Goodbye Newport... and HELLOOOO Boston!

The entrance to Marble House.

On our fourth day of the trip, we decided to spend the morning viewing one more mansion in Newport - and decided upon Marble House. It is amazing, and not surprisingly, completely covered in marble. Quite overwhelming in its decor. This home was designed and built for another Vanderbilt family, the matriarch of which - Alva - was quite intimidating I would think. She divorced Vanderbilt shortly after the home was finished, and received a great sum of money and the house. She later remarried and moved down the street, but would still use Marble House as an extra place to entertain or store goods or as a guest house.

This is where you actually exit from the Marble House tour. I think it may have been a servant's entrance. I was entering to use the little servant girl's room!

Alva was later very into women's suffrage and would have Lady's suffrage meetings on Marble House's lawns. I found it odd that she had her oldest daughter groomed to be royalty - literally! This daughter was in love and secretly engaged to someone else, but Alva made her become engaged to the Duke of Marlborough. In order to create a girl worth of being a Duchess, she made her daughter wear a steel cage that went up her back and helped her hold her neck high. How did Alva come to terms with on one hand wanting the most rights and freedoms for women, but also practically caging her daughter and selling her to the highest bidder??? I found that so intriguing. Maybe it really shows the two worlds and times that Alva was stuck between...

The lawn at the rear of Marble House leading to the ocean. Can't you just see hundreds of suffragettes sitting here listening to speeches?

Alva had 3 children with Vanderbilt. They were all very interesting. I thought it was interesting that 2 of them divorced their first spouses - yes, even the daughter that married the Duke divorced him later and found happiness in her 2nd marriage. Alva's youngest son was a great sportsman and sailor and won many awards over his lifetime. They are a fascinating family!

After we finished touring Marble House and its grounds - including a cute Chinese Tea House in the back along the cliff - we decided to head up to the Boston area - Quincy, MA to be exact. We stayed in the Adams Inn - a hotel that was right on the banks of the Neponset River. It was fun to see the tide come in and out so quickly from our big window in the hotel. It was not a long trip, but we got there just late enough that we couldn't go see anything.

Marina Bay

We relaxed in the hotel for a while and then went out to Marina Bay on Boston Harbor to have dinner at Captain Fishbones restaurant. It was right on the marina and we had fun eating scrod watching the boats come in as it got dark. I guess the old joke is true: We went to Boston and got scrod! And yes, it was yummers.