Each year, we try to spend New Year's Eve on the water. We've celebrated the New Year on the New Jersey shore, Sanibel, Ft. Myers, Greenport (several times) and Block Island to name a few. This year, we wanted to try Newport and since we decided somewhat late, we didn't have a lot of choices as to where we'd stay. The Newport Harbor Hotel & Marina had an opening and we took it at $125 per night plus an additional $60 for a harbor view. A little pricey but this is Newport where everything is expensive.
The views of the harbor at sunset were worth it for us.
We were amazed at how casually some of the boats were prepared for in-water storage. One large yacht, directly below our balcony, still had its wicker deck furniture out. We guess if you can own a boat like that, you can buy new deck furniture each spring.
As it got darker, we could see that some of the boats were still decorated with Christmas lights. A nice touch for a New Year's Eve.
Frances prepared a picnic basket for us to make sure that cocktail hour was properly observed. You can always count on the Commodore to remember everything!
Dinner was at the Black Pearl, a place we have been several times before over the years. For New Year's it was noisy and crowded but the food and service were really quite good. Call dinner for two with one drink each, $150. Good we don't do this every weekend.
The wind was blowing off the harbor when we walked back the two blocks to the hotel and it was cold and damp. Younger folks may have wanted to party. We thought it better to relax.
We slept in on New Years day and while I tried to take my traditional morning walk (a little cold to look at too many boats), Frances moved around our room in a nice robe that would have been even better if we could have taken it with us.
As a side note, you should know that our room was equipped with a Keurig coffee maker. It made some of the worst coffee known to man. If you happen to encounter one, make a whole bunch and bring it home to use as bottom paint.
The view from our room was just excellent that morning. We would loved to have been able to poke around the boats but, quite reasonably, those docks aren't open to the public.
We had breakfast in the hotel, which was great. We noticed at least one Marina group dining near us. Nice to know that boaters like us still get together in the middle of the winter.
After checking out, we walked down to the Armory antique co-op. Frances made one purchase and passed on a drop-leaf table that she really wanted but decided to "think about." Who knows? Maybe we'll be heading back to Newport with our station wagon to get that table some time soon.
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