Because of suggestions from others; we decided to head next to Newport, Rhode Island because we had an extra day on our hands. A visit to Newport is not complete without a visit to one of the mansions. So, we chose The Breakers, which is supposed to be the best of the bunch.

The Breakers.

The Breakers was the home of the Vanderbilt’s. A family who built their fortune on steamships and then the New York Central Railroad.

The grounds.

Richard Morris Hunt was commisioned in 1893 to design a villa. He designed a 70 room Italian Renaissance- style palazzo which was inspired by the 16th century palaces of Genoa and Turin.

The service area.

After doing maybe a third of the cliff walk (couldn’t do any more due to a very sore foot) we got back in the car and headed off. We didn’t really have anything else planned for the day, so we ended up at Fort Adams, where we looked around and had a picnic lunch in the grounds inside.

The grounds from our picnic bench.

Fort Adams is at the entrance to the Narragansett Bay. The current Fort Adams was first provided with troops in August 1841, and continued as an active Army post until 1950. The fort can boast about being involved in five major wars including the American Civil War, World War I and World War II.

One of the rooms.

And of course a cannon!

Before our trip Knox had become quite terrified of flying insects and therefore insects in general. Sadly a few times insects had him stuck unable to move and screaming in terror. We had been trying to teach Knox that insects and bugs are nice, and though he was repeating that back to us, we were unsure he really actually believed it yet. So, one wonderful outcome of our trip was Knox starting to enjoy insects again and actually touching them!

A ladybug crawling on Knox.

The last stop of the day was to a national park for a nature walk. The kids had fun being in charge of deciding which paths to take and being the leader.

Knoxy the leader!

Tate following…..