Newport Tour

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[Kyle]We were deliberately visiting Newport to meet up with fellow Gemini owners (Walt and Carolyn). We spent a lazy morning relaxing on the boat, and met Walt and Carolyn mid-afternoon. They took us on a drive along the scenic Ocean View Drive; passing ever and ever larger mansions along the way, with increasingly beautiful scenery. What impressed me so much was not the hugeness and decadence of the mansions as the absolutely beautiful settings they were in. Many of the estates had giant rocky areas and rugged ocean views. And also what was impressive was the density of these castle-like estates in such an enormously beautiful setting. From there we headed into the main town, Newport reminded me of a cross between Sausalito and Annapolis – boat stuff everywhere, beautiful little storefronts and narrow, walk-able streets.

We were headed for a tour of their beautiful Gemini La Dolce Vita; Walt is irrepressible tinkerer who has engineered many modifications to his boat – we were impressed! We spent quite a while pouring over charts and gleaning a lot of Walt and Carolyn’s knowledge in preparation for the next part of our trip, and eventual return south.

It turned out Walt had seen us arrive the previous day, and had taken pictures of us – our first pictures of Footprint under sail (see above). We continued the evening together in local boat stores and ended the evening in a beautiful Newport restaurant – Canfield House, previously a casino for the rich, was stunning and had great food – where we continued to discuss boats, Geminis, and the various local cruising sites – we learned SO Much. Thanks Walt and Carolyn for a lovely evening, and of course, our first picture of Footprint under sail.