No one woke anyone up today, and we finally made it out of the house by the crack of 12:30pm. I will admit, it was nice to have PJ coffee on vacation (lazy coffee in your PJs). The boys were sleeping so soundly, I went to check in on them…

We decided to head over to Newport for the day for a late lunch and a little exploring. The drive over was pretty but it looked like the fog followed us from Maine. Thankfully, it was only at the peak of the bridges, so we were clear on either side.

We explored a few of the shops while trying to decide where to eat, and finally decided on The Mooring. Everyone had some kind of seafood from hot buttered lobster rolls to salmon to fish &chips, and we all had a cup of clam crowder (that’s the white one not the red).

As a rule, we don’t let the boys have their phones at the table BUT England was playing the Netherlands in the Euro Semifinals so we made an exception. The restaurant manager noticed them watching the match on their phone and turned on the television for them in the RawBar… a quick seat switch, and they were thrilled!

Of course then this was our view for the rest of lunch 🤣

After lunch, we desperately needed to walk a while and find a little sweet for dessert… boys chose to skip dessert and spend $5 each in the arcade, Mike and I chose dessert. And thankfully both locations were beside each other 😁

Newport is nice, but it’s like Old Salem, Bald Head Island, and Myrtle Beach had a baby… how do I know? Lots of historical homes and buildings, beautiful beach town with great views and food, a gabillion touristy shops all in a row (granted, it’s not a Wings, but it’s the same stuff… t-shirts, hats, keychains, tiny spoons and thimbles with the location’s name) and an arcade where you earn tickets for crappy prizes.

Don’t get us wrong, we earned our arcade tickets and were thrilled with our crappy toys. We went in the touristy shops and got our shirts with “Newport, RI” printed on them. We drove around and took pictures of old buildings. Never said we didn’t like it, just pointing out the obvious 🤣😁

Newport is also home to the highest concentration of “Gilded Age” mansions – think Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Biltmore House size mansions. The crazy part is that a good number of these are privately owned! They are gorgeous! But I feel like sometimes we barely see the boys in our little house… we would completely lose them in these monster mansions. But I guess if you’re living here, you’re not gathered at the kitchen table eating fruit loops in the morning 😉

The views, however, we would take in a heartbeat!

There were few for sale so of course we had to look them up. If you’ve got $12.5 million burning a hole in your pocket, they could be yours… but keep in mind, the cost of living in Newport is 123% higher than the national average 😳

Something we have noticed EVERYWHERE in Rhode Island is the hydrangeas! I have never so many blooms on the bushes! In Newport, Im sure it is due to professional gardeners, but every single plant is just heavy with blooms. It’s unreal looking.

We headed back to our AirBnB, and since dinner was ready in crock pot, the boys and I headed to check out the beach. Mike said he would skip the beach and fix the rice and rolls for dinner. So off we went. There is a state park at the end of our road, so went there and while one area was nosy and crowded, we found a few quiet area… that the boys quickly made loud with some soccer and wrestling 🤣

And then they just started being goofballs 🤦🏻‍♀️

We saw these cool plants. They look like tomatoes but they are heard as rocks! There was a pink flower before the fruit. We’re still trying to figure out what they are.

After a hot shower, we ate WAY too much stew beef and rice, and managed to accomplish nothing except a puzzle for me and the COPA semifinals for the boys for the rest of the night.