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Monday, August 15, 2022

a trip to Newport, Rhode Island- the Audrain Museum and Tennis Hall of Fame

 This past Saturday my brother and I set out on our first trip since the trip to South Dakota back in May, it took me that long to recuperate. My brother had never been to Rhode Island, where I had, we had wanted to get there and explore a little bit and we finally did. It was a lot of fun! I took almost 1900 pictures but I won't post them all here...but I will give a short recap of the day with the links to my photo albums. 

We went to two different islands in Narragansett Bay
you could see the ocean from the bridges
the bridges were humped which wasn't too nice
but the water was nice to see. We got stuck on the bridge because of construction
Newport is cramped but has the old New England charm.
And some truly beautiful homes!
A cobblestone street which shows wear from use. Newport was founded in 1639, I wonder how long that's been there?
An El Camino crossed the street while we were at a light, so the day was pretty much perfect already because any day I see one is a good day.
This is the Audrain Museum, the building itself was very nice. The current theme was 50s cars, which is my favorite era, so I really enjoyed it. However, the cars in the museum range from 1948 (the Hudson) to 1970 (the Superbird)
Hudson
Packard
Chrysler
Also a Chrysler
Buick made to look like a boat
Oldsmobile
Thunderbird

I really like the way this photo came out
Chevrolet
Superbird
DeSoto
Cadillac
Lincoln
Imperial
Edsel. This is a panorama shot that I didn't know if it would work or not. It did!
Literally three doors down from the Audrain is the International Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum, so we decided to go there as well. That wasn't planned...it was just a "it's right here so let's do it" thing. 

The building itself, the Newport Casino, was very cool. It dates to 1880 and was originally a social club, not a gambling casino.





They have several Tennis Courts and even hold a tournament every July. The first US Open was held here.
The next batch of photos are all the inductees to the Tennis Hall of Fame. I actually knew more names than I expected to...I don't watch tennis all that often, so that was actually a surprise to me. I did enjoy playing tennis back when I was healthy enough to do that sort of thing, but that was a long time ago. 






































now we move on to the artifacts, of which there were a lot.




They had quite a few cards in the display as well! All of the cards are shown in the post.


1932 Olympic medal

This was my favorite artifact in the museum, two frogs playing tennis
racquet making equipment













I liked the poodle dress with little poodles on them






Quite rare to see one of the albums issued with cards.

This is what one of the rooms looked like when the Casino was a social club


that trophy can also be used as a weapon I suspect!

a hologram video of Roger Federer was pretty cool


a VERY large tennis ball

That tiny trophy is actually kind of insulting. You could fit it into your pocket to carry it home. 
1936 Dodge ad themed around tennis
Tennis ball canister collection. I'm pretty sure mine from the 1990s is still somewhere in storage, probably never to be seen again.














we saw an airplane pulling a banner for a local car dealer, which was pretty cool

We had to kill about a half hour before I could eat so we walked around town a little bit
The restaurant had some old pictures in it
This is where we ate. It was REALLY good! The mashed potatoes are worth the 3 and a half hour plus trip just in and of themselves. Some of the best I've ever had. It has been open since 1880, making it the oldest business I've ever been in/to. the temperature was so nice we ate outside. 
this is the church John and Jackie Kennedy got married in
lol
A lighthouse in the Bay
Sun setting over the Hudson Valley, on the way back home. 

While neither place had traditional cards, the Tennis Hall of Fame did have some post cards that I got...




This lenticular one shows a view of the building from 1880 and today

I believe the 3rd from the right table/green umbrella is where my brother and I had dinner.
The tennis themed Stained glass window hangs in the main hallway, and was originally from the Adirondacks, and dates to the early 1800s.
And at the Audrain Museum I got this squishy car



It was a really great day! There's more there to see so we will be going back there again...and I need more of those mashed potatoes. 

Audrain Automobile Museum

Thanks for reading!

 

12 comments:

  1. I was today years old when I found out that there's a tennis HOF. What'll they think of next? :)

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    1. The funny thing is that it's not even the only sport that has it's museum in Newport!

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  2. I love Newport. My wife and I took our first vacation there.

    I didn't know that there were albums for cigarette cards. I wonder how common that was.

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    1. I believe it, it's a nice place. I want to explore more. The albums were very common back in the day but are very rare now. This was I believe the first I've seen in person.

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  3. Billy, I always enjoy your travel posts, especially when they include cars. The photos from the Audrain Museum are absolutely spectacular. I was most taken by the Hudson, an uncle of mine had one back when they were daily drivers, it was no where near as nice. As a kid I was a car kid and love to look back at these 50’s cars. Thanks for sharing. Tom

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    1. I'm glad you you enjoyed, Tom! I've been a big fan of Hudsons from that era since I learned about them in the 1990s, first learning about them via NASCAR, and I enjoy them every time I see them. This one was particularly nice.

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  4. Very cool! Thanks for all the pictures...I wonder why there are so many gaps in in the Hall of Fame wall.

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  5. I'm not a tennis guy but would love the history. Hall of Fames are great. Me and pop love old cars too so we'd really enjoy that. Great photos and post.

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