40 Hours in Newport

After DT and I did the whole matrimony thing, we were tired.  I was basically dead on my feet.  We woke up the morning after our party, said goodbye to some friends in the hotel lobby, and headed to Westport for his grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary lunch.  So much love!

Then we headed to Newport.  Well, no, wait.  First we went back to the cottage and sat on the couch to decompress.  Exhaustion doesn't cover it.

But really, after that, we snuck off to Newport for a very quick mini-moon.  I think that's what the kids are calling it now.


I booked us at the Hotel Viking, which was beautiful and really trendy and fun and in a great location.  This was definitely a splurge, but you only get married once, right?


We checked into the hotel and then crashed for an hour or two.  Like I said, dead on my feet.  The bed was huge and super comfortable.  I was happy.

The weather was terrible that day.  Raining and cold and windy.  Luckily, none of that hurricane weather hit us for either our ceremony or our reception, but it all came crashing down when we were in Newport.  The good news was that we had some friends get their flight delayed, so we had people to play with!  We met up with them on Thayer Street, where they had been bar-hopping and quickly decided we needed to get out of the elements.  I had done some Newport research and The Black Pearl was on my list.

The four of us sat down for a romantic dinner on night number one of the mini-moon.  As silly as it was, I wouldn't have changed a thing!  We started with clam chowder and oysters and clams from the raw bar.  The chowder was DELICIOUS.  And I've had a lot of chowder in my day.  Also, I usually prefer clams to oysters, but these oysters were amazing.  Our entrees were equally delicious.  The boys all opted for Shephard's Pie (it was the perfect weather for it after all) and I went with the lamb burger.  We washed it all down with plenty of red wine.

After dinner, our buddies took off to get their very late flight and DT and I headed back to the hotel to sleep!


The next morning, we took our time waking up, enjoying the king size bed and the steam shower.  I love hotel rooms.  Eloise is my spirit animal.

Finally getting our act together, we headed to the Newport Shipyard in search of breakfast and found Belle's - a cute little cafe/diner.  As it was a holiday, they were serving breakfast later than usual, which was fantastic because I was craving a breakfast burrito.  DT had the same, but with the addition of chorizo.  All the food is made right in front of you, so we opted to sit at the bar and watch.  The food was fresh and delicious.  We watched as they did the switchover to lunch and that looked yummy too.  Next time!


After finishing breakfast, we wandered through the shipyard, checking out the boats.  These are some serious ships.  Think huge yachts that would fit right in in Greece or the South of France or Miami.


The best way to explore is to walk, so that's what we did.  We probably covered six or seven miles that day.  We went from the Shipyard down Thayer, catching the Columbus Day parade along our way, then headed up towards Bellevue Ave, the mansions, and the Cliff Walk.



The Cliff Walk was stunning.  It was the most beautiful day and we spent the next few hours walking and climbing and peeking into the mansions.  It was busy, but we still found a few quiet areas to stop, relax, and take photos.




A couple hours of walking made me ravenous.  Shocking.  We walked all the way back to almost the start of our day to pop into the White Horse Tavern, the oldest tavern in America.  We saddled up to the bar, ordered ourselves some local Oktoberfest (seriously, it was one of the best Fest beers I've had - who knew?), and split a cheese plate.  Happy hour is heaven.


That evening, after another crash session at the hotel, we ducked out for our last dinner.  We wanted something casual and found ourselves at Brick Alley Pub.  I had chicken Parmesan, which was comforting and good for a cool night.  It was a nice ending to our very quick trip!


In the morning, we had to get on the road bright and early.  We were up and packed, DT grabbed coffee from the hotel lobby, and we were on our way.  I really wish we had had one more day in Newport.  Even though we'd been there before, I felt like there was still so much we wanted to do.  Luckily, that's a good reason to go back!





Where We Stayed

Where We Ate

What We Did



Comments

Popular Posts