Newport

Yes, I am staying in North Kingston, but truly it is just a place to sleep at night. This morning I drove over the bridge to Aquidneck Island on which the city and county of Newport are located. I started with a circumnavigation of the “foot” of the island to get a feel for the Newport area. A big draw in the area are the gilded age mansions, built as summer “cottages” by wealthy families, including the Vanderbilts and others. Some of these have been made into museums, others remain active living quarters. While some are examples of impressive architecture and design, others are just big and ugly - the first McMansions.

At one of my stops by the side of the road, I met Lou, taking a break from his morning cycling outing. Lou is in his late 70s and still healthy and active. He knows the area well and gave me some information and tips. One of his comments was that the mansions should be commandeered or torn down and converted to affordable housing. An interesting idea, but unlikely to be implemented..

As an aside, photography was difficult because of the persistent haze in the sky from the Canada fires. Fog would have been fine, but the haze just makes everything ugly. I did find that a polarizing filter cut some if it, as a lot of what we see is light reflected off the particles in the air. Still any image I tried to take today that included the sky is sub-optimal.

 My next stop was Fort Adams. This is a historically important fort , named for President John Adams. While it was critical to defense during the Revolutionary War, it is not that interesting visually. I tried to find some abstracts - oddly the buildings were not that degraded, at least the parts to which the public has access.

I then parked in downtown Newport and walked around for a while. I noticed a shop with photographs from a local artist, Onne Van Der Wal. I always check out these shops to see what the local photographers are capturing. I really liked his work, and I spoke at length with Patty who was managing the shop. She suggested that I go out to the Castle Hill Lighthouse for some photographic opportunities. While, again, I wished for a different sky, this was still a worthwhile jaunt.

By the time I visited the lighthouse, traffic dictated that I head back as the drive would now be 45 minutes because of the congestion in town.

Rhode Island has a rather interesting colonial history, but I will save that for tomorrow as I will surely learn more on my visit to the Touro Synagogue, the oldest Synagogue in America.