Boston...

Our Mooring in Boston was the most amazing spot - Downtown Boston.

We were beside this "Pirate Ship".

We had "chauffeur" driven rides ashore from 9am to 9pm at the click of the radio, 

taken directly to Boston Harbor Hotel.  Three nights a week they held "Barge Bands", 

Soul, Rat Pack and Jazz - it was wonderful sipping wine, eating tapas, 

overlooking the water to the band…

We were very excited to be going to Boston.

We had dear friends from NZ who were coming to Boston for a conference 

and added on a few days to have with us on Our Rose…

We all went on the Freedom Trail - a walk in History, covering 16 official sites, including the signing of American Independence & Benjamin Franklin.

These dog tags represent a fallen member of the US Military in the Iraq/Afghanistan War

We also went on a wonderful "Little Italy" gourmet tour of North End.
Enjoying wonderful tastings and discovering local places to shop and eat...

We booked to go on a day trip to Cape Cod.

We saw the President Kennedy Memorial

Gardens at President Kennedy Memorial

The tour also included a trip on the water to view the Kennedy Compound...

See You Juliet and David - who knows when we will see you next?..

We were really thrilled Teresa & Brett (Seismic Wave) decided to fly up and join us on Our Rose 

for the weekend before we left.

Also,  Belinda & Ken (Free Spirit) arrived…

We all visited Harvard Univeristy…

Walked Boston Common, this guy below was very colourful!..

These people with the signs merely wanted people to smile… "awesome"

We obviously had to visit this place…

The weekend consisted of good food, lots of wine and good friends!

Unfortunately Belinda was taking the photo, so she is missing in it!

Thimbles, Mystic and ...

Leaving New York and heading through “Hells Gate” to Long Island Sound

The holiday homes here are huge…

Making our way across Long Island Sound, we found an amazing place

called “The Thimbles”

Granite Rock Islands that appear out of the sea.

The houses that were built on these unlikely spots were mostly built over 100 years ago.

Nearing sunset we had Sandy Stoddard (a local)

and his trusty dog come to Our Rose in his Boston Whaler – 

glass of wine in hand, insisting we jump aboard and have a personal tour of this gorgeous place,

where his family had been involved for over 100 years.

 

From here we headed to “Mystic Seaport”

Mystic is the oldest wooden boat building place in America, which still builds boats.  
The working museum they have is incredible.

We were lucky enough to arrive whilst the annual Wooden Boat Show was on.

This photo is the big give away of where we headed next...

Newport, Rhode Island.

It was an extremely tight mooring/anchoring area.

There were boats sailing everywhere, from ex-Americas Cup yachts to little Opti’s, right into the docks in downtown.  An amazing sight, which reminded us very much of home – The City of Sails!

We went on a “Mansion” Tour

These properties had been the summer homes, used for usually less than 6 weeks a year, Summer homes of the Vanderbilts, Oelrichs, Wetmores etc

The picture below is the from the roof of The Elms above.  

The Coal was brought into the home via a 150 foot tunnel underneath the house, 

ensuring it could not be seen from above.

 The gardens, though not as they were kept in old, were still lovely…

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to photograph inside the mansions.  They were stunning to say the least.  Most still having the furnishing from their "Hay Day".

From here we headed to Onset Harbour, hunkering down and preparing Our Rose 
for the hurricane which was forecast to pass us.

We were extremely lucky, only ending up with 40+ knot winds