the most marble ever

“Dad the R.V is shaking!” I said, in the middle of the night “Right what do you think we should do” Dad said sleepily cause I had just woken him up… “Well can you put the slide in because it making a huge noise” I said, “Ok” said dad. I was awake half the night because the wind and rain were shaking us aroundand making a huge din. Also just before I fell asleep the fan lid blew up, so in the wind and rain I had to go up there and fix it! (what a slack father I have!!!) Well after all that bother the day turned out pretty good so let me tell you all the things we did!!!

Our destination was Newport Rhode Island (& state #18) because we'd heard there were some flash-as houses there. On the coast was a stopping place that was big enough for our R.V to park. We hadn’t seen anywhere to stop, and this looked like a nice to eat lunch, because when we looked outside all we saw water! Hotdogs for lunch YUM. And you should see the mansions everywhere. They call them cottages there (how quaint) - the coastline looks just like parts of NZ, except we'd have batches there not these monstrocities!

We also stumbled upon a place called Fort Adams, on the opposite side of the harbour from Newport. It was built in the mid 1850's, along with other fortifications which stretch from Maine to Florida. A massive structure in a really beautiful spot with marinas, yacht clubs/sailing schools etc. In the background was also another massive bridge (the Americans seem to have them everywhere).

Only time for one house tour so we chose the Marble House - reputed to be the flashest of all. We walked past some gigantic pillars and in though the double doors to some ladies who gave us our audio headsets. I tell you, this place was basically a palace! The thing that makes the marble house so famous is that the whole house is made of marble, gold and expensive stuff I don’t know the name of! We were scared of touching anything because we didn’t want to break anything!!! And no photos allowed on the inside so you'll just have to take my word for it.

OK, some details from Dad. The place was built in the late 1800's by old man Vanderbilt for his (it would appear rather ungrateful) wife. No expense spared doesn't describe it - the most ornate wall coverings & decorations, the ceilings had frescos & carvings & most rooms had original artwork from Europe in the 1500's. The front door/entrance alone cost $50k and she employed the best French chef she could find at the salary of $10k per year - all this 1890's money don't forget! The architect was the same dude who designed the base for Statue of Liberty. And after all that effort, they only ended up using the place for 3 summers before the old lady Venderbilt divorced hubby who financed it all. I guess there's no pleasing some people eh! Interestingly, one of their sons was the skipper for 3 successful Americas Cup defences.

Back to D... We carried on to Connecticut (#19) where we stayed the night at a campsite just inside the state border were we lit a fire and spent until 11:00 telling stories, jokes and having fun! We even cooked sausages on the fire… it was awesome we had a great night! We had just that one day of extremely mild weather - would you believe the high for the day was in the mid 60's - we were back to t-shirts and jandals, still jeans but!

Deanna