Providence RI

We went to Providence Rhode Island last weekend. Rob had a bike race Sat and Sun so he had booked a hotel nearby.
Here's a blurry photo of us and of Lily throwing stones. We were at Conimicut Point Beach where there was a view of Providence.








There were men fishing all along the shore, each one listening to his own small radio while smoking a cigarette. No one was catching anything. It was nice to see the ocean. We were tired, partly from eating our weight in Bertucci rolls, and we almost bailed on driving through unfamiliar neighborhoods, but we rallied and the GPS made it possible to get there and back to the hotel without a fight.



The girls really wanted to use the gym so we spent some time in the tiny gym that looked bigger because of well placed mirrors. The pool was open until 11p but we had gone in before dinner and everyone who dunked (not me!) had burning eyes from excessive chlorine. We had to bring a cool washcloth to Bertuccis and the girls took turns crying. Robs eyes were tearing down his face.

We weren't going back in there.




Rob racing! He's the second guy. It was a bright sunny day.














We hid beneath the sycamores. Roger Williams Park has very nice trees.

We did the carousel again this year. Two years ago Georgia was scared but this time she was master of her giraffe.

Lily chose a lion.

Checking out the teeth....

Then to the zoo. I dragged everyone because the security guard at the hotel convinced me, "Oh it's a great zoo! There's a polar bear that swims around. You can watch it underwater and there are lions and tigers. It's great!" I hadn't remembered that from our previous trip, maybe they had all been sleeping? I've been writing something with tigers in it and was excited to see one close up.

Alas, the security guard was a liar or very confused.

No polar bears or lions or tigers.

There was a Crowned Crane who was probably insane from confinement, but did interact for a good long time with Georgia's hand.

There was an extensive pumpkin display that went all around part of the zoo that they light up at night, but we were all really tired so we didn't stick around for that.

There were Harbor Seals swimming back and forth, back and forth.

Beautiful tall giraffes wandered around.

And the huge elephants waited in line to lie down and get their weekly blood draw.

Somehow this flamingo with her goofy knees reminded me of Cookie who we left at a kennel for the first time. We were beyond tired, hot and getting grumpy. It was interesting to see the animals close up, but of course depressing and draining, too. Rob was so tired from 2 days of racing he finally said, "Get me out of here." handing me the map as he started to stagger in the blazing sun "Find the shortest route." We made it home in time to pick up Cookie (Hooray!) She was very excited to see us.

We were glad to home and take a nice walk before dark. I had dragged my feet about going away for the weekend because it takes so much time and energy to prep and then unpack, but it was very nice to get away from home for just a bit.