A Day at the Beach
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We had a good drive to Newport on Monday, and spent the day at the beach yesterday. As you can see, the boys had a great time. We also made a quick stop at my Dad’s house in the morning, and had dinner with my step-father – the beer sign was at his house. (Actually he’s my ex-step-father, and he’s getting re-married in July. I realized the only way I can describe his new wife, in terms of her relationship to me, is that she’ll be the new step-mother for my half-brother. I don’t think my family could be much more complicated…)
I probably won’t post again for a couple days. We’ll spend the day in Newport today, then tonight Maria and I will drive to Boston, and leave the boys with my father. We’ll stay at my aunt’s house in Boston, then leave very early tomorrow morning for the airport, for our flight to Tokyo!
The Remains of Newport’s Gull Rocks Lighthouse
|
|
Driving across the Newport bridge yesterday, on our way back to Philly, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before – a “for sale” sign on Gull Rocks. The photos above were taken by my father’s friend Jim Nash sometime before 1961, before the lighthouse and dwelling were demolished. This is what it looks like now:
|
|
It has an interesting history:
Established in 1887 to mark the north entrance to Newport Harbor, Gull Rocks Light was a unique structure among New England lighthouses… the lighthouse was a wood A-frame dwelling with two lanterns that traveled on rails through windows at the east and west peaks of the structure. One light was fixed white, the other fixed red. A fog bell and striking apparatus were installed in 1888… Rainwater was collected from the roof into a cistern for the [lighthouse keeper's] family’s use. It was soon discovered that the large roof area meant that large amounts of sea salt was washed into the cistern, so the keepers learned, on rainy days, to divert the runoff until the salt was washed off the roof… Despite the small amount of land around the Gull Rocks Lighthouse, the keepers usually kept chickens at the station. The birds would sometimes roost on the rocks, and high tides would wash their eggs to the shores of Newport to be found by puzzled residents… keepers remained at the station until 1960 when the light was automated. The dwelling was destroyed in 1961. In November 1969, the light on the skeleton tower was discontinued, soon after the completion of the Newport Bridge had rendered the light useless.
It fascinates me that this tiny pile of rocks is for sale. Apparently it’s been for sale for a long time, and the price has been reduced (possibly more than once). I can’t imagine anything being built on it now. Since it’s on the outer edge of the harbor and it’s near the bridge, I’m sure it has a spectacular view, but it would probably cost a million dollars or more to build anything significant out there. Given how small it is and how close to sea level it is, it would probably be uninsurable, which means you couldn’t get a mortgage or construction loan for it. And there’s a risk of significant damage by major hurricanes, which find their way to Newport every 20 or 30 years (the reason why it would be uninsurable).
I’ve been trying to think of what could be done with it. Not that I plan on buying it with those extra hundreds of thousands of dollars I have lying around. It’s just so peculiar I can’t help thinking about it. The only inexpensive structure I can think of putting on it is a giant billboard. Even if it’s currently zoned to allow that, actually putting one there would be so incredibly obnoxious, I’m sure it would be quickly re-zoned to compel its removal.
If it were up to me, I’d re-create the original structure, and make it available to temporary “keepers” looking for an unusual vacation. This has been done with the Rose Island lighthouse, just on the other side of the bridge:
It’s a certain type of vacationer who enjoys mowing the lawn in an irregular formation well after dark, then eagerly rises the following morning to raise the flag at precisely 8 a.m. This on a day off.
Dave Hazelwood is that vacationer… Mr. Hazelwood is in the second day of his one-week tour of duty as cokeeper of the Rose Island Lighthouse, with his wife Mary K. Like other “keepers” tending lighthouses along both coasts and the Great Lakes between, this couple, from Hermann, Mo., were drawn to the romance and rusticity of a lighthouse vacation…
These programs, in the lighthouses that the Coast Guard began decommissioning en masse in the late ’70s, consist of “keeper for a night” stays that can stretch as long as a month. Part service, part adventure, they’re low on lazy relaxation.
Unfortunately, the Gull Rocks Lighthouse is already gone – I don’t know how one would finance bringing it back.
Any other ideas for what to do with a small collection of barren rocks out in the Newport harbor?
4 Days in Newport
 Kai on the wave statue on Thames St
|
 Eidan with his zoob creations
|
 Produce at my brother John’s farm
|
 My grandfather Steven Toppa – as always with a cigarette, a Narragansett beer, and a machine
|
If you’ve been following my Tweets so far this week, you’ve already seen several of these pictures.
My uncle Gene (husband of my father’s sister Pat) passed away the week before we arrived, so we visited with Pat and her family. Other than that, it was another whirlwind tour seeing as much of my family as possible in a short time. And they put me to work: I fixed up my mom’s dryer, my sister’s DVD player, showed my step-mother how to burn CDs, and advised my step-father on home broadband options. In return we got several wonderful meals, and the boys got lots of love (and of course, some small presents). I especially enjoyed visiting my brother John’s organic farm (he’s leasing land in Cranston). If he’s still there in a few years, we’ll send Kai out to work on the farm for part of the summer. (I had my first summer job when I was 13, doing demolition work with my friend Aaron – it’s a good age to establish a work ethic).
I had fun using Twitpic to post pictures each day. Twitpic is handy when traveling – it’s more flexible than Picasa (which is what I mainly use), since Picasa only lets you synchronize your web albums on a single computer. I’m going to look into adding Twitpic and Flickr support to my Shashin plugin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Toppa Family Reunion
|
|
|
|
|
|
More pictures in the Toppa Family Reunion album.
About 300 people came to the Toppa family reunion on Saturday. They were mostly “Newport” Toppas (descended from my great-grandfather), along with a smattering of “Middletown” Toppas (descended from his brother, my great-great uncle). The Toppa brothers came to the US in the early 1900s from Lettomanoppello, Italy. My father told me a story his father told him, that there was also a 3rd brother who went to New Jersey and killed someone there, so he went back to Italy before he got caught. I also found a mention of a sister in some documents that I have, but I don’t know where she went. Their name was actually Toppi, and it’s recorded correctly in their records from Ellis Island. But after they came to Newport the name changed to Toppa. According to another story my father heard, my great-grandfather’s last name was misspelled as Toppa on his first paycheck (he was a mason, and helped build Thames St and other roads in Newport). Rather than risk making trouble with the boss, he didn’t say anything about it, and the name stuck (that doesn’t explain his brother making the same name change though). Apparently we have distant Toppi relatives in Maine and New Jersey. My great-grandfather had 8 children and his brother had 11, getting the generational powers of multiplication off to a good start. My guess is that there are two or three times as many relatives as came to the reunion, as not all the Newport Toppas came, and only a few Middletown Toppas were there.
The reunion was held at Kempenaar’s Clambake Club – the same venue that was used for the last reunion in 1970. They provided good food and drink, a tire swing and toys for the kids, horseshoes and volleyball. I brought an 18ft wide print out of the family tree (using the smallest legible font I could) and a Many Meanings of Toppa (PDF) display. Someone put together a great video of family pictures going back 100 years, several people pinned up old pictures for everyone to see, and the Maher’s Brothers (also Toppas) band played for us. There were several relatives I never met before who did a lot of work on the family tree at geni.com, so it was fun to meet them in person and hear their stories. My favorite was a story about my great-great uncle. Apparently he was a bootlegger during Prohibition. He had an elaborately hidden room in his shop with three 2-story high stills inside. His family also had a bakery they used as a front, so they could buy yeast and hops without raising suspicions with law enforcement.
I guess I found it inspiring, because I did something I’ve never done before – I had a beer (actually two) with lunch. It was my first time drinking at noon. Plenty of others joined me, although I don’t think it was such a new experience for them… The reunion lastest about 5 hours, and a good time was had by all.
Kite Flying at Brenton Point
|
|
We spent Memorial Day weekend in Newport. Kai was excited to fly his kite, so we went to Brenton Point. It’s the most popular kite flying location on the island – it’s right where the Narragansett Bay meets the ocean, so it’s always windy. All you have to do to get a kite airborne is lift it off the ground. We also went down to the shore to climb on the rocks.
|
|
|
|
|
The boys also had a good time with their cousins. They especially enjoyed blasting each other with the amazing, fully automatic Nerf Vulcan gun – check out the video below.
|
|
|
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
The Shamrock Maria made for Kai to wear to school on St Patrick’s Day
I’m not sure what the required waiting period is on recycling blog content, but I’m going to guess it’s about 5 years. That means I can re-post this picture from 5 years ago. Maria made this paper shamrock for Kai to wear to pre-school in 2004, right after he turned 3. It’s hard to believe he’s 8 now.
Kai and I spent last weekend in Newport, for my father’s 70th birthday. While driving around on Saturday I had to dig deep into my memories of Newport’s back streets, to avoid the all-day drunken revelry that spills out onto the main streets, both preceding and following the St. Patrick’s Day parade. Kai and I barely escaped from the Dunkin’ Donuts on Broadway at 9AM, as it was already crowded with sailors looking for girls, and girls advertising themselves in outfits such as “Erin Go Braless” green t-shirts. I have to say I don’t remember girls acting like that when I was younger (and there’s no surer sign of my age than my making that statement: “Kids today! When I was a boy…”).
Anyway, we had a fun get together with the extended family for brunch to celebrate my Dad’s birthday. I’m glad we made the trip.
|
|
Newport RI, July 2008
The kids at dusk at Hazard’s Beach
There’s nothing like the dead of winter for looking at summer photos. Since Maria wasn’t teaching last summer, and I was working for myself, we were able to spend a few weeks in Newport. Below are some highlights (if you want more, you can see all the Newport photos I uploaded for 2008). I was actually doing quite a bit of work while I was there: trying to drum up some retail distributors for the candy business (with no luck), selling candies at the Black Ships Festival (it was a good venue since we were selling Japanese candies), and doing web site work for two clients. Newport in July is a much more pleasant place to be than Philadelphia, and the boys always have a great time with their cousins, so it was a really nice trip.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Christmas in Newport and Philadelphia
 Our pathetic Christmas tree
|
 Ice in our backyard, a few days before Christmas
|
 Closeup of the ice that coated everything
|
 Eidan in his Iron Man costume
|
 Kai on Christmas Eve
|
 Mike and Eidan at Terry’s house on Christmas Eve
|
 The next generation, at their finest
|
 Eidan and Kai wrestling with Uncle Paul
|
 Eidan passed out on a chair after all the Christmas excitement
|
Christmas started early for the boys, as they opened their presents on the Sunday before Christmas. Our decorations were even more pathetic than usual this year. Maria is always overwhelmed with grading work for all her students at the end of the semester, and I was preoccupied with the repair work in the wake of our plumbing disaster. But of course the boys still made out like bandits.
They got their presents early from us because a few days later, we went to Newport to spend Christmas with my family. Holiday trips to Newport are always a whirlwind experience for us, as I have a ridiculous number of relatives to visit in such a short time. It’s complicated – I’ve got half-siblings, steps, ex-steps – but to me they’re all simply family (and the boys may not have figured out exactly who everyone is yet, but they do know that they get plenty of presents). The standing joke in the family is that my half-brother and half-sister – who are not related to each other in any way – should get married, so that we can all become each others in-laws too. It would be like that old song, I’m My Own Grandpa.
Summer Beach Pics From Newport
My sister’s boyfriend Paul with Eidan
In honor of yesterday’s unexpected early winter snowfall here in Philly, I decided it’s finally time to post pictures from our trip to Newport this summer. The first couple of pictures below are from a performance of the Navy Show Band at the Newport Art Museum. The Museum hosts a summer evening picnic series of musical performances. The tourists come for the Jazz and Folk Festivals, and the locals go to the Art Museum shows. The rest of the pictures are from Hazard’s Beach, where the boys spent most of their days during our week and half stay in August. My sister was visiting at the same time, so her kids – Matthew and Alex – are in some of the pictures. They live in Texas, so it’s nice for the kids to have a chance to get together in Newport. I spent my childhood summers at Hazard’s, so I think it’s great the boys get to spend some time there too.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lew’s Wedding
The bride and groom (Lew and Cheryl), Lew’s siblings, and their families (minus my family, and one sister and her family)
My trip to Newport last weekend was a feverish whirlwind. Feverish because I had a cold, and a whirlwind because I covered a lot of ground in the 36 hours I was there. I arrived Saturday evening, just in time for a night-before-the-wedding party. It was at the Newport Yacht Club – I hadn’t been in there in almost 25 years, and was amazed to see that it had hardly changed at all. And they still have their bizarre ritual of shooting off a miniature – but extraordinarily loud – cannon when they lower the flag at sunset. My step-brother Lew has been living in LA for at least 10 years now, and we’ve seen each other only a handful of times since he moved there. So the party was my first opportunity to get to know some of his friends and bride to be. I had a cold and wasn’t feeling well, but I looked good, which is all that really matters 
(Maria had a nice suit made for me when she was in Vietnam).
On Sunday I still wasn’t feeling great, but I drove up to Boston with my nephew Alexander, brother John, and his girlfriend Miss to visit my grandfather. He’ll turn 94 next month. His health is not good these days, so I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to see him. It was a good visit, but unfortunately the trip there took almost 3 hours in each direction because of horrific traffic (it usually takes less than 2). So I made it back to Newport feeling worn out, and just in time for the start of the wedding at 6pm.
The wedding ceremony was held in the sand at 1st beach (aka Easton’s Beach). It was nicely done, with a great mix of traditions – Lew and Cheryl had a Scottish bagpiper, a friend read an Irish poem, and Lew broke a glass underfoot after the ceremony was complete, which is a Jewish tradition. My step-nephew (if there is such a term) was the ringbearer, and I had one piece of advise for him: don’t drop the ring in the sand!
The reception was also at the beach, in the Rotunda. We also had use of the carousel, which my sister was excited about – I think she rode it half a dozen times.
Then I was back on a plane early Monday morning, and after arriving in Philly, took the train straight to work, to start my first full-time day since I came back from Japan (I had been working part-time while I had the boys and Maria was still in Japan). I enjoyed seeing everyone and was very glad to be there for the wedding – I just wish I had been feeling better.
|
|
|
|
You are currently browsing the archives for the Trips to Newport, RI category.
-
Mike's Tweets
- I've never heard of this band, but they have an original and good interpretation of a certain favorite song of mine: http://bit.ly/cjNmfP 2010-07-16
- The real reason we went to Tokyo: Ultraman, Gundam, and Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers) http://twitpic.com/242jvh 2010-07-10
- Read "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea" on the flight home. Amazing and terrifying. Here's a good review: http://bit.ly/cBjujO 2010-07-10
- Back on the east coast after a long but not too horrible flight. Just uploaded more Tokyo pictures http://bit.ly/9EkFMA 2010-07-10
- Last meal in Tokyo :-( some delicious ramen http://twitpic.com/23hhq9 2010-07-08
- More updates...
-
Random Pictures
The Com Pho (コム フォー) restaurant in the Marunouchi OAZO Shopping Center, near Tokyo station
So many fans are dressed up, it's hard to tell the stadium from the team locker room -
Flotsam
-
Random Posts
- 15 Nov 09 - Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-15
- 21 Sep 04 - Defending My Kerry Prediction
- 06 Apr 05 - A Reckless Political Stunt
- 19 Jul 09 - Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-07-19
- 06 Dec 04 - Amazing Cassini Photograph
