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I've heard that a lot of weddings are taking place today because people
think today's date is lucky or significant or some such. Okay, whatever...
Well, I will admit that there is something pleasing about that kind of
repeating pattern.
This being summer and since Nancy, as a teacher, has the summer off, I'm
naturally scheduling some vacation days. This week was a natural, what
with the Independence Day holiday coming in mid-week, so I took Thursday
and Friday as vacation days. I would have taken the whole week, but Nancy
has tennis lessons and tennis practice on Mondays and plays in a late afternoon
tennis league on Tuesdays, so obviously there's not much point in taking
vacation on those days. In fact, I've scheduled Thursdays and Fridays off
for the rest of the month.
So this is where we went yesterday...
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We took a drive over to Newport to visit The
Breakers, the 138,000 square foot 75 room "summer cottage" built by Cornelius
Vanderbilt II, grandson of the originator of the Vanderbilt fortune. (If
you make adjustments for inflation, he was wealthier than Bill Gates)
Photography is not allowed inside the house, except for on the two loggia
(the two rooms open to the elements in the center of the ocean side of
the house (see above picture.). The picture below shows the ceiling of
the lower loggia. |
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| And the picture below shows the view toward the ocean from the lower loggia. |
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| The Great Hall in the center of the house is roughly (although nothing
about this house can really be said to be "rough") a cube fifty
feet on each side (yes, and in height as well -- fully the height of these
two loggia). |
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| Above, some tourist sitting by the side steps... |
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| The Breakers property (as with a number of the Newport mansions, including
Rosecliff) is bordered by the famous Cliff Walk (a three and a half mile long paved public access pathway at the edge
of a cliff with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and many of the Newport
mansions on the other). (Here is a Google Satellite View of The Breakers.) The cliff is quite high -- those two black dots in the water are surfers
waiting to catch a good wave (just to the right of the mid-point of the
photo). |
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| And this is a playhouse built for one of the Vanderbilt grandchildren --
it is a 1300 square foot playhouse, complete with a porch (on the opposite
side) and a huge fireplace. |
And now I've got to get this up to the server because Nancy just got back
from her Saturday morning tennis and we are going to the Wickford Art Festival.
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