Eliza Street, RI

And our street sign name game is over (for now).  We've got our whole collection complete.  Eliza's street name was in a sketchy part of Providence, RI.  You can't tell from the pictures, necessarily, but the vibe of the area was a little interesting.  Eliza was oblivious to any of those nuances, though, and as happy a baby as she can be. 

It's been a fun little excuse to travel to visit or re-visit places, just to get a picture with a street sign with the right name to match our own.  I'm glad Edward Street in Belmont got us started on this idea.  If another baby comes along we'll have to keep in mind to not choose a name too outlandish.  Myabe do a Google maps search first, before finally deciding.  We'd hate for a Lambourne child to feel left out because they don't have a street sign of their own!  ;)

Newport Mansion, RI

After Collin was done with his planning meeting early (ish) on Friday, we took off for our own long weekend adventure.  First stop, Iggy's Doughboys and Chowder House for some famous fried dough and clam chowdah.  Then, another beach.  We just randomly picked the closest beach, which happened to be Roger Wheeler State Beach.  Again, just enjoyed the sand and shells.  Also the cool rock jetties.  Davy made it all the way to the end, hopping rock to rock, without much help.  Eddy and I stayed a little closer to shore, but did find a great black shell, a luminous white rock, and a part of a crab (unphotographed).  So we all had fun.  :)

Additionally, most importantly, we found a number 5 for Davy.  He had been so jealous and upset by the unfairness of Eddy's number 3 at the submarine museum.  Pleasant surprise for all of us to collect him his own age on the beach.

Then, all dirty from the beach and all sticky from the sugar-covered donuts, we called on The Breakers mansion in Newport.  We had a fellow tourist snap our picture in front of the house and a nice old lady said, "Now that's a Christmas card picture for sure!"  Well, I don't think this one would have made it into the running for that anyway, but boy, did it give us a great chuckle as later we looked closer and found our sweet girl investigating the holes in her face.  As classy as they come, this wonderful family of mine!

And talking about classy, after they got bored with the sticks and stairs in the yard of the mansion, the boys started hunting around the grounds for treasure.  By treasure they meant candy that other tourists had dropped and coins.  This is their stash (minus a bunch of candies that found their way into Eddy and Davy's mouth first).

The house itself was a fantastic experience.  I had set my expectations very very low--not for the house or tour (we were paying plenty for those to be good), but for my kids' behavior in the mansion.  Over all the boys are well behaved in museums, as they have a good bit of experience in such places.  But I had remembered it from my visit as a teenager to be such a large and fancy house with a boring, grown-up audio tour.  So I was thrilled when instead of feeling like the guides/guards were looking askance at us for daring to come with three very small children, they welcomed us in and set us up with the family tour.  The audio recording was narrated as if the house itself were talking to us with all sorts of stories and facts that the kids (well, Davy), and Collin and I found fascinating.  Eliza fell asleep, which was a great blessing, as she has started into the phase where she wants to be moving herself around when she's awake.

No pictures are allowed inside the house, so the camera waited until the grounds to make its appearance.  I just cannot get over the scale of this house. 

I can imagine the Vanderbuilt children (and there were a lot of them) playing all sorts of games in this yard.  Just like my kids.  Kids are kids, no matter what century or what economic/class status. 

I love this awkward moment when we're begging for their cooperation for just one picture, then the shift to their more natural/realistic selves when Daddy makes them laugh from behind the camera.

Crazy in Connecticut

Collin had a planning meeting down in Connecticut (at a casino, but that isn't super relevant to this post).  The kids and I were permitted to go along and share the hotel room and make our own adventure.  First stop, the beach--and one of the loveliest beaches I've visited!  It was the most beautiful first beach day of the year, weather wise.  It was too cold to get in the water but perfect weather for sand and rocks and sea-creature searching.  The beach is part of the Harkness Memorial State Park, which includes an old mansion and gardens.  The estate was once the property of the niece of Edith Wharton--a woman of great taste and a landscape architect.  I could have gone completely picture crazy, but I didn't.  I only went slightly photo wild with the phone camera.  But give me a second chance sometime!

The meadow in between the private beach and the mansion was chock full of buttercups and dandelions.  The landscaped gardens have so many lovely little spots.  I would love to do a fairy tale photo shoot there.  We found our frog for the princess and the frog, at least.

The next day was drizzly and not suitable for another beach day.  It was, however, the perfect day for a submarine escapade!  There is a real Cold War era submarine, the U.S.S. Nautilus, on a naval base museum just half an hour from the casino hotel.  We got to go into the actual submarine, under the water.  I cannot even imagine being inside that little cramped vessel for months at a time with the same 100 people.  Not seeing the sun for that long?  Couldn't do it.  But I'm grateful for soldiers who do sacrifice their own comfort for such missions.  The boys were intrigued by the torpedoes, naturally.  I loved learning a little more about the history of submarine technology.  Did you know that in the Revolutionary War the Americans performed a (failed) mission on a British man-o-war ship in a single-passenger "turtle" submersible?  Well, it's true!  And awesome!

There was a sort of "sculpture garden" outside, with old propellers from the Nautilus, and other various submarine parts.  So cool.

In the museum part there was a section where the kids could get in the pilot seats and push buttons and pull levers.  My boys could have stayed in there all day.  They weren't too excited by the idea of sleeping in the bunks of the real ship's cabin quarters.  Four to a wall!  You'd have to roll in and out and not sit up at all to manage those beds.

I don't even know what this number 3 was all about, but Eddy was stoked about finding "his" number.

And even though it began to pour cold rain like crazy, no Lambourne vacation is complete without some cold dairy products.  We found a great little fro-yo place and drained the cups.  They had these free little cup dividers that the kids thought were so cool.  Davy commented as he was eating one of the sides, "My spoon is spending all the time at the chocolate party."

Hickory Dickory Dock and the Princess and the Pea

The Princess and the Pea, retold by Eddy

Once upon a time there was a princess who was messy and the other part of when she was messy was when she was sleeping and put a pea under her pillow and mattresses and she woke up and was still messy.