Welcome back for part 2 of our visit to Rhode Island. If you didn’t already read part 1, you can find it here.

Wednesday - Providence

We had breakfast in the lounge again today. I had oatmeal with so many toppings. I added brown sugar, cinnamon, dried apples, almonds, granola, craisins, and raisins. 

For lunch we went to a cute cafe, Ellie’s. I had a roast beef sandwich with boursin, watercress, and red onion marmalade on a baguette with fries and Chris had a Fig & Bleu Burger, blue cheese, fig jam, and arugula on a brioche bun. We sat at a communal table, and ended up chatting with a mother and son who own a newspaper. They shared stories about some of the journalists they have worked with, stories they have covered, and of course we talked shit about Florida politics. Their love of Providence was obvious. Like they might as well head up the Chamber of Commerce Marketing Department, because I’d think about moving there just based on that conversation. It was fun to meet and chat with some locals. 

After Chris was done working, we drove down to Newport to check out the mansions. A lot of the mansions were closed for the season and the few that are open through winter close earlier than we could get there, so we just saw the outsides. It’s incredible to think these mansions were vacation homes, not primary residences, secondary and in some cases tertiary homes, bananas. 

We drove by The Breakers, all of the mansions on Bellevue Ave (The Elms, Chateau-sur-Mer, Isaac Bell House, Newport Mansions Preservation Society, Rosecliff, Marble House), We walked around the marina by Fort Adams State Park (the fort was closed for winter), and drove through the cute little shopping area. Newport is adorable, and now I want to go back in the summer sometime so I can go inside those beautiful mansions. 

On the way back to the hotel, we had dinner at Chelo’s Hometown Bar & Grill. It was pretty hoppin’ for a Wednesday night. We were both in the mood for noodles, so I got the chicken parmesan with penne and broccoli, and Chris got the  chicken and broccoli alfredo with penne and a cup of seafood chowder. Our dinners were really good, the service was good, we’d definitely go to Chelo’s if we lived in the area. We got a slice of the cake of the month, chocolate mint, to go, and we were not fans. The frosting was good, it had a great minty flavor, but the cake itself was dry and didn’t even taste chocolatey. So meh on the dessert, but good dinner. 

Thursday - Providence 

We love and miss bagels so much, so we got bagels again, this time at Bagel Gourmet Cafe on Thayer St. We got the last two everything bagels, toasted with plain cream cheese, our usual. Then we walked up and down Thayer St. and got a couple snacks from J Life Mart, wagyu beef lays chips and almond crunch pocky. 

Then we stopped by the capitol building again, because there weren’t a lot of people hanging around on the steps so we could take some better pictures and see the building a little closer. 

After our stop at the capitol, we got some coffee from White Electric Coffee Co-Op. The coffee was so good, the people were nice and the cozy space had a really good vibe. I think this was my favorite coffee in Providence. 

We were feeling snackish so we walked down the street to get a couple slices of pizza from Nice Slice. The slices were very tasty and ready quickly. I miss good pizza. Plus they had a whole shelf of plants by the door which always makes me happy.

On our walk we also popped into Frog & Toad for a few cards, because you know I can’t see a stationery store and not buy something. 

We drove by the Cranston Street Armory, which is a super cool building. Then we drove by the Lippitt House, what a beauty! It was closed for the season, like almost everything else, so we could only admire the outside. 

We walked around Benefit Street to see all the old buildings, including The Stephen Hopkins House and The Providence Athenaeum. The Athenaeum is stunning. It was founded in the 1830s and is still a working library. I wanted to move in, or maybe just smuggle the old card catalog cabinets out, but I’m a freaking rule follower, so I didn’t try to steal the furniture. I love libraries, and this was an impressive one, especially considering its smaller size. 

After wandering around Benefit Street, we headed to the RISD Museum to check out some art. This collection is lovely and includes my favorite glass artist, Dale Chilhuly, and Ancient Egyptian Art, which I also love. I could visit this museum over and over. 

We obviously stopped by the lounge for some appetizers, before ordering dinner from East Side Pockets on UberEATS. I was pretty excited for this meal. The chicken, salad, and rice were good, but the kebab and baklava were just ok. 

Friday - Providence + Natick, MA

We started the day with bagels from Providence bagel again and coffee from Dunkin, when in New England. Then we took a drive to Natick, MA to visit one of my favorite stationery stores, Calliope Paperie. I’ve been ordering things from them online for a while and finally visiting the shop in real life was definitely a stationery store dream come true. 

After a little shopping and wandering, we had Corrado’s Subs for dinner. I had a grilled chicken Caesar wrap and Chris got a Turkey club and we shared some fries. On the way out I tripped over the air and fell on my face in the parking lot. I know how to make an exit. I scraped up my hands and knees and twisted my foot a little, so walking was uncomfortable, which really put a damper on our plan to visit Boston on Saturday. 

I decided a milkshake might cheer me up, so we each got an Awful Awful at Newport Creamery, apparently named for being awful awful good. Chris got peanut butter and chocolate and I got strawberry. I did not like mine at all, but Chris’s was pretty good. Sad day. I got a hot chocolate in the lounge when we got back to the hotel and threw away my dumb awful awful. 

Saturday - Providence 

Originally we had planned to meet up with some friends on Saturday, but life happened and it didn’t work out, so our back up plan was to drive to Boston and see what we could see in one day. We were pretty excited about it, until I fell Friday night and woke up to a cold, rainy day on Saturday, so we decided to take it easy and skip forcing a day in Boston. We really want to visit when the weather is nice, and when we have time to explore more than a few hours, so another time. 

We started out with donuts from Honey Dew. We ordered a powdered sugar lemon filled, a cinnamon sugar jelly filled, and a glazed old fashioned. We both liked our filled donuts, and the glazed old fashioned was fine, but unglazed probably would have been better.

We had lunch at Casa Azul, chicken tinga chimichanga & a quesadilla. I ordered grilled chicken on the quesadilla, but I’m pretty sure they actually gave me al pastor, because it definitely tasted more like pork than chicken. 

We drove down to Roger Williams Park, where we saw probably a thousand Canadian Geese eating bugs, and 15 deer all at once. We also walked out to the beach to touch the sand and see the view, and then hauled ass back to the car because it was freezing. 

We had Blaze Pizza for dinner with lots of veggies, because I think we had about 3 servings of vegetables over the last two weeks, so yikes. We’re gonna need to up our veggie game now that we are back home. Even though we had veggies, don’t worry, we also got a s’more for a treat. 

Sunday - Fly from Providence to Virginia 

We couldn’t leave without one last bagel. We tried Bagel Express on Broadway. I had my usual everything bagel toasted with plain cream cheese and Chris had bacon, egg, and cheese on an onion bagel. These were great bagels, maybe my favorite or second favorite of the trip. 

That’s a wrap on our visit to Rhode Island. We were charmed by Providence, so if you have a chance to visit, definitely take it.