Newport Rhode Island
Travel in itself is educational, fun, and relaxing. But one of the very best things about travel is the people you meet, the rejuvenation of a belief that there are great, thoughtful, kind and interesting people everywhere, you just have to have to chat with them for a few minutes to learn.
So, in a series of articles over the next few days, I’ll tell you about the incredibly wonderful Admiral Fitzroy Inn in Newport, Rhode Island, the thrill of being behind the wheel on an 80 foot schooner, the Aquidneck, the stories behind St. Mary’s Catholic Church which is on the National Register and where the Kennedy’s were married, the great shops along the many wharves at Newport, and even the Newport Yacht Club. But first I’d like you to meet some of the great people I spent some time with over three days on being in Newport.
It actually started on Amtrak, leaving Metropark for the four hour trip to Newport through New York, some beautiful and colorful leaf peeping hours in Connecticut and detraining at Kingston, the nearest rail station to Newport, about 40 minutes away by car. Well, to back up, it really started at my door in Atlantic Highlands where Maura, a great Monmouth County driver who will take you anywhere at anytime, picked me up at precisely the right time, then filled the half hour drive to Metropark with great stories, great personality and lots of laughs. Nice to have such a dependable and inexpensive driver, and even better knowing she’d be right there at Amtrak to bring me back home three nights later.
My seatmate on Amtrak’s #172 was Heidi, a paralegal heading to Boston who had spent ten weeks in London with her boss representing a firm in an international lawsuit involving windmills. We have great conversations on the benefits of windmills…there are plenty… their benefits in the ocean… can’t think of a single one… why arbitration and mediation are necessary and helpful to all, why school districts should regionalize as soon as they can for so many reasons, and a few lighter topics.
Once in the Kingston station, just a few minutes later than scheduled, I stopped to see if I could help another passenger who looked like she was seeking someone or something. “A man named Steve,” she said, as we both walked away from the train. I spotted a tall man who also looked like he was looking for someone, got and affirmative when I asked if he was Steve and waited while the lady, Elaine, made the connection.
It seems Elaine is a corporate attorney in New York and every month or so, takes a mini vacation on her own. Brilliant, attentive to detail, and fun loving, Elaine researched her entire week away, then through her hotel in Newport, found a driver who would spend the week meeting her schedule of picking her up and transporting her to her various sites and activities she had planned for her week. When Elaine learned I was heading to Newport and did not have a driver, she invited me to go along and said Steve would drop me off at my hotel after taking her to her first event scheduled for only minutes later. Enroute for the drive, we both learned Steve was an exceptional driver, a great source of information about Newport and the surrounding area, and with an interesting life history on his own. Declining to let me split the cost of the drive with her, Elaine suggested I give Steve $12 for the extra way he was taking me to my hotel after leaving her off at The Elms, one of Newport’s mansions, for her first conference. Before I got out at the Admiral Fitzroy B&B, I made arrangements with Steve to pick me up three days later for my trip back to Kingston and my return train.
Not as organized or well planned as Elaine, I was fortunate to have encountered both Elaine and Steve.
It kept getting better when I went into the Admiral Fitzroy and met the receptionist on duty, Sharon. More friendliness, an invitation to try some freshly baked chocolate chip cookies under glass on the desk, and conversation. When I learned she was a retired Chief in the Navy, she was no longer Sharon the friendly and efficient receptionist, but Chief, the friendly and perfectly efficient Navy Chief who had been stationed at Navel Weapons Station Earle and knew its Leonardo pier. We shared stories about the Colts Neck side of the base as well as the fact the nation’s newest submarine, the New Jersey, will be commissioned at Leonardo next April.
There are so many more stories about the great people I met; the wonderful woman from Oregon who was out walking her dog later in the evening and stopped to give me directions when I looked like I was lost. She then walked me back to the Inn and even invited me to join her at a music event she was attending as soon as she brought the dog home. There was Noah, the Salve Regina College student who was on his third shift working as a waiter at Red Parrot and deftly handling seven busy tables at this great restaurant. Noah made me laugh when the steak I ordered for dinner arrived in scant minutes in spite of the crowded eatery. “Well, you ordered it very rare,” he smiled, “so it didn’t take long.” There was every employee at the Admiral Fitzroy, from the cook at the breakfast room to Jen the manager, the captain and crew of the schooner Aquidneck, the storekeepers in gift and souvenir shops that sell everything from little flower pots inscribed with “A little pot from Newport,” …cannabis is allowed in Rhode Island….. to rare paintings and magnificent glassware and so many more.
There were the great folks at Beau Tyler, a shop at 400 Thames st. that advertises “style for good-hearted people and good-hearted pets” and sells all manner of people clothing for dog lovers. Their motto is Laugh. Love. Lick. While they don’t have any dog food or dog accessories in this fashion, shop, they do have stickers and magnets for people that say “As a matter of fact, I do have to pet every dog I see”. And they have dog biscuits to give out as treats for every pet that accompanies anyone coming into the store! They even give them away so customers can pet and treat a passing dog on the sidewalk when they leave!
But the most touching, the most thoughtful, the most generous of all I met was Dawn, like Chief, another friendly receptionist at the Admiral Fitzroy, who made me realize while you know your folks at home are thoughtful, fun, and considerate, there are people like Dawn at the Admiral Fitzroy Inn in Newport who can make you love, appreciate, and remember a town and its people forever.
