MORE MANSIONS

More excess, but beautiful.

The streets in Newport were very narrow, but the town was cute and plenty of shops of every kind.

This mansion is called the Elms.

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND

These are the mansions of the Vanderbuilts, J P Morgans, and a bunch of other hottie totties that we can't even remember now. Wow!!! Talk about lavish and a total waste of money. The girls had to change clothes 6 times a day and it was party, party.

Oops, another favorite picture with madelyn on the Mayflower Beach

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This is a secret public beach called Mayflower. It is high tide so we had a hard time finding the star fish and sand dollars that we were promised. We did find a zillion little clam shells though.

Your precious parents with sandy shoes.

Look at that cute Maddie. Jay & Sheena are great parents and you can tell because Madelyn is quite a free spirit.

Natalie and Kevin taking it all in.

Now this looks like the the perfect east coast sea scape.

MARTHA'S VINEYARD

Look at these cute houses

Poor little Maddie had to get her nap in. She was a delight the whole trip. I just wish I had some pictures of her swimming at the condos. The house to the right was huge and amazing. There were rows and rows of fabulous cottages.

There were hotels with boating facilities and for a giant fee, we could have had a riot.

No, this cottage isn't a Kincaid painting. This is a real home on the island.


This young man was my personal "Wiggins". "Yes, Mame", "How, may I be of service to you, Mame". He made me laugh so hard!

This is Martha's Vineyard. We took a ferry over to the island and it was the most quaint little village ever! It was a little over-cast, but that didn't slow us down. Natalie & Kevin rented a scooter and we didn't see them until lunch time. The little homes looked like doll houses only 3 times bigger. Lots of fancy wood work on them.

CAPE COD VACATION

Notice the thatched roofs. Most of the Pilgrims came from the city so they didn't know how to garden much. Each home had a "kitchen garden" with herbs, lentils and corn.

This is Natalie & Kevin under the "native people" shade covering. The grandma was the teacher & babysitter of the tribe. She could tell by the way the girls decorated their dolls if they were growing up normally. She also put your bag of stuff outside the dwelling if you weren't carrying your weight in the group. That meant you must move away and try to live with another tribe.

These Indian dwellings were very interesting. When completed they were covered in bark. All families shared one together.

The Pilgrims always had food cooking so that we could eat anytime. It was easier to maintain the fire then to start a new one.

We just got home from a wonderful time in Cape Cod, MA. Our accommodations were modest so there aren't any pictures of it, but it was clean. Sunday we enjoyed going to Plymouth. We visited a pilgrim settlement and also the Wompano Indian village. The reenactment was great and we learned alot about each culture.

GARDENING GURU

Well, this is my first garden. I am trying the Mittleider method of raised beds. Dad made me some posts, so that the vegetables can grow up the string. I saw a picture of watermelon and cantaloupe hanging like apples. So far the plants are doing well. I drilled three tiny holes to make a sprinkler from the white PVC pipe and it only takes about 5 minutes to have 2 inches of water in the moat. The posts have to be tarred and buried about 15 inches, so I'm waiting for a big strong handyman to do that. I've planted tomatoes, squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries, and basil. The ground is so hard that a rototiller couldn't even give me an inch of soil, so I'm growing in peat moss perlite and the soil that came with the plant. Wish me luck. I'll keep you posted on it's progress.

MORE YARD PICS