The second half of Christopher’s work trip was in Providence, RI. A place neither of us had been, and the 24th state we’ve traveled to together, add in a little side trip to Massachusetts and now we’ve traveled to 25 states, plus Washington D.C. But back to our adventures.

Sunday - Providence + Plymouth, MA

Because Chris is a fancy Marriott Platinum Elite member we get to use the club lounges when we stay at hotels that have them. This hotel has an M Club Lounge that is open 24 hours, has a really nice breakfast buffet in the mornings, evening appetizers and desserts, and all day grab and go snacks and drinks. I love fancy lounge life, so this is going to be a good week.

For brunch we got bagels from Providence Bagel. Everything toasted with plain cream cheese and coffee for both of us, as usual. Then we dropped off our laundry at Friendly laundry, and picked up a walmart pick up order. Yano, grown up shit.

We went to see the Rhode Island State House. It’s such a beautiful building. And drove around downtown a little bit.

Next, we visited Old Slater Mill National Historic Landmark in Pawtucket, RI on the Blackstone River. The visitor center was closed for Winter, but we were still able to walk around and see the outside of the buildings and the river. 

We decided to drive up to MA and had dinner at Miller’s Famous Sandwiches on the way. We both had roast beef sandwiches with crinkle cut fries. The meat was so soft and good. But later we both had some stomach issues, so while I can’t say it was for sure these sandwiches, it was the last thing we ate before feeling gross. 

We visited Plymouth Rock!!! We got there like 10 minutes after sunset, which was kind of disappointing, but it was still cool to see it. Some of my ancestors came over on the Mayflower, so this was a fun piece of American and family history. 

We spent a bit driving around Plymouth looking for statues and plaques and admiring the old buildings. We saw the National Monument to the Forefathers, the 9-11 Memorial, and the Massasoit Statue. It was dark so we didn’t get pictures of everything. I wish we had decided to head up there earlier in the day, but oh well, at least we got to see it, even if it was in the dark. 

Monday - Providence 

The traveling was starting to wear on us at this point, so we slept in, got hot chocolate and coffee from the M Club Lounge in the hotel and took it slow in the morning. 

We got brunch from Seven Stars Bakery. We had some pastries and coffee, saw a ton of doggies, and people watched. It was lovely. We had: 

• Everything croissant 

• Sausage and caramelized onion quiche

• Chocolate croissant 

• Latte

• Double espresso 

We picked up our clean laundry from Friendly laundry. I am so grateful for drop off laundry services when we are traveling. There was no way we could pack for 16 days in one suitcase each without needing to do laundry, so finding this place that was able to wash our clothes in 24 hours with unscented soap and for less than $1 a pound, was such a big help.

Before heading out to dinner, we had a few evening snacks from the lounge, bacon wrapped asparagus, chips and salsa, and a chocolate & blackberry macaron. 

For dinner we went to The Big Cheese & Pub for a pizza. We got the classic pizza with pepperoni and green pepper, and an order of mozzarella bread. The mozzarella bread was like a super full cheese stromboli cut into slices, YUM. The pizza had a little bit of a pan pizza crust situation, which was like having breadstick crust and I loved it. It probably wasn’t my very favorite pizza, but it was definitely good and I’d go back again if we came back to town. 

Providence has a Trader Joe’s, so of course I needed to take a lap for comfort. I got myself a little bouquet of flowers for the hotel room, a couple of sumos, and a box of their new PB & C Duo Snack (chocolate wafer sticks to dip in peanut butter). Plus, I got a Rhode Island reusable bag to add to my collection. 

We stopped by the lounge for hot chocolate before heading up to the room for the night. 

Tuesday - Providence

We had breakfast in the lounge and I got a few snacks to bring back to the room for lunch. I should have brought a bigger purse for my buffet/lounge snacks hoarding. 

The office Chris is working in this week ordered pizza for everyone for lunch, so I had my collection of snacks I brought back from breakfast: banana, pretzels, and yogurt, plus the peanut butter I got last week to snack on. 

After Chris was done working, we had a few snacks in the lounge before deciding on what to eat for dinner. Tonight, I had a mozzarella stick, cheese, and some chips with onion dip. Forgot to take a picture though.

For dinner we headed to Den Den Cafe Asiana. Chris had the Den Den Hot Stone Bibimbap (bedding of rice/sautéed vegetables in a hot stone pot served with traditional spicy sauce or citrus garlic soy sauce) and I had the Den Den Hot Pot Bulgogi Beef (soy marinated Korean thin sliced beef with sweet potato noodles and vegetables served in a hot pot). We shared a pot of black tea, and y’all, it was all so good. This is my favorite thing we’ve had here so far. The broth in my hot pot was like the most delicious oniony, beefy, noodly, tastiness. If we lived here, this would be a regular place for us.

That’s all for part one, check back for part 2 later this week.