View from Here

 It's clean up week.  A time when folks volunteer to walk along particular roads to pick up trash.

Daughter Emily signed us up for the road I live on.  From the township line north of here to its end at an intersection, it's just over 2 miles. Dan drove us to the starting spot and Emily, granddaughters and I picked up trash. Most of it was Bud Light cans. Who is drinking and driving?

There were long stretches thankfully where there was no trash.

Here's the one photo I took looking into the flat.

You can just see hints of green in the fields.

Cliff Walk

Thursday morning we set off from the apartment we rented to walk to the start of the Cliff Walk.  Fortunately we had a map picked up the afternoon before at the information office which was closed though sign said open.  They had maps available outside the door though. Most folks rely on the map on their phones but I am not plugged in to unlimited wifi. 

Again it was a very gray day but with no rain.

The Cliff Walk is paved for the most part of 3.5 miles along the coast. It did have a section fail this spring and we did come to that detour.

At the start was this former mansion, now a hotel.

 

The ocean stretched to our left and the wind blew furiously.

Some stretches were narrower with walls on one side and hedges on the other.

We soon came to the detour which was just as well.  The wind was too fierce.

We couldn't see the break ahead.  

We took the detour which took us through the campus of Salve Regina College and then on the The Breakers - the Vanderbilt "cottage".

Newport Cemeteries

 

What is it about cemeteries that draw me in to take a look?

In our walk around Newport we came upon three.

In this park was one dedicated to Irish immigrants. Despite being founded on religious liberty, the colony was not welcoming to Catholics at first.

There was another dedicated to early colonial Jews who made their home in Newport.  They were welcomed before Catholics were.

The last one we spied surrounded this church.

It definitely was a day without sun on the two days we explored Newport, Rhode Island. Fortunately the rain stopped once we had arrived.

Vacationing as Pandemic Wanes?

We were in Newport, Rhode Island for two nights.  We rented a very nice one bedroom apartment through Air BnB that put us in an easy walk of the oldest part of the town.  We parked the car and used our feet the entire time.

But here's what's crazy - we tried to ignore the fact that we were on the other side of Omicron and everyone else did too, almost everyone. We went maskless and no where were there signs to wear masks.  But then there were those with masks on:

The hostess in the restaurant we chose for lunch the first day.

People on the street including little kids in strollers.

One person in a party of the three entering a restaurant.

Our waitress in Annie's - a wonderful breakfast lunch cafe where we had lunch the second day.

A docent or two at The Breakers - Cottage of the Vanderbilts.

What do those masks mean? Are they unvaccinated and required to mask? Are they having symptoms?  Are they infected? Are they worried about getting Covid from us?

Driving home on Friday I wondered out loud to Dan. "Did we expose ourselves to Covid?"

Last night Dan wasn't feeling well.  I gave him a Covid test. Negative! 

Covid!  Will it always be a nag on vacation?

***

Photos will be shared later.