Newport Again...

We've been a little busy since I last posted about our trip to Maine. We moved (more details coming), so July I was a little preoccupied finding a place to live and then packing everything up.

After our wonderful trip to Maine John flew to Colorado for a week for work. He visited the two SendGrid offices in Denver and Boulder and met up with Marianne and Reuben. While he was away Crystal helped me out with Ellie and Walter. Most of the time we just hung around my apartment watching Once Upon a Time, but we managed to take a day trip to Newport. I had 2 more houses on my Newport Mansions tickets that I had, so we just had to see some.

The first mansion was Rosecliff. Rosecliff is all about the staircase and the ballroom. The staircase was designed with the sole purpose of having a grand and dramatic entrance into the ballroom. It was pretty cool. The ballroom was huge! A couple of movies have been filmed there and you can actually have your wedding at Rosecliff for the cheap price of $20,000.

The back of Rosecliff. Unfortunately it has that ugly awning.

The ocean view

If only I could have a yard like that and someone to take care of it.

The front of Rosecliff. The entire middle section is the ballroom, so the house is literally built around it.

The side of the house where the rose garden is. They hadn't bloomed yet. 

You can't take pictures inside, but I found these online. This is the grand staircase. It's pretty epic in my opinion.

This is the very large ballroom. It was so pretty.

The second mansion was Chateau Sur Mer. It was built in the 1850s, so it's a bit different than most of the Newport mansions that were built in the 1890s and only used as summer homes. Chateau Sur Mer was really the first mansion in Newport and the Wetmore family that built it made their fortune in trade, so their house was filled with crazy things from all over the world, but mostly Asia. When the last of the Wetmore sisters died in 1968 they donated the house to the Newport Preservation Society, so all of the furnishings are original to the house.

Best grounds ever! No ocean view, but a croquet lawn complete with bleachers! Someday I will have this!

Backside. The house is a lot darker than the other mansions inside and out. It's victorian so lots of bold dark colors and patterns. It was one of my favorite houses to see so far. 

Craziest tree, well 2. These 2 whomping willow type trees had crazy branches. Crystal and I had to explore further. 

This is just looking up at one of the crazy trees.

Front of Chateau Sur Mer. Where the flag is hanging was the original entrance, but it got changed to the side later on.

This is the Moon Gate that is the south entrance to Chateau Sur Mer. Wetmore brought it from the Far East. There are steps all the way across the top.

I love Newport and there are still a few mansions that I need to see. The next post is all about our trip to Tennessee!