Newport

Pablo attended three months of Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island -- our first real separation. He actually got the call from the Navy just a few hours after Rosa was born. Being apart was agonizing, but also a good "test run" for me of what life will be like while he's on deployments. He excelled at OCS, which was no surprise to me! The littles and I flew up to Newport for his graduation, and it was such a delight to re-visit the Northeast (though it couldn't hold a candle to the excitement of seeing Pablo again!).

My dad had six weeks of training in Newport when I was six years old, so I have distant but fond memories. I couldn't go back without visiting the Breakers!

Luckily for me, Newport overflows with Colonial and Gilded Age history -- which happen to be my two favorite America historical periods. Walking streets once paced by founding fathers is an experience that those of us confined to the South are unfamiliar with.

While the beauty of The Breakers was overwhelming, both Pablo and I found it rather excessive and gaudy -- we much preferred the "downstairs" kitchen and butler's pantry.

Here's a gratuitous shot of my handsome Ensign (with six week of growth on his noggin; candidates' heads are kept closely buzzed for the first seven weeks). Obviously, it's taken me a while to post these, as I doubt it's snowed in Newport recently. I couldn't believe that I got exactly what I wanted in terms of weather -- several inches of snow fell while we were there, but none of it stayed on the roads! Snowy roads sound terrifying to me...

I just couldn't go to Newport without getting lobster, which I'd been craving for a while. His name is Ralph, by the way. Please don't ask my why I named him before consuming him...

Sadly, we didn't get to do much sightseeing, since we were all exhausted (especially Pablo) and the wind was insane almost the entire time. But we did have a walk-about or two, and did a bit of driving. Here's the famed Trinity church:

Newport took my breath away with street after street of gorgeous homes -- tree-lined avenues in the "mansion district", endless streets of Victorians and Queen Annes, and stately rows of Colonial dames. I'd love to go back with more time and more energy.

 I'm always glad for an excuse to do a bit of globe-trotting! And now that we're in the Navy, I'm going to venture a guess that there's quite a bit more of it in our future.