Friday -Newport RI. Jeff and I met up in Minneapolis on Thursday and got to fly the final leg of our journey into Providence together on the same flight, adjoining seats and everything! Although the plane was so small that just about all of the seats were "adjoining". This year we even got into town in time to have dinner before we collapsed into a travel worn stupor. Well, Jeff was rather stupor-ized, having been traveling pretty steadily for the past month by now. Our room was part of a small set of "guest houses" that straddled the end of a wharf in downtown Newport. They were VERY cute and nothing beats stepping out of your room to such a view every morning, only to have to take 10 more steps to get a fresh mocha/latte from the coffee stand downstairs. We didn't have a whole lot to do this day as we weren't allowed into the conference room to set up our booth until 6 p.m. so we decided to get some walking/exploring in. We decided on the Newport Cliff Walk, a good way to get some real estate oogleing and some oceanic fixes we thought. Wish I had thought to pack my trusty flip flops as my "comfy" shoes weren't up to the 12 miles worth of walking we ended up doing.
As you can see from the pictures, the Cliff Walk eventually turns into an Cliff Xtreme Hike, so by the end I felt ridiculous with my choice of apparel and accessories, as well as blistered and bloody...the return trip into town, despite being lame and limping, was still a treat because you can actually SEE some of the houses you were looking for while on the walk...ooh well.
We also ended up finding the liquor store, the drug store and, for next time, the Rockport shoe showroom. Really, though, the houses were magnificent and huge. Kept discovering that while the main houses were impressive, I thought the gate houses were so much more Me.
SATURDAY - Spent all day at the seminar out on Goat Island (nice name, huh?). I got some really good usage out of my iPhone as there was NOTHING else to do! We were set up around a large room with about 30 other companies and every hour there would be a mad rush of sailors into the room to drink coffee, eat muffins, and talk to the companies (us) until 15 minutes later some nincompoop with a bowsun's whistle would have his fun and they would all run out again. Leaving us to stare at each other for another hour. I did hand out some pamphlets and Jeff did talk to quite a few people, so it was by no means a waste of time...just a long day.
At one point I attempted to escape but the weather attacked with a hurricane-like fury which scared me back into the conference room. I was amazed at the wind and the NOISE of the rain. However, not wanting to be a total wuss, I ended up braving the elements, and in doing so was rudely sucked OUT of the building and blown across the parking lot to my car, which was by now parked in a puddle the size of Lake Michigan. No matter, I was safe and bound to get a magazine to read. Well, despite the horrid torrential downpour, the St. Paddy's day revelers were still out in force. Newport hosts one of the biggest St. P Day parades the saturday before St. P day every year. While I have no doubt that the parade itself is most likely impressive, what it leave behind leaves much to be desired, namely sloppy, nasty (and I do mean this in a foul way) drunk people by 11 a.m. who are unable to safely walk down a sidewalk let alone cross a street or managed an umbrella safely. I was able to dodge two who were so kindly pushed into the path of my car by their drunken companions, then I hastily turned around and headed back to the conference, sans magazine but with enough to think about that I was no longer sad to be stuck there. We decided it was safer, both weather-wize and drunken pedestrian-wize, to stay as long as possible at the hotel so ate a yummy dinner and hung out with a glass of wine until the drunken, half drowned revelers started showing up looking for lodging. We beat a hasty retreat through the parking lot that now sported white caps and large tree limbs as well as chain link fencing that had fallen over....The rest of the night was thankfully calm. I discovered the joys of a bathtub and hot water again and our room was far enough down the wharf that no "rats" came a'callin.
MONDAY - Welll, our plane wasn't scheduled to leave until 4 so we still had quite a bit of time to kill. We decided to walk to find coffee and breakfast and ended up on the otherside of town once more, a nice quiet walk, as all of the shops had apparently closed back up for the remainder of the season. Kind of a bummer as I had hoped to poke around in some of them this day. The weather wasn't very helpful either. While we ate breakfast it started to drizzle and as we started back out it just got heavier and heavier until we decided that spending six hours sitting at the airport really didn't sound all that bad anymore. Next time I am packing my waterproof parka, my flip flops AND my rubber boots. Carry on luggage be damned.
Post flight margaritas!
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