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25th - After leaving the apartment clean and tidy yesterday we traipsed to the hotel 13 blocks south weighed down with 2 suitcases, a duvet in a bag, a laptop in a bag, a backpack and a cowboy hat!We were relieved when we arrived and, after mistakenly giving us the keys to someone else's room which had all their stuff in, we got the keys to our room and decided to go to New York's amazing main post office (it takes up an entire block and is open 24 hours a day 365 days a year, and its so nice to be able to go to the post office late on a Sunday afternoon and still get served) to post some birthday cards off for friends back in the UK.We then got the subway downtown to Little Italy and chose a restaurant to have a lovely Italian meal (I had linguine bolognaise and Ralph had spaghetti and meatballs) before making our way back and relaxing for the evening.Today we woke up and checked out of the hotel, luckily leaving the bulk of our stuff with the hotel to be collected later so we weren't weighed down all day.Now came the problem, we had to go back to our apartment at 6 p.m. to meet the owner, fresh off his honeymoon with his schoolgirl bride (seriously she is still in high school!), to get our damage deposit back.It was just after 12 so we had 6 hours to kill.Normally you can find a whole mountain of things to do in New York but it was difficult when we no longer had a base and could not change our clothes or use our fabulous guidebook which was packed up in the suitcase, or the internet.We therefore took a walk towards Central Park and ducked into Starbucks, managing to make our coffees last over an hour before going to McDonald's (the McDonald's here are amazing - all flashing lights and music channel t.v. for most seats - like something from Las Vegas) and doing the same.We then headed to Bryant Park and managed to spend the rest of our time happily listening to our i-pods before heading over to the apartment to retrieve our money.It was nice to see the owner of the apartment, George and his new wife, Nicole again, as they are really happy, bubbly people, and even offered us to stay in their timeshare villa in the Dominican Republic anytime we fancy it - we might take them up on that offer after we saw the pictures they showed us from their honeymoon.Leaving the apartment for the final time we collected our luggage from the hotel and got the train to Newark Airport ($15.00 each from New York Penn Station).Getting the train from Penn Station is an experience.They don't tell you what platform the train is leaving from until about 6 minutes before the train leaves, so everyone huddles around a big old fashioned ticker board and then, when a train platform is announced, people start running towards it manically to try and get to the platform before the train leaves!It was a bit of a stressful experience for us with all our luggage, but for the native New Yorkers they seemed to enjoy the fact that they could turn up a few minutes before the train left and just jump on it, knowing that there was no point getting there any earlier, as they wouldn't know what platform to go to anyway.Once on the train we then had to swap to the Airtrain at the airport (included in the price) to get us to arrivals where we were collected by our hotels bus and dropped off at the Shereton.We checked in and then went in the indoor pool and Jacuzzi before I went to the gym (Ralph went last night!) and Ralph watched more CNN coverage of the Democratic Convention.26th - We got up and managed to get our hire car company, Autoteam, who specialise in long term rentals, to collect us from the airport as opposed to the hotel.We were collected by a guy who didn't look old enough to drive (I often forget that you can drive from the age of 16 here!) who dropped us off to collect our new car.We were told that the one we hired from them last time was sold after we dropped it off, which is a shame as we were hoping to get that car again, we went through so much together!!The new car has 45,000 miles on the clock and is just 2 years old, so we set off to Long Island, New York.Long Island was a strange place, in parts tacky, of course pretty in the sunshine, and in parts just like large parts of the state of Florida.We stopped off at Long Beach, a lovely clean stretch of beach where people were sunbathing, body boarding and generally having a good time, and enjoyed laying in the sand, before the sand flies started to take a like to us and we set off again to our hotel in Riverhead, located at the start of the folk that separates The Hamptons.We checked in then headed out to eat (we were so hungry as we had not eaten all day) and managed to find a good seafood place in the town before heading back to the hotel ready for tomorrow.Ralph received some sad news when we arrived back to the hotel that his Uncle Gwyn had passed away suddenly.Our love and thoughts are with Ralph's mum and Aunty Marianne.27th - We woke and headed back West to Port Washington to visit the 1923 Falaise property, which is one of the few remaining Gold Coast mansions. Unfortunately we realised on arrival that it only opens between Thursday and Sunday and, this being Wednesday, it was closed.Still, we had free access to the Preserve it is located in and were able to go right up to the mansion and peer in the windows to take a look at what we were missing.Not too much it turns out as the property is currently undergoing some renovations so we were glad we arrived today and managed to see the property whilst not having to pay the fee for a greater look inside.The grounds around it were filled with geese and therefore also full of geese poo.Nice!Ralph spoke to the one other guy who was there that turned out to be carrying out some of the renovations on the place (we suspect that the renovations may be slow as it was past 11 a.m. and he hadn't yet started work and had instead decided to take a break on one of the picnic tables!).He told us that the property is rented out for weddings (no real surprise as it's a stunning property) at a cost of $40,000!!All I could think is that if I had spent that amount on a venue for my wedding I wouldn't want to be stepping over geese poo in my wedding dress.We then drove East to Theodore Roosevelt's house at Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, New York State (26th President of the United States).He purchased the property in 1880 and used it as his permanent home for him and his family, even bringing work and dignitaries there while he was President and had the White House at his disposal.We had a look around the museum dedicated to his honour, which is housed in his son's old house also on the estate and covers all major events in his life, before heading up to the house itself in time for our tour.The house was extremely dark inside and looked like a hunting lodge with many animal skins on the floors and animal heads on every available wall, as Teddy loved to hunt and made it his goal to hunt, skin and stuff one of every major animal.The place is therefore filled with such animal heads, including various types of deer and buffalo and animal skins including lions, tigers, polar bear, grizzly bear etc. as well as an elephant's foot made into a wastepaper bin and a rhinoceros foot made into an inkwell!They seem to have changed the house very little since the former President lived there, and it was interesting that they are still using the original wiring and electrics to light the place for the tours.The estate includes a private beach, woodland and pet cemetery and is an interesting place to visit.Pressing on we drove 2.5 hours to most easterly point of Hamptons, Montauk to see the 1796 lighthouse commissioned by George Washington and beautiful views over the ocean, then to East Hampton, home of celebrities such as Steven Spielberg, P Diddy, Martha Stewart etc. although we saw none!We then headed back to our hotel, stopping at a very informal but very popular Italian restaurant on the way.28th - We drove out to a place on the south fork of Long Island called Sag Harbour, which was home to whalers until the end of the 1800s. It's a pretty village with plenty of white wooden houses, like Cape Cod. We went to the Masonic Lodge, which has been converted into a small whaling museum for an insight into the life of these whalers and then headed back along the peninsula to Southampton. Southampton is a very wealthy old pretty village with a fabulous beach lined with huge expensive houses, many made mainly of glass so you can see right through to the ocean on both sides as you stand inside. Luckily for us (not the beach-house owners), there are no private parts of the beach so, once we managed to find a parking lot without the need for a resident parking permit, we were able to stroll the golden sandy beach, wade in the surf and mingle with the anonymous dot-com millionaires and movie executives. Kirsty had wanted to see the Native American museum in Southampton but when we got there we found out there was a charge and we suddenly felt tight-fisted. We went into the reception picked up a few leaflets and sneakily looked around, before anyone came to take any money from us, and left. Terrible we know.There was a pow-wow organised for this weekend (it's the US Labor Day public holiday on Monday) which is open for anyone to attend but, unfortunately, we will be long away in Cape Cod, Massachusetts by then. Leaving Southampton, we made for a small and picturesque sea harbour called Greenport on the northern fork of Long Island. On the way we drove past lots of vineyards and I just had to call in and by a couple of bottles of local red and white wines. I have since found that the whites were beautiful and the red is the best I have ever tasted.Greenport is yet another pretty harbour with white wooden buildings and a relaxed carefree atmosphere - the gorgeous sunny evening helped. After a stroll around the harbour and town centre, calling in at a tearoom owned by a women originally from Birmingham, we made our way to Orient Point and the 1.5 hour ferry from Long Island, New York state to New London, Connecticut. A short drive away is the state capital of Hartford and a KFC for dinner as we watched the Barack Obama accept the nomination of his democratic party as candidate for President of the United States on t.v. - truly a historic moment for this African American and his country.Of course Kirsty was wishing we were back in New York City as they played his acceptance speech on t.v. directly into Times Square!29th - In Hartford we took a tour of the Old State House, which housed the state senate, the mayor and the courthouse until the city grew in the late 1800s and a new state capitol was built a mile away. The Old State House was also the venue of the famous Amistad trial involving the disputed ownership of African slaves on board a Spanish vessel in US waters. The upstairs of the building is quite interesting, but they haven't really given the downstairs rooms any authenticity and so you end up seeing empty decorated rooms, albeit helped by the fact that you have a self guided audio tour guide.Walking through Hartford to the new state capitol, we were quite surprised by now many old and beautiful buildings there are here. There is a wealthy mix of Colonial, Federal and Gothic Victorian building styles in this city which dates back to 1633 when the Dutch colonised this part of America. As was the trend then, we kicked the Dutch out and formed our own settlements only to be kicked out ourselves in the Revolutionary War (Connecticut - a corruption of the local Indians' word meaning 'place of the Long River' - being one of the founding 13 states that expelled the British in 1783). The new state capitol is a huge Gothic Victorian cathedral with dark stencilled ceilings, granite pillars, sandstone arches and the usual paraphernalia devoted to local historical figures and fallen heroes. Again, we were able to take in a free tour of the building which lasted about an hour and gave us access to the senate chamber and debating rooms as well as explaining the Connecticut's history as the first state to have a constitution granted by Charles I (and later repealed by James I to much consternation), hence the state's nickname, 'The Constitution State'.The place is very church-like with large arches inside, and has been dubbed "the most ugly beautiful building in the world".We arrived at our hotel and had Mexican from a restaurant attached to the hotel.30th - We made our way to Essex, Connecticut to ride the Essex Steam Train which has authentic carriages, period dressed staff, luxury Pullman coaches and, our choice, an open window carriage directly behind the steam locomotive engine. The train makes it's way through 12 miles of Connecticut countryside (which is very similar to England, especially today in the drizzle - the first non-scorching hot day we have had since we arrived in July!), along the Connecticut River and the 12 mile island that stirs recollections of local boy, Mark Twain's, Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer - perhaps because of a steamboat on the river called Becky Thatcher that we could have sailed on, but chose not to. We were told that the train was used for scenes in the recent Indiana Jones film.After a really nice and innocent train ride we made the dull motorway journey to Newport in the neighbouring state of Rhode Island (the country's smallest state and the setting of the Family Guy cartoon!).We made our way to the cliffs of the ocean and took the 3.5 mile cliff walk (we actually did longer as we did not realise the walk had finished and carried on a bit before realising that we had walked much further than we should have and turning back!), which passes by the end of massive private mansions.Some mansion owners have obviously participated with the government with this cliff walk and the edge of their properties as they look out to sea are a lovely paved or tarmaced path, while others obviously resent the walk being there and have refused to have any part of their land assist the walk, and you therefore end up basically climbing over huge and precarious rocks for at least half of the time. We wondered how everyone copes with this situation as there was a person in a wheelchair that we had passed earlier in the walk, we can only assume that they had to turn back.Walking back towards the car we passed several of Newport's famous mansions.They are here because in the late 19th century Newport became the place for New York's rich and famous to spend their summer.They were happy to flaunt their wealth and so built opulent mansions along the shore and hosted grand social events.The motto of the day was "spare no expense" and the goal was to outdo the neighbours - and it shows.These places are unbelievable, like nothing we have seen before.A number have been purchased by the Preservation Society of Newport County so that visitors can pay to have a look around, but many are still privately owned and you cannot imagine the money involved.Once place we saw had the usual car park big enough to serve a restaurant, perfectly groomed grounds, tennis courts, swimming pools etc. with the added addition of its own orangery!!We have seen lots of opulent mansions in the past, especially on our journey through Long Island, but nothing like these picture perfect places, where the entrance gates are worth looking at alone.We took the bus back towards the car (it was a hot day and after the walk Ralph was absolutely exhausted) and stopped for a Chinese meal before driving to the capital of Rhode Island, Providence.We arrived at around 7 p.m. in darkness, just in time for the start of WaterFire.This is an art installation that is set on the river that runs through the city and consists of nearly 100 braziers containing wood which is set ablaze and burns away to music which carries on from 7 p.m. to after Midnight.As the flames dance off the water and the music plays, gondoliers float down the river with guests enjoying wine in their gondolas and the scene is truly beautiful.There are many food stalls at the side of the river selling all manner of foods, such as chicken, kebobs, corn on the cob, desserts, fried dough plates etc.It was a really fun, friendly, peaceful atmosphere and we really enjoyed it and were lucky to experience it, as it only occurs on certain Saturdays between May and September.Leaving Providence (we hope to return on our way back from Cape Cod) we caused our first accident as I pulled into a driveway to turn around and someone, wanting to pull into the driveway, stopped to let me out first.The driver behind must not have been paying attention as we heard a big bang and saw the second car run straight into the back of the first!Of course we left them to sort it all out!We drove onto our hotel, ready to explore Cape Cod tomorrow.31st - Last night we decided not to set the alarm as we have been getting up quite early the last few days and have not been able to get to sleep until late, and as a result did not wake up until after 1 p.m.!We could not believe and had to check the clock against Ralph's watch to make sure we were right!We therefore got up and headed straight to Sandwich, Cape Cod's oldest village and a picture-perfect New England town, and the colonial Hoxie House.This is a really interesting house built in 1637 and only every owned by two familys right until the 1950's when it was purchased by Sandwich when they realised that it had been so well preserved.We had an interesting tour around it and were made to look complete idiots by dressing up in items of the day.Ralph got away with a hat and pipe but of course I had to sport the bonnet.I know Ralph will put the picture of the event on the blog but I do so wish he wouldn't!The tour guide was really well informed and gave us the origins of over 20 well known sayings, including "raining cats and dogs", "tying the knot", and "backlog".Leaving there we headed to see one of the popular Sandwich beaches but, this being Labor Day weekend and therefore a haven for tourists, the car park was full and they had the rangers out turning everyone around and back onto the road.We therefore carried on to Hyannis, summer home of the Kennedy clan and where ferries to the popular islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard leave from.We decided to take a one hour harbour cruise and, once Ralph had enjoyed some fish and chips (complete with vinegar, for the first time ever in America!) we set off on the cruise which took in sites of interest and, of course, the main draw, the Kennedy summer homes, including Edward Kennedy's current home and the former homes of John F and Robert Kennedy.The cruise was lovely and we returned just as the sun was coming down.After trying but failing to make our way back to the Kennedy complex by car, we headed onto Chatham to see the coast guard lighthouse and beach.As it was now dark we drove back to our hotel (a drive of about 1.5 hours) and updated the blog.Its that time of week!
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