Christmas in Newport

Jim and I spent last weekend in Newport, Rhode Island, touring some of the mansions that we couldn't fit in on our trip back in September, strolling through the historic district and reveling in the Christmas delights. During our previous trip, we discovered that a few of the mansions are decorated for the holidays, so we immediately started planning our return.

The Breakers, the Elms and Marble House are all decorated, and coincidentally we had skipped the Elms and Marble House on our first tour. I had been to both once before on my first trip to Newport, but I had never been in the off-season. Photography is usually off-limits inside of the mansions, but exceptions were made in each house for some of the more elaborately decorated sections.

All three houses were beautifully decorated, with trees in almost every room, garland-covered banisters and elaborate mantlepiece scenes. The Breakers even had a display of gingerbread Newport Mansions—I loved the renditions of the Chinese Tea House from Marble House and Kingscote, which we toured back in September.

Of course all of the decorations are really just for show—most of the mansions were strictly summer homes and sat empty in the winter months. Historically accurate or not, the mansions are perfect backdrops for the opulent reds and golds of Christmas and every grand staircase looks even more grand wrapped in evergreen.

Of course I also enjoyed the more humble wreaths and candy-cane-striped porch columns that we spotted on our walk around town. I've always thought that New England is a quintessential fall destination, but it turns out that the colonial, federal and shingle-style houses with their dark green siding and bright red doors are pretty perfect for the Christmas season as well.

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.

Fall Field Trip

Since the beginning of August, I've worked at W. W. Norton, a 90-year-old book publisher here in New York. A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail asking if I would be interested in attending a tour of paper mills in New England, on a trip sponsored by the Book Guild of NY. I was initially hesitant until I read the details: two weekdays off work, a bus trip through Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts in the middle of fall, an overnight stay, open bar and all meals for FREE. I'm so incredibly glad that I ignored my knee-jerk shut-in response of saying no to a trip with strangers because I ended up having a great time.

There were two fellow Nortonians (yes, that's what we call ourselves) on the trip, along with people from a variety of other publishing houses in New York. We left on Tuesday morning, and our first stop was lunch in Rhode Island. I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to keep up my every-ten-minutes feeding schedule so I brought road trip snacks, but I never actually needed to break into my stash. We were so well fed that I actually began declining free snacks toward the end of the trip, and if you know me that might be hard to fathom.

We toured two Ecological Fibers facilities on Tuesday, one in Rhode Island and one in Massachusetts. They're actually a really interesting company, both in what they do (specialty paper manufacturing, embossing and finishing) and how they run their business (they have zero carbon footprint, use all water-based materials and have found ways to recycle everything). As a design and book nerd I found it all really fascinating, from the specialty colors that they produce (Tiffany, Cartier, Mont Blanc) to the variety of embossing patterns they have in their collection (nearly 200).

After the tours we checked into the super cute and New Englandy Wachusett Inn, where we all had our own rooms. Mine had an enormous bed, two TVs, two sinks, a kitchenette, fully stocked cabinets and a separate sitting room. It actually may have been one of the nicest rooms I've ever stayed in, and I felt as if I couldn't possibly do it justice by myself.

There was an open bar before dinner, where I stuck to Woodchuck cider because it felt like the fall thing to do. In the morning, I had a make-your-own waffle (which was actually made for me by a staff member?), which is really the best part of any hotel stay, in my fat opinion.

We boarded the bus again and headed to one more tour, at Dunn & Co., who introduced themselves as a the only "book hospital" in the world (their url is booktrauma.com). They're located in an amazing old factory building, and they do some pretty cool things with damaged or misprinted books. They do hardcover to paperback conversions, take weird smells out of books, de-warp covers, tip-in new pages and swap out bindings. Basically if you ever have a problem with a large quantity of books, you can send them to Dunn & Co. instead of scrapping them and starting all over again.

They shared some really innovative solutions to some crazy problems and it was really interesting to see it all in action. We saw hardcovers being ripped off books, additional pages being glued in and paperback covers being placed over the guts of excess hardcovers. I had no idea that a place like this existed, and the whole trip really gave me a greater appreciation for how much work and planning goes into the creation and production of a single book.

The fall scenery along I-95 was spectacular and we passed a lot of cute little towns that I'd love to go explore one day. I adore New York City, but I can imagine a time in the (distant) future when I'll welcome a move to New England, where I'll plant some mums, tie cornstalks to my porch columns and live happily ever after. Until then, I certainly won't consider passing up any free trips that way (or any way) ever again.