Perhaps Providence has an inferiority complex...?

A few weeks ago (while Mom and Amiee were in town), they kept Claire for a night, and Brad and I set off to explore Providence, Rhode Island. It's still so strange to me that these places (like Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island) that have always seemed so far away to me are really so very close. It took us a little less than an hour to get to Providence. In fact, the T commuter rail runs right into Providence, because there's a heavy commuter population from Providence into Boston. 

Crazy.

Anyway, we headed down on a Friday afternoon and stayed until about lunch time on Saturday. As you can imagine, we didn't do an extremely extensive tour of Providence, due to such a short stay, but we did wander around some. We used Air B and B again and stayed at a very eclectic Victorian home that has 24(!) rooms. The proprietor was a super interesting fella with lots of life experiences and stories. Check out the bathroom that was ours to use:

Friday evening, we hunted down a Mexican restaurant in SHADY part of Providence. It had awesome TripAdvisor ratings, so we braved the shadiness and were rewarded for our bravery. It was excellent. You could tell it was popular because it was nearly impossible to get a seat. There's not a ton of Mexican cuisine up in these parts, so were thoroughly enjoyed it.

After dinner, we drove into downtown to take pictures of the capitol building. It was beautiful and FREEZING. Guess who left her hat and scarf in Boston? (the answer is "Erin," by the way). We scurried rather than strolled and then made our way to the nearby mall. Yes, mall. An incredible and beautiful mall. We window shopped a bit and then decided to get a hot fudge sundae in the food court (because that makes total sense when it's below freezing outside). 

We both read books before bedtime and promptly fell asleep...and didn't wake up to someone wanting her breakfast RIGHT NOW. It was awesome. Although, we did miss little Bearsy.

Breakfast was gourmet (we ate too much), and we enjoyed chatting with our breakfast companion: a high school counselor from Switzerland who was visiting Brown and a few other Providence colleges that her students are interested in. She had a lot of interesting stories to tell, and we shameless kept her talking for almost an hour. Bless her.

We spent the remainder of the morning walking in downtown Providence, an area that the city seems to be desperately attempting to revitalize. If they keep on track, it'll probably be awesome in a few years. Currently, it's a little sleepy. 

On our way out of town, we drove through Brown's campus, adding it to our list of "Ivy League Schools That We've Visited." Currently, we're up to three: Harvard (obviously), Princeton, and Brown. 

I also found this on the way out of town:

Any Gilmore Girls fans? Remind you of The Good News Daily?

Quick little note about Providence: They have some of the rudest drivers we've encountered. I'd like to take a moment and remind everyone that we live in BOSTON. A place not noted for its driving politeness. For us to feel that another city is ruder is kind of significant. Our theory? Providence, as an almost bedroom community of Boston, might have an inferiority complex. Bless 'em.