Newport Mansions

Danielle and I have been dying to see the Newport Mansions. We took the holiday and went. I felt a little bad leaving Brad at home with the kids and no car and all the laundry. I did get a few sweet phone calls thanking me for what I do during the day. I'm starting to feel like the princess who runs off to play with her sister while her husband watches the kids. Maybe there is nothing wrong with that in small doses?

Here we are outside of Marblehouse.

It took us quite awhile to do the audio tour of both houses because we wanted to hear all of the little "extras." We were both enthralled by the details, impressed with the grandeur, and also a little disgusted by the waste. These two particular homes were only used for a handful of years or even a handful of summers. Thankfully many of the homes that aren't opened up for tours are used as schools.

Ummm, yeah. My mansion by the seaside. A view from the expansive patio inside the Breakers.

This was a Vanderbilt Home. Oh how I love the "robber baron" families. Don't know why, but I've always found the gilded age interesting.

A view similar view from the grounds below.

Back of the Breakers.

The front of Marblehouse.

Alva Vanderbuilt hosted "votes for women" rallies here, among many other social functions. The cost of the house in the late 1800's was 11 million; more than half the cost was for all of that beautiful marble we saw on the inside.

Before we did two of the big mansions we had to stop by the topiary garden. Our Mom loves topiary plants and we just had to see some real ones. Some are very, very old. 100ish years. It takes a long time to get them to grow into the neat shapes. The garden was small and our tour was short but fun. We didn't last too long in the heat (read: humidity) and toured a little (relative term) home on the grounds there. We saw many period toys that had been taken from the other mansions and were displayed here.

Enjoy the topiary plants Mom!

We are hoping for a trip back to see some of the other mansions before Danielle goes back to BYU, but I don't know if that will happen. Our pass lasts for a whole year though. Maybe she'll be enticed to come back! I know that I'm going to go at Christmas and see the mansions in all their decorated glory.