Ye Mariners All

I definitely wanted to do some kind of harbor cruise while we were in Newport. There were several boating possibilities we could go for. There were some double-decker water taxi type of boats. Fine, but seemed too touristy, like a sight-seeing bus in New York City (no offense to tourists or busses or NYC). They had a couple of boozy cruises focusing mostly on rum, not my favorite spirit. Then I caught wind (sorry) of a sail boat outing. Sold!

We went with Classic Cruises of Newport which offers two different vessels, the Rum Runner (the afore mentioned booze cruise) and the classic schooner the Madeleine. We of course choose the schooner. At thirty dollars per person, the cost was pretty reasonable for a ninety minute cruise.

 

This boat was no joke. It’s a real sailing vessel with lots of opportunities to get clobbered by a mast or to slide off the deck into the icy peril of the Atlantic ocean.

After we got a very brief schpeel about where not to stand or walk (practically everywhere)  we set sail.

This is one of those situations where you take it for granted that the people in charge know what they’re doing. There was a three person crew who were quite competent by all means, but once you set sail and the boat starts tipping waaaay over and your digging your nails into the box you’re perched upon, you start ask yourself some questions like: “Should I have called the better business bureau to see if, you know, everyone manages to come back from one of these cruises?” and “How can these three “kids” running this vessel have years and years of nauticle experience?” Seriously, the wind breaker I was wearing was older than these skippers!

The pictures I took can’t portray the degree of the angle at which we were tilted. Below is a shot of another schooner in action.

My paranoia was unfounded. The crew was both professional and friendly. There was one gentleman that stayed at the helm while the two others milled around with the guests sharing  informative bits of history and trivia. It was a nice mix of chatting and just letting us enjoy the cruise.

 

We were also supplied with complimentary drinks (water and juice, no scotch) and blankets. Inevitably half the guests are going to be dressed too lightly for the open waters. Good on them for keeping us comfy. As we neared the end of the trip, the skies turn a bit angry and the crew had ponchos at the ready in case of a deluge. We throughly enjoyed this experience. They offer a sunset cruise as well, but it wasn’t quite warm enough in my book. Worth coming back for, though!

We arrived safely on terra-firma and decided to head back to the room and freshen up before dinner. I mentioned in our first installment that I was hoping for a little special treatment from the Hotel for our anniversary. Lo and behold there was a knock at the door and these arrived:

But, here’s the terribly sad part. They came with a lovely card, which I promptly opened and glanced over. What I saw was “Thank you for choosing Hotel Viking… blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…. close card. What it actually said was there was a complimentary bottle of wine waiting for us at their award winning restaurant down stairs. I didn’t even notice until I was looking at my pictures Nooooooo!!!!!! This seemed all the more tragic after we had a not-so stellar, extremely expensive meal back on the wharf. More on that later.

We weren’t quite hungry enough for dinner so we pushed back our reservation and wandered around the shops around town. We heard some live music which was unexpected on a Sunday afternoon, so we popped in to check it out.

The place was pretty empty. Just being across the street from the waterfront is a detriment in an ocean town. The bars on the wharf were hoppin’. Plus this place was a little run down.

The couple of folks that were there we’re diggin’ it though. I love watching people dance.  Good dancers amaze and bad dancers amuse! You can decide from these action shots which these were. I’m not telling.

 

We headed back down to the wharf to catch the sunset and nose around a bit.

 

 

This bike was parked at the back door of one of the restaurants. I had to stop and see what book would be so important as to need to tie it onto the  back of a motorcycle.

It’s a classic french cook book called La Repetoire de la Cuisine!  I found this scenario quite charming for some reason.

 

I then proceeded to take a jillion pictures of the gorgeous sunset and us in front of it. I’ll only subject you to a few of the sunset and just one selfie. They did come out good.

 

 

 

Our reservations at the Clarke Cook House were for about 8:30. I’d found this place recommended on a must-do website. Let me say right off the bat that there was really nothing terribly wrong with it, it just wasn’t as special as I would have liked for our Anniversary dinner.  I had considered dining at One Bellevue right at the hotel, which has stellar reviews (and free wine. Ugh!) but I wanted to eat by the ocean and enjoy the waterfront area as much as possible.

The restaurant was divided into different areas. The dining room we were seated in is called the Candy Store. I assumed because of the brightly colored directors chairs (super uncomfortable by the way) but as I looked back at their website, I noticed the chairs used to be of a lovely wicker variety that looked much nicer.

Because I, ahem,  mentioned that it was our anniversary they seated us at a table right by the water.

It was a little chilly that night, so the plastic windows were rolled down. My pictures of the sunset got more and more horrible as the sun went down. By the way, I just learned how to make photo galleries, if you haven’t noticed.

We started with a celebratory Manhattan and were served some pretty tasty bread.

The menu has a very dated feel and was VERY expensive. I don’t mind laying out cash for fine dining, but this was pretty simple stuff. It felt like a tourist trap.  We decided to start with some oysters and share a steak.

The presentation of the oysters was so 1980’s, they practically had shoulder pads. Again, nothing wrong with them,  just nothing special. The steak was well prepared and tasty. Strangely it came with both roasted and puréed potatoes. We thought they might be parsnips and asked the server but she didn’t even know. We didn’t inquire further. All in all fine, but this entree was nearly FIFTY dollars. That’s U.S. currency not Zimbabwean dollars. I go Disney World every year, so I’m used to getting taken, but I’ve never paid this much for one entree even in the swishiest place on property.

I think I would have felt slightly differently about our dinner if it weren’t such a special occasion, but even still it was way too pricey for the atmosphere and quality.  Plus, I just  felt I let us down by not doing more due diligence. After I saw the gorgeously appointed dining room and exquisite menu (which had no entree over $39.00) at One Bellevue, I was all the more disappointed.  Guess we’ll just have to go back soon and get our free wine.

We ended the evening at the bar in the hotel. They had a formidable scotch selection. We chose a Talisker 10 year old.

We had a lovely conversation with the bartender and happened to mention that it was our anniversary. Then she broke out a bottle of Talisker 25 year old scotch. Oh boy! We each got a mouthful of this absolutely heavenly spirit. Honestly this eyedropper full of scotch was probably worth more than the house wine we would have received. Once again, a good scotch rescues the evening!

Up Next: Checking out how the original one percenters lived.