A few Photos from Newport Cliff Walk

Over this past week, Andre & I have been enjoying hitting some of our old favorite New England spots and appreciating not only the beauty of the area but the great people as well. As much as we love to travel, we also feel most at "home" with the folks from Rhode Island and Massachusetts in ways that are not always easy to define.

Clearly people here "get" our accent. They all firmly believe that the New England Patriots rule the universe and that nothing can "deflate" their support for Tom Brady. They are generally fans of logic, knowledge, reason and progressive ideas (accept the radical idea of leaving Rhode Island, of course).

They are hearty people, in the way that cold climate folks are. People who stick together in rough times and who commiserate in common through long, difficult winters like the one that just passed. As a rule, they have a strong sense of justice, a solid core of decency, and, like people everywhere, occasionally can't see the forest for the trees and act like a bunch of  knuckleheads.

New England (and New Englander's) aren't perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. But their imperfections are our imperfections. And we appreciate that when we are home.

That said, we are already getting a bit antsy to start traveling again! We are excited about hitting the road again, traveling through the new-to-us states of Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Montana and Idaho. We are really looking forward to the adventure of working in Yellowstone for the summer and once more immersing ourselves in a National Park environment.  Once we get to these new and exciting places, you'll be getting lots more photos and daily posts.

For now, here are a few photos from our visit to Newport, Rhode Island last weekend. The clouds and light rain did not prevent us from enjoying a long hike on Newport's famous "Cliff Walk".