A Summer Weekend in Providence, Rhode Island

Last summer we wanted to get away for a little weekend trip for our anniversary. We looked at flights from Nashville to places such as Savannah, New Orleans, and Charleston but the flights were more pricy than we were wanting to pay. After further searching, Brent found the explore feature on Kayak, which lets you find flights anywhere from your city. He quickly located a super cheap round trip flight to Providence, Rhode Island. We booked it!

Why Providence? It was near the ocean and we wanted to experience the East Coast more. We like learning about history, so we thought it would have a lot to offer in that area. Also, we found out the annual WaterFire event would be taking place that weekend. Plus, we’ve never been to Rhode Island, a huge bonus.

We were unfamiliar with the airline, Sun Country, but were pleased with the service. On the flight, we were given Stroopwafels. I sat mine carefully over my hot cup of coffee to strategically warm it and melt the caramel inside. Yum!

My cousin, Rachel, gave me these nails. I applied them the night before we left. The process of applying is easy and once they’re on you can cut them to whatever length you prefer. I felt so fancy having beautiful nails all weekend plus no worries about my polish chipping.

It was such an adventure randomly picking a city to visit. We’ve never done that before, but both of us loved it. Brent also booked an Airbnb on the third story of a young couple’s home. It was in a charming neighborhood and we could walk to Brown University and to downtown Providence.

Walking Tour of Providence

The character of the buildings and streets was so historic and took you back to colonial days. We walked and walked and walked. Up steep hills, stairs, and down sidewalks so steep people had to zig zag their strollers to ensure their baby wouldn’t roll away from them.

Our neighborhood and its lovely homes with colonial and victorian architecture were elaborate with detail, color and history. Brown University was also stunning in detail and design. We discovered a cool modern art scene with murals dotted around the city.

Click on a photo to enlarge and scroll through to take a walk through Providence.

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We rented electric bikes from Jump which had bike rentals throughout the city. Lime has since bought the company. We tried it several different times and could never get a smooth ride, either the brake would not release or the clunky heaviness of the bike made it too cumbersome to operate. I’m hoping since Lime bought the company they will improve the experience.

One morning we visited a local diner. It was the kind of diner that has been owned by the same man for 40 years. The decor is most likely original and the dishes are the heavy diner type. After chatting with one of the waitresses she mentioned a local favorite, coffee milk. Of course, we had never heard of it. She brought us a glass. Think of chocolate milk but with sweetened coffee syrup added instead of chocolate syrup. A little sweet for my liking but fun to try something new.

Day Trip to the Beach

I was dead set to see the ocean on our trip. Since we were not super close to the coast it was about a $70 Uber both ways to the beach and back. Pretty expensive for an outing but I really love the ocean and looked forward to walking barefoot with my feet in the sand. I’d heard locals talking of Narragansett Town Beach so we decided to go for it.

Once we arrived we found out that the beach had an entrance fee of $10 per person. To even be able to walk on the beach you had to pay! This was a hard pill for me to swallow. I’ve been to many beaches in my life and never had to pay to simply walk along the beach. We didn’t go in, I just couldn’t pay out of principle (and also our budget).

At that point, I was a little bummed feeling as if we had wasted a whole day traveling to the beach to not be able to sit on the sand or put our feet in the water. We saw a nearby arts festival and decided to take a stroll through the vendors. Around 11am we started getting hungry and decided to look on Yelp for a local restaurant nearby. We agreed on the Coast Guard House which is now a restaurant but originally was a life-saving station. Since we were there early we were able to get a seaside table. Eating our delicious meal overlooking the ocean made the nearby sand-covered beach no longer appealing. We even got a table with shade!

WaterFire Festival

Another meal we enjoyed was at Den Den which served super sweet, sticky, and spicy Korean fried chicken. My mouth is watering thinking about it. We grabbed a boba after and slowly walked the brick-paved sidewalks down to the river for the WaterFire Festival. It’s a free public art installation of over eighty anchored braziers stacked with firewood burning and floating just above the river water.

We could faintly hear what sounded like African drums coming from the loudspeaker. Soon it changed to a more Chinese sounding tune. We found out the music, which is a backdrop to the bonfire lighting ceremony, is from all over the world.

Venetian gondolas passed filled with artists preforming dance moves while one held a torch bright with flames. Many boats passed throughout the evening but the first one lite the bonfires anchored along the river’s path.

Soon the sun went down and we continued alongside the river as more crowds gathered to watch the ceremony. The burning smell of wood was thick in the air. It was nice to be out at night with Brent, taking in a city. Sharing new adventures with another person makes it so sweet and meaningful. On the walk back to our Airbnb we saw a couple holding hands and walking together. I told Brent, I hope that’s us one day.

I know many people aren’t able to travel during the Covid-19 outbreak. I hope this post gives you a little escape from your current surroundings.

Where would you like to travel for a weekend trip?

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