2026 RT. Rhode Island / Martha's Vineyard

Hello!

On Monday (8/10) we left CT and headed to Rhode Island. We took the more scenic route along the coast, thru Narragansett and into Newport. 

In Newport we took a tour of The Breakers, the gilded-age mansion. It was built between 1893-1895 as a summer cottage for the Vanderbilt family.

Some of the many rooms in this 65,000 sq ft mansion.

Giant fireplace.

The solid marble tubs were a challenge. They had to fill the tub several times with hot water to first warm the marble enough for a hot bath. There are four different tap knobs, hot & cold regular water and hot & cold sea water. It was believed that bathing in sea water was good for your health.

We took a short walk along the Cliff Walk, looking at the other mansions. It was hot out but a nice day!

Among the mansions is also Salve Regina University. For tuition and room & board it's $85,000 per year. It boasts that its graduates are in the top 6% of earners, it's one of the more "affordable" schools and that it ranks in the top 10 for surfers. Enrollment is about 3,000.  

After wrapping up in Newport, we headed to Providence. A little over half way we saw a sign stating "8 miles to Rhode Island state line". We did not even realize we had left the state, having entered Massachusetts. That never happens in Texas.

Day one in Providence started with the State House. We found free parking and arrived just in time for the Free Tour. The most famous dude is Roger Williams. He was a Puritan who believed that everyone should be allowed to worship whoever and however fed their soul. He spoke out in this way and got banished by the Puritans. They did not like his vibe! He left Massachusetts and established Providence Plantations in 1636 as a refuge offering what he termed "liberty of conscience" making Rhode Island the first government in the Western world to guarantee religious freedom in its founding charter. His ideas on religious tolerance and civil government directly influenced the principles later enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. He briefly became a Baptist, and in 1638 he founded the First Baptist Church in America in Providence. Here is his statue pointing at that church (white steeple in the middle).

There was no existing painting of him so no one really knows what he looked like. Supposedly the sculpture used baseball great Ted Williams face. LOL

The Rhode Island State House is constructed of 327,000 cubic feet (9,300 m3) of white Georgia marble, 15 million bricks, and 1,309 short tons (1,169 long tons) of iron floor beams. The dome is "the fourth largest self-supported marble dome in the world".

This is King Charles II. He signed the Charter establishing Rhode Island. His picture was used by the author of Peter Pan for Captain Hook!

The dome.

The Senate room.

We walked around Brown University, here is the iconic clock tower.

We found an old library too!

Card catalog.

It was a good day of walking, over 12,000 steps!

Second (Final) day in Providence we visited the Roger Williams Park. They had a lovely Botanical Garden. So many of the plants reminded me of my mom, what seems exotic to folks in the NE is literally a pot plant at home. 

Crown of Thorns 

Carnivorous Tropical Pitcher plant 

Hydrangea

After working up an appetite, we headed to Federal Hill, also known as Little Italy. We had a fantastic meal at Angelo's and did some window shopping afterwards (that whole 1000 steps things after a meal...).

We drove out to Plymouth on Thursday 8/13 to see Plymouth Rock. I was skeptical about this rock that has a sketchy history but it ended up being a great stop. We saw the rock of course:

We timed our stop perfectly and joined a free walking tour which was very interesting insightful. We learned that the Mayflower 2 was a gift from Great Britain in the 1950's for the U.S.'s support during World War 2.

Sadly, many of the 102 passengers from the ship died within the first year after a long journey which left most sick and malnourished. Of the 28 women, only 5 survived that first year. Below is a monument to the first women that settled in Plymouth.

After a nice few hours in Plymouth we headed for Cape Cod and drove all the way to the tip where the Mayflower first stopped (Provincetown) before heading to Plymouth. We stopped along the way at the National Seashore. Beautiful!

The water was pretty cold but calm. Folks were out enjoying the sunshine.

Our home base on Cape Cod was Hyannis. From there we caught the ferry to Martha's Vineyard on Friday morning. We rented bikes for the day and set off to explore the island. 

This is the site of the Chappaquiddick accident involving Ted Kennedy. The story is that Ted and Mary Jo left a party around midnight and, taking a wrong turn in the dark, ended up running off the narrow Dike Bridge (below, today the bridge has guard rails) into the water. Ted swam to safety but his companion sadly died in the accident. He also failed to report the accident for 10 hours.

This is a very remote area. To drive beyond the bridge you must have four-wheel drive and deflate your tires to 15 psi. We locked our bikes up and went on foot up over the dunes.

This is us on the Jaws Bridge. Here a scene in the movie Jaws was filmed. Apparently after the shark enters the pond, Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) jumps the rail and heads toward his son.

We visited Felix Neck Wildlife Preserve and saw a couple of Osprey nests. Osprey had been quite endangered but are making a comeback thanks to efforts to erect 100 tall pole nest stands. Today there are up to 70 nesting pair of Osprey!

There were many of these gingerbread type houses to enjoy.

It was a long day of many (30) miles of riding. We did enjoy e-bikes but you still have to pedal and those bikes are heavy! We had a nice lunch of lobster quesadillas, swordfish tacos and a shared bottle of wine. The day was complete with an ice cream stop.

Martha's Vineyard was a lovely island to explore.