The Bayfront is tourist central for Newport. Here you’ll find restaurants, ice-cream parlors, saltwater-taffy shops, chowder houses, and souvenir stores. The Bayfront is also home to commercial fishermen, seafood processing plants, art galleries, and numerous sea lions, who love to lounge on the floating docks adjacent to Undersea Gardens (from the adjacent pier, you can observe them at fairly close range).

The Bayfront is also where you’ll find Newport’s three tourist traps: Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, The Wax Works, and Undersea Gardens, where a scuba diver feeds fish in a large tank beneath a boat moored on the Bayfront. Geared toward kids, all three of these places share the same address and phone number: Mariner Square, 250 SW Bay Blvd. (www.marinersquare.com; [tel] 541/265-2206). Admission for each is $12 for adults and $7 for children 5 to 12, or $25 for adults and $15 for children to visit all three. Enter at your own risk, and don’t come grousing to me if you’re disappointed with what you find inside.