More Travels

May just worked out for vacationing this year. I spent this last week in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. I have had it on my mind to go to Newport and see the old mansions and summer homes of the rich people. :) I love historic homes and I loved Newport.

We toured 5 of them. I could have done a few more, but not on the same day. Five was plenty for one day. Plus, we walked and it was a lot of time on your feet. I only took pictures of the outsides of them because I have tons of pictures of insides of various palaces and castles and homes and I never look at them and they are a little bit useless out of context.

Marble House

Rosecliff

The Breakers

Chateau-sur-Mer

The Elms

The cliff walk was just beautiful.

Then we spent a couple days on Cape Cod and took a ferry over to Nantucket. If I had planned better to get out of the harbor part of Nantucket, I would have liked it a little more. It was a beautiful place, and also had a bunch of historic homes that I had fun looking at as I walked the streets.

And finally, two other stops were to Edward Gorey's house and Plymouth Rock. 

Road Trip

My mom and I took a little road trip to Scottsdale last week. The object of the road trip was to get to The Poisoned Pen bookstore and a book signing of C.S. Harris, Anna Lee Huber, and Victoria Thompson. I spent so much money in that bookstore! I feel good supporting independent bookstores, even if this one isn’t one I can get to often. Or possibly ever again.

 It was definitely worth going to and fun to hear each of them talk about their books. 

Near the hotel we found a Cornish Pasty Co. restaurant. Yum! I’ve eaten there in Seattle and will admit that we also bought a half baked one to take home and eat.

It was a long time in a car, but fun anyway. It rained on us quite a bit on the way down. And a little bit on the way back home. Still, it was great weather.

And we got to stop at Horseshoe Bend on the way back…with about 1000 other tourists. It was kind of busy for a drizzle-y Thursday morning. I can’t imagine what it’s like in the summer.

We also did a quick little hike to the toadstool hoodoos. It was nice and way less crowded than the horseshoe. Plus, the parking lot is small so the big tourist buses would have a hard time getting in there. 

It was a fun, fast trip!