Day Eleven

We spent our morning differently than we had planned, as we had to go wheel chair shopping for Jonathan.  When we were in Canada, we noticed that Jonathan had really slowed down with his walking and then realized he was really walking differently.  I have not blogged about it, but it is something we have been watching closely.  We immediately made him stop wearing his flip flops.  Even though they are Sperry's and have some support, (and he loves to wear them), we felt his feet and legs needed more support. We bought him a knee brace that seemed to help at first.  We opted not to take him to the doctor because there is no swelling at all and we feel that it is something a specialist is going to need to look at it.  So, we made an appointment with an orthopedic doctor for the next morning after we get back home and decided to buy a collapsible wheel chair to get us through the remainder of the trip.  

After we bought the chair, we headed on to Newport Rhode Island.  We definitely started receiving more stares than we have received before...large van, five kids, one with Down syndrome and now in a wheelchair.  It was interesting.  We took a sailboat tour of the island.  Sadly, a massive fog rolled in, so visibility was limited.  It was still fun and interesting.  The crew told us many stories about the area.  We had no idea there was so much history on those waters!  One of the homes we saw was where Jackie Kennedy grew up, as well as the home of the heir to the Campbell Soup company (according to local tales, she is harvesting seeds in case something happens to our food supply).  Have you wanted to play tennis outside in the winter but could not because it is snowing?  Well, go to Rhode Island.  One of the mansions has a grass tennis court where the grass is heated!  Seriously :).  We saw many extravagant homes.  It was beautiful, but not a place I would enjoy living.  I think we are really starting to miss home :).

Since the fog made it chilly, we stopped at Panera on our way out of town and ate soup in the car on the way to our next destination.

Jonathan's new wheels :)

I cannot even describe the deliciousness of this cupcake shop (once featured on Cupcake Wars :).  So I won't try. Just trust me.

 Eric Clapton's yacht (which we did not ride on in case you were wondering ;)