Since the rain had stopped by the next morning, we walked around Portsmouth a bit before getting in the car and heading south through Massachusetts to Rhode Island. At some point along the way, our rental car’s blinker and brake light decided not to work anymore, so we stopped in Providence to exchange our car for a different one. Then we continued on to Newport, Rhode Island. Talk about a cute harbor town! We found a great place to stay that was centrally located, then decided to check things out. It was a bit windy, but we walked around and saw the town before finding an Irish bar (always a favorite place of mine - I’m pretty good at finding them!), then back to the hotel.
The next day, we drove out on a scenic drive along the ocean, looking at all the Newport mansions in the area. We stopped and took a tour of The Breakers, a Vanderbilt house, making it the second time in a month I’ve toured a Vanderbilt mansion! After getting our fill of enormous homes, we then drove out of Newport west along the coast toward Connecticut. Just as we crossed into Connecticut, we came upon the town of Mystic and ate at Mystic Pizza, made famous by the movie! The food was great, and the town was pretty cute. After lunch we continued on toward New Haven, with the intention of visiting Yale University. Unfortunately as we drove by New Haven, there was tons of construction and traffic everywhere, so we opted to continue on to Stamford instead. We walked over to the downtown area, which is small but bright and lively, and ate at a local brewery before heading back to the hotel.
Time to head back into New York, yet this time we were pretty much at the opposite end of the state than before! Hoping to become glamorous by association, we drove out through Long Island to the Hamptons. We drove through Southampton, walked around downtown East Hampton, and then drove out through Montauk to the lighthouse at the easternmost tip of the island. We drove as close to the coast as possible, stopping to look at the beach and some of the big houses. We ended up staying a couple miles from downtown East Hampton and ate at the local Chowder House for dinner.
After deciding we were done living as the beautiful people do, we left the Hamptons and drove back through Long Island toward NYC. We side-skirted the city, though, going through lower Brooklyn to Coney Island. There was this little part of me that had always wanted to see Coney Island, and since it was on our way, we stopped to check it out. We walked around the boardwalk, looked at the amusement park, and ate a Nathan's famous hot dog! We were a little early for any of the rides to be going, but we relaxed for a while and did some excellent people watching. After getting our fill of Coney Island, we then drove on to Atlantic City, New Jersey, another place I’d always been curious about. We got our hotel and then went out to the Jersey boardwalk to walk around. We walked up and down, checking out some of the casinos along the way. We stopped in one and had a drink while playing video poker. I broke even ($5 - I know, big spender!) and Mom won $15! We decided to stop while we were ahead, pocketed our winnings, and called it a night!
Before letting the lure of the casinos and the Jersey shore lifestyle draw us in any deeper, we collected ourselves and headed northwest to Delaware, stopping in Wilmington first. A friend to mine grew up here and gave me some ideas as to what to see. Thanks Fred! We drove to the Brandywine State Park and stopped down by the river. It was really beautiful...flowing river, ducks swimming around, cold crisp air, and lots of different brightly colored leaves! I have to say, in my opinion, this was one of the most beautiful spots we stopped at on this trip in regards to nature and the Fall colors. We walked around the area for a while, then drove just south to New Castle, a really cute little historic town. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anywhere to stay that night, so we moved on toward Dover, the capital.
We didn’t have as much time to spend in Delaware as we thought, as we were poised to arrive in Washington, D.C. later this day, so we got up early and drove through as much more of the state as we could. We meandered through downtown Dover, which was very historical and lovely. We then headed down the eastern coast to Rehoboth Beach, which is a very cute beach town with lots of shops and a boardwalk. We got some popcorn and walked around, checking out some of the shops. Then it was time to head west to our nation’s capital. We arrived at the house of our wonderful friend Elaine, who allowed us to invade her living space for the next three days!
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