Downtow Newpot

Last weekend Jim, Katie and I went to Newport, RI for two days of mansion tours, delicious food, cemeteries and general New England-y delights. I'd been to Newport once before, but I never turn down a chance to explore and there's definitely a reason why Newport was the summer destination for anyone who was anyone in the Gilded Age.

We bought a five-house mansion tour ticket and chose the Breakers, Rosecliff, Kingscote, Chateau-Su-Mer and the Isaac Bell house. The Isaac Bell house was my favorite on my first trip, and it still manages to hold onto that title 7 years later. It's a shingle-style lovers dream, with a wraparound, two-story porch that I would probably never leave.

We also walked a portion of the Cliff Walk, which overlooks the ocean on one side and the backyards of gorgeous mansions on the other, and features some of the best warning signs I've ever seen (totally to scale). We had breakfast at Ma's Donuts and More, where I had one of the best sausage, egg and cheese sandwiches I've ever had (bold claim) and I took an apple cider donut to go, which I did not regret.

Saturday we saw the Newport Casino (now the International Tennis Hall of Fame), designed by Charles McKim of the famous architecture firm McKim, Mead and White, and ate lunch at the La Forge restaurant that overlooks the tennis court. Sunday we ate lunch at White Horse Tavern which was founded in 1673 and claims to be America's Oldest Tavern (definitely haunted).

We drove along Ocean Drive, stopped for a Del's Frozen Lemonade—always delicious, despite Jim's having a bee in the bottom—and of course I made sure there was time for a stop at the Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery, which is on Farewell Road (!). I couldn't find the colonial-era slave grave portion of the cemetery, but there were a lot of very old tombstones, which I can't get enough of—the winged skulls are my absolute favorite and this cemetery had quite a few in relatively good shape, especially considering they were from the early 1700s.

Newport was the perfect weekend trip and getaway from the city, which I definitely appreciate, despite my love of all things New York. Every time I go to New England, I fall in love with its charms a bit more and I take comfort in knowing that when I eventually tire of city life, I can start the next chapter of my life in New England—where I will buy a rambling haunted house, fill it with cats, tie cornstalks to the porch, pretend like it's always Halloween and live happily ever after.