9 July, 2004 - Nova Scotia Trip - DavidSumner.net David Sumner 7/18/2004

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We headed out of Bar Harbor and made a beeline for Newport RI. Well, not really a beeline. We had to traverse the interstate turnpikes of New England again. We had a major Goat rope getting through Boston traversing the "Big Dig" construction project that has set new records for being late and overbuget. Traveling in New England seems fraught with opportunities for irritation. We pulled into Newport RI early in hopes of seeing one of the famous mansions before the tours closed for the day. We checked into our dismal hotel and headed out the "The Breakers".

Newport was goat rope junior but we finally found the mansion and headed inside. The poorly stitched together panorama above was required to capture the entire rear of the mansion. We did a one hour tour of two floors of the gilded behemouth before walking the gounds and admiring the majestic european copper birch. It is easy to miss Russell standing beneath the tree in the photo above.  No photos were allowed inside but I did get the snaps above of a copper clad pedestal and the dated headstones.  The mansion was finish the year of the architect's death, 1895.

Removed from the industry of buildings I was not only impressed by the design of the mansion as well as struck by  the extremity of the the display of wealth, pride and vanity. The architecture incorporates worldwide themes and and the richeness and scale of the materials and design puts your brain in overload quickly. The Breakers was designed by Richard Hunt for part of the Vanderbilt family, much like the Bitlmore House in Asheville.  The Breakers is named for the waves that break over the rear of the property, and is replacement for the first "cottage"  by that name that burned to the ground.

After leaving The Breakers we searched for a better hotel before returning to ours to retrieve our possesions.  We stooped to get a look at the beach along the way.  Oh year, no one we met in RI can draw maps or give directions.

Next Day