By: Ana Alexander
Adventure, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Boppin’ Around Newport

We decided that our final day in Newport would be a day to bop around.

What does that mean, exactly? It means that we’d spend the majority of the day walking around the cute shops, cruising down the piers, eating toffee and fudge, drinking coffee, and eating chowder. Basically the perfect day.

I woke up bright and early to do some hardcore bopping, in the form of the Cliff Walk, which was my favorite thing I did in Newport, and perhaps on our entire trip. I highly recommend. You can read more about that here.

I ironically had to walk a few miles from our hotel to the start of the Cliff Walk, which is 3.5 miles long. I ended up walking about 7 miles by 10 a.m.

On my way to the Cliff Walk, I happened to walk past St. Mary’s the church where JFK and Jackie O. were married!

It was really cool! The following day, we’d be visiting the JFK Presidential Library and Museum, and I’d see photos of the wedding there.

The end of the Cliff Walk brought me near the Marble House, which was also on our list of places to see, so Sarah picked me up at the end of the trail, and we drove to the Marble House. Check out an illustrated tour of the gorgeous Marble House and the history of some of it’s former occupants here.

After our tour, we were famished, so we stopped at a place called The Black Pearl, exclusively because it felt vaguely connected to the Pirates of the Caribbean.

I took a break from my clam chowders and lobster rolls, and instead got their steak salad, which was delicious. It was actually more steak than salad, which was kind of odd, but I accepted it.

Throughout lunch, Sarah was eyeing the toffee shop behind us, so we stopped there right after to pick up some sweet treats. They would not be the last.

10/10 toffee. Could have lost 32/32 teeth to it.

We continued walking along Bowen’s Wharf – I was on the hunt for a knit sweater that said “Newport” on it. I’m normally not a big sweatshirt souvenir person, but I’d seen these really cute knit sweaters that looked super cozy and were very adorable and not at all tacky. However, when I finally found them, they were $100. Which I was not willing to spend.

Ah, Benedict Arnold. Famous for his loyalty.

We continued cruising around town at our leisure – here are the highlights:

The International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Fun fact: I’d just finished reading Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid, one of my favorite authors. Carrie Soto is the world’s greatest tennis player, and the novel features her coming out of retirement to reclaim her world record. It was a phenomenal book that will break your heart. You’ll both hate and love Carrie Soto, but one thing’s for sure – if anyone, anyone, talks shit about Carrie in the novel, you’ll want to snap back at them.

So when we passed the International Tennis Hall of Fame, I thought for a moment that I’d really like to stop in and see their exhibit on Carrie, because they would definitely have something about her there since she’s the greatest tennis player in history. And then I realized that they would not, in fact, have an exhibit on her, because she is a fictional character of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s creation, and did not actually exist in the real world. So that’s how good at world-building Taylor Jenkins Reid is.

We also stopped at the Newport Fudgery, but despite the name, we actually bought saltwater taffy from them, which was very good. We selected banana and vanilla.

Our last stop was to get caffeinated before another mini road trip, so we popped in Kaffeology, which I would also highly recommend.

The employee working was really nice, the place was super cute, and they finally had soy milk!! I avoid dairy whenever possible due to my body hating it and me simultaneously, and the only other dairy-alternatives we’d been finding were oat milk (gag) and almond milk (I have an oral allergy to almonds), so I’d been pretty bummed. But finally, a coffee shop with soy milk! Also, the drink was incredible – she made me my favorite, a white chocolate mocha with coconut, and it was soooooo good.

Properly caffeinated, sugared up, and nourished, we hit the road again.

We spontaneously swung through Quincy, Massachusetts, as Sarah is a huge fan of the presidents, which I’ve previously mentioned. Quincy was home to John Adams and John Quincy Adams, and their home, Peace Field, still stands there.

Sadly, it was closed, so we were not able to tour the building, but it was still lovely to see.

Peace Field was certainly a fitting name for this place.

Look how idyllic this is!

I have to note that as a town, Quincy is kind of a dump. Hate to be so mean, but I wouldn’t go back. So it was kind of surprising to walk through Quincy and arrive at this absolutely gorgeous place.

It had a really lovely garden you could walk around, and cute, ivy-covered buildings.

And that was Quincy!

Shortly after, we arrived in our final city on our road trip: Boston.

Stay tuned for Bostonian adventures ahead.

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