Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Experience New England: Rhodey Staycation

This weekend my family drove down from upstate New York to vacation with me in Providence. It's a great situation for everyone- they get a great vacation, I get a great "staycation."  If you have never heard the term before, well, it means staying in ones own locale and exploring new things, instead of spending loads of money going elsewhere.

When they come down, I always do a little research of some new and exciting things that I have never taken advantage of, and of course things I know we will all love. They are still in town until Thursday, but I thought I would do a little recap of our Rhodey Vacation/Staycation 2010, days 1-3, in hopes that you will discover some awesome places to check out!

Nicks on Broadway
For some reason I cant imagine why I have never been to this eating establishment. Located on Broadway in Providence, Nick's boasts delicious, local, seasonal cuisine that is both highly rated and approachable. Their Eggs Benedict was out of this world, coming on top of two savory biscuits with delicious handcut ham slices. Their salmon breakfast sandwhich on pesto wheat bread was pure glorious, and vadalia onion corned beef hash blew me out of the water. Go there now.

RISD Museum of Art
The last saturday of the month is a freefor all at the RISD Museum, and so off we went! Quite larger than I imagined, there were some wonderful exhibits on display at the museum from classical style to extremely modern, something for all art lovers to enjoy. There was also an interactive art class open to the public in which you created answers to question promts with their provided suplies, for example, "write a love letter to a part of your body." We were slightly crunched for time, and I image this museum is ten times better if you are not crunched for time. Parking stinks, but it was all free, and I cant wait to check it out next month!

The Mooring
Get the Seafood Pie. This restaurant located along the Thames St, Newport Bay area is a great special dinner kind of place. It is quite upscale, but they serve some of their sides and apps in brown paper bags for an interesting twist! We sat out on the balcony and had a wonderful view of the Newport Harbor. I'll be going back.

Rhode Island Bay Lighthouse Cruise
This one is a show stopper. I random'y found an advertisement for this cruise on a billboard somewhere, and it is worth every single penny. ($25 a person). Leaving from Quonsett Point, this cruise takes you through the Narragansett Bay area, around the Jamestown Island, and into the Newport Harbor. This light house cruise is absolutely wonderful, providing narration and indoor and outdoor seating. Absolutely picturesque, up close and personal views of the ten lighthouses and other interesting sights, along with a perfectly sunny and breezy day spent with family, how could you go wrong? I would recommend this for everyone- kids to elderly, native rhodeys or out of towners. Seriously.

We also checked out WaterFire an artsy festival type performance art where giant cauldrons of wood floating on the river are set ablaze. Its pretty amazing.

I Love Rhode Island.
Let me know if you have any other awesome ideas for things to do or see in New England!

1 comment:

Stephanie Kay said...

Looks like you've had fun!! I keep meaning for us to check out RISD on a free day but I keep forgetting. The bay cruise sounds fabulous. I might have to put that on our growing list of things to do this summer.