look happy!!

That's my second cup of tea... it was really hot and humid!

This yacht was HUGE!!  It was parked next to the restaurant.
Looked like the one in "Overboard".

A shot of the dock behind me while eating.

The sun was just starting to set... how lovely!!

Johnny Lobster!!

  I had broiled scallops, shrimp, and cod (sounds like a lot, but there were only 2 scallops and 2 shrimp and a small piece of cod).  It was good, but not great.  John had a bowl of clam chowder, which was delicious, and 2 stuffed Quahogs, which are clams mixed with a kind of stuffing and put back onto the clam shell.  I didn't care for them... too much green pepper flavor.  John got a call from the clinic he had been at in MA and the doc told him he does have pneumonia, but luckily not an extreme case.  He told him to just continue the antibiotics and if it gets worse to seek medical attention.  He'll definitely follow up with his family Dr when we get home. We walked around the downtown a bit and my sweet tooth demanded a peanut butter choc chip cookie from one of the bake shops.  Now that was yummy!!  My hip and foot got a bit tired, so we headed back to the car and left for the CG.  We got back about 7:30 and our neighbor was sitting outside, so we went over and chatted for a while.  The bugs started biting so we came back about 8:15 and watched some TV.  John went to bed at 9:30 while I worked on my blog.  We plan on leaving here for Connecticut by 9 or 10 tomorrow morning. 

A Disappointing Game for Redland!

   John had a really bad night... he was up at least 4 times during the night!  Usually I can sleep right through it, but not last night...I was up, too.  So we both slept in until 9:00.  We had muffins for breakfast that we brought home from The Phoenix Restaurant yesterday.  I took a shower and "fixed" myself up... that took a while :).  John asked if I would mind if we went shopping... he needed to get out.  I thought about it for 2 seconds and decided to make the sacrifice because of how much I love him.  Besides, we aren't able to watch the Little League game on our TV here in the CG, so we thought we could grab a late lunch at a sports bar and watch the game there.  Yesterday, near the clinic, there was a Vanity Fair/Lee/Bass Outlet.  I asked if we could go there. And, low and behold there was a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant near there, also.  We now had a plan.  So we left about 11:30, shopped at the outlet for a couple of hours, and then went to BWW.  John seemed to be feeling better.  We got there about 2:15, ate, and watched the whole game.  Unfortunately, Redland lost the game to Japan, 18-11.  John was starting to feel crappy again.  We left BWW at 5:30, gassed up the Jeep and came back to the CG.  We sat outside for a while but the bugs started biting.  We came in and watched TV and talked about our plans for leaving tomorrow morning.  We hope to be packed up and on the road by 10 or so to make the hour trip to the Newport Naval Base in Rhode Island.  We're only staying one night, but that does qualify for a sticker on our map :).  We were in bed by 10:00.

Doctor, Doctor Give Me the News

   We packed up the Jeep for the beach and headed out by 8:25.  We didn't eat breakfast figuring we would stop somewhere after seeing the doctor.  First stop, the Hawthorne walk-in clinic near New Bedford.  We got there about 9:00 and after some paperwork we were back in a room by 9:45.  We saw the doctor at 10:15 and by 10:30 we were waiting on blood test and chest x-ray results.  She called him back in a room at 11:15 to let him know his blood work was normal but there was a "shadow" in his left lung.  There was no radiologist there to read it, so from what she saw she called in a script for antibiotics to a local CVS.  Our family doctor had seen that shadow before on one of John's x-rays and suspected scar tissue from a previous pneumonia, so we're not too concerned about it.  Hopefully, the antibiotic will kick in soon and he'll be feeling better in a day or two.  Next stop, the Phoenix Restaurant, just down the road from the clinic.  Breakfast was good, nothing special, but we were so hungry even mediocre food would have tasted good!    We really didn't have enough time to spend at the beach and since we wanted to watch the Little League game at 3:30, we picked up the script and came back to Harvey.  Just before entering the CG there is a cranberry bog, so we stopped there to take a peek and some pictures.  These bogs are all over the place.  Seems every open field is a bog.  You can tell because the bogs are recessed with a "moat" around them.  Apparently the cranberries grow on these dense bushes that look more like shrubs.

 

Here's what the field or bog looks like.

 

Here are some close-ups

 

 

 

 

You can see just how recessed they are!

 

 

  When they ripen in October the farmers flood the bog and use a vibrating threshing machine that causes the cranberries to float to the top.  They are then harvested with huge mechanically operated scoops.  There are several varieties.  When you buy a bag of cranberries and some are lighter than others, it's not that they haven't ripened yet, it's probably a different variety that got mixed in with the others.  When we got back to Harvey John took a nap while I worked on my blog.  When he got up we packed some snacks and went down to the Members Lounge to watch PA play Texas again in the Little League American final.  It was another nail biter... they won in the bottom of the 6th inning 3-2.  They play Japan for the championship tomorrow at 3:00.  We got back about 6:00 and John took another nap... he was feeling even worse.  Maybe he has to get worse in order to get better.  Let's hope it works that way!!  When John got up he still didn't feel very well.  So instead of having him grill ribs, I cooked supper inside.  We'll lay low again tonight and most likely turn in pretty early.  We hope to get to the beach tomorrow...our last day here.

Relaxed in the CG Today

 John didn't have a very good night... he was up several times and finally stayed up at 6:30.  He crawled back into bed with me about 8:00 for a bit then got up and made pancakes.  I didn't wake up until 10:00!!!!  No wonder Cooper calls me "Silly Grandma Sleepyhead"!!  I ate the delicious pancakes my honey bunch made and then we walked down to the pool at about 11:30.  Boy, that sun was hot!  I had to get in the water just about every 20 minutes.  John left about 1:30 to take a nap back in Harvey and was going to call me when he gets up so we can eat some lunch.  He called about 3:00 but on my way back I stopped and talked with some fellow campers about their Nissan Rogue.  My Rav 4 is getting pretty old (14 yrs.) and the Rogue is one that I'm considering when it's time to buy.  So I didn't get back to Harvey until 3:30.  We heated up our leftover lobster mac and cheese from the other night.  It was still yummy!!  We watched TV the rest of the night while I cropped all the pics from the whale watch trip.  About 8:00 we decided to go get some ice cream.  We have been talking about it ever since we got here but have never gone.  We found a place about 6 miles down the road.  It was delicious!  John had seasonal flavors, cranberry nut and apple/peach while I had cherry chunk and cookie monster (choc with Oreo and cookie dough).  On the way home we decided that because John isn't feeling any better he should go to a walk in clinic tomorrow morning.  He found one in New Bedford, about 20 miles away and on the way to West Port where we are planning to go to the beach tomorrow.  I called my mother to see how she and my father are doing, and everything was good.  John turned in about 10:30 and I went in about 11:30.  He's gotta get better before we make the trip home...I don't want to have to drive Harvey!!!! 

WOW! We Had a WHALE of a Day!!

 
John got up early again today because his cough woke him up.  I, however, was able to sleep in again until 8:15.  We had breakfast and I took Kylie for a walk.  It was a beautiful morning!  I wanted to spend some extra time with her because of the Whale Watching Boat trip we are taking today in Plymouth.  We decided to leave about 10:30 so we could do some site seeing before our trip.  So we packed a lunch and off we went.  We got to Plymouth about 11:15, parked the car, picked up our tickets, and walked over to the Mayflower II and Plymouth Rock... yes, I said Plymouth Rock... we finally found it!!  It was quite unimpressive!

This is the "shrine" built around the rock to
protect it from tourists who used to chisel off pieces.

There it is... not much bigger than a large bean bag chair!

 

 

Hopefully, you can read about the Rock
if you enlarge the pic.  It's interesting!

This is the Mayflower II an exact replica of the original Mayflower

 

  We stopped in some of the shops along the main street.  I bought a wire container shaped like a whale to commemorate our whale watching and a Cape Cod Lobster ornament for our Christmas tree.  I also made a "special" friend.

The Captain (my "special" friend) and me!



Isn't he a cutie!!

 

  We made our way back to the car to get our lunch and ate outside on a bench in the shade.  (It was hot out, but not humid!)

This was the roof of a realty company.

We spied these birds who looked like they were
waiting to hitch a ride out of the harbor.

  About 1:15 we made our way over to the dock where Capt. John's Whaling Boat was tied up.  There was already a long line waiting to board at 1:30.

Hi, Honey... we're almost there.

I got out of line to check out the fishing boat
that was unloading lobsters.



Look at them all.  I never knew that had those
rubber bands on their claws in the ocean!  :)





This is the Harbormaster's headquarters on the dock

 

  We boarded, grabbed a seat on the upper deck and off we went at 2:00. 

The flag was lovely and so was the breeze!

Everything was perfect... the weather, the beautiful ocean scenery, the lady that sat next to us, and the whales--all 12 of them.  It was a spectacular day!

A view of the dock area.

Lots and lots...

...and lots or boats anchored on the harbor!

Some neat houses along the Cape Cod side of the shoreline.
They are mostly summer homes that pay taxes to Plymouth
But have no city sewer, water, or electric supplied.
They rely on generators.

Pretty sand dunes...

...and ocean water.  Notice the lighthouse in the background.

What pretty pink sails!!

A local paddle boat giving tours of the area.

Here's a close up of the lighthouse in a previous picture.
It's there to protect boaters from running into the rock formation.

The only island in this area has it's own lighthouse.

The captain hung up this poster to show us all
The possible whales we might see.

There was a lot of ocean out there!!

This was our first sighting of a humpback whale calf.
It was soooo exciting!!

That isn't water shooting out of the whale's blowhole.
It's really steam because they hold their breath so long
under water it gets very hot is released as steam.
  Bet you didn't know that, huh. (Well, neither did I!!)



A male and a female and a calf off to the right.

Love the tail shots!  Looks like it's waving to the other tour boat.

A female and her calf.  They all had names.  The crew
identifies them by their tails after they are 4 yrs old.
That's when the whale's tail stops changing.

A calf rolling and basically playing according
to our crew.

The last 2 we spotted as we headed back to the docks.
The sky was beautiful!!

We look happy, don't we... it was so neat!!

Robbie, our Captain lowering the floats just before we docked.

We were back on shore by 6:00, all of us so glad we had decided to make the trip today!!  But by this time John was feeling pretty bad, especially since the boat ride back got rather chilly.  We both had taken jackets along but he was actually shivering.  We stopped at a CVS on the way home to pick up some cough medicine.   When we got back to Harvey we knew why he had been shivering.  Even though we don't have a thermometer with us, it was obvious he had a fever.  He took some ibuprofen and we ate some supper.  Heather and Cooper called.  We talked a while and Heather told me she may have found a half of house to rent in West York.  She just has to fill out an application and be approved.  We told Cooper all about our whaling adventure.  John took the nighttime cough medicine we bought and went to bed about 9:00.  I worked on sorting through the 550 pictures we took today, took a shower, and didn't get to bed until 2:00 am.  What is wrong with me???  I could hear John waking up numerous times before I turned in and he got up several more times after I came to bed.  We're not sure  what is on the agenda tomorrow.  It very much depends on how John is feeling, but I have a sneaking suspicion we'll just chill out here at the CG.