Newport Mansions & Cape Cod

I spent the morning doing the 3.5 mile cliff walk past all the mansions I turned around and retraced my route, stopping to do a tour of The Breakers, one of the fancier mansions, built by a Vanderbilt in 1895 - a railway millionaire. In the afternoon I did a drive around the Cape Cod area and am staying at a motel south of Boston.

I will have a look around Boston today and then head up to a big outlet centre "the Kittery" near Mrs Seippel tomorrow, for a shopping day. I won't call in on Mrs seippel as its such short notice given I was intending to be in Pennsylvania, and I don't have her details.

Mystic - 29/10/10

I took the train into Manhattan with Nick on his commute then had breakfast and picked up the car at 10am - A Chevrolet, HHR? - not sure of the model name - it looks like a PT Cruiser...does the job.

I arrived at Mystic, Connecticut about midday and spent the afternoon at the Mystic Seaport - a museum of historic ships and then had a look around Mystic - I've not seen the film and didn't feel like pizza so didn't go in Mystic Pizza. I have spent the night at a Comfort Inn on I95 between Providence and Boston.

Today I am going to Newport, Rhode Island where I will take a tour of one of the many mansions.

Brooklyn Heights

I trip over was fine until I got into the cab at JFK airport after about 10 minutes the driver switched off his meter and said sorry he'd taken a wrong turning, his mistake. It then took him 2 hours to do a 30 minute journey...... Oh well, I got there eventually and he didn't charge me. I can't believe he'd queue up at the airport with absolutely no idea of the city and without a map or sat nav.

Yesterday was a beautiful summery day - 21 degrees and bright sunshine. I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge and explored Brooklyn Heights a nice residential area where a number of authors lived (Truman Capote, W H Auden, Thomas Wolfe) I stopped at Juniors restaurant for lunch to try their famous cheesecake - the first few bites were delicious but it was very filling and a bit sickly by the end of the slice.

I pick up the car this morning in Manhattan and have had a change of plan, I am going to drive around New England rather than Pennsylvania. My first stop will be the historic shipyard at Mystic, Connecticut. I will plan the trip as I go along, not sure whether I will find internet access on the way but will update this if I can.

More Things

Salt Glaze Exhibition

I had a look at this exhibition at the castle museum on my way home from work this afternoon. The 18th century bear jugs were the star attraction. Afterwards, I stopped in town to buy a "precious thing" for my own museum. Only 5 more days until my trip WOOHOO!

No more TV

As my TV licence is up for renewal today and I had a phone call from them wanting me to renew/set up a direct debit, I decided to ditch the TV altogether and see whether I miss it. I've been meaning to do this for sometime as I tend to watch more stuff online anyway. So I've spent this rainy day trying to get through to Sky to cancel my subscription.

I'm still on the diet and will try to stay on it a week or 2 longer. I have lost 15 lbs so now weigh 14 stone 7lbs.