A Week in Review

Sorry about the silence, my loyal readers. Life has been busy here in Podunk, RI, as it usually is for us in the summer. Work was crazy last week, we went sailing on Wednesday night and had a wonderful time, then over the weekend we went to Vermont to see our nephew Alex, who turned three years old on Friday.

Until I can get my head together to write a more meaningful post, I'll have to entertain you with some pictures.

Here's a nest of birds under our deck. I can see the nest when I walk out from the basement under the deck. On Thursday night I was in the basement doing laundry. When I pulled the drying rack in through the basement door, one of these baby birds flew into the basement. It sat on the frame of the window and chirped until I caught it with a dish towel and brought it outside to free it. It just barely flew onto the railing of the deck and chirped. A second later another chirp came from the tree, and my little friend flew toward the chirp and perched itself on a branch and chirped again to get a closer reading on the other baby bird in the tree.

This is Griffen jumping into the water near our mooring. I took this on Wednesday night before we went sailing.

This is Alex on his brand new bike. He's very serious as he rides it.

Uncle Todd and Alex walk up to the end of the driveway, where they cross the street so Alex can ride his new bike in the church parking lot. This is quite possibly my new favorite picture.

This is what happens when I swim with an overjealous Labrador.

A Tour of Providence

Like I've said in a previous post, despite living in Rhode Island for six years I've never really taken the time to explore Providence. Yesterday I slipped my camera around my neck and took a bus into the city, and walked around snapping pictures. I browsed in shops, I looked up at the buildings, I smiled at people walking around and pretended to be a tourist.

Apparently I looked like a tourist, with a backpack strapped to my back and the camera slung around my neck. People struck up conversation with me on street corners as I was waiting to cross, "Where are you from?" When I told people that I lived locally and just felt like puttering around the city they lost interest in me. Then I began to lie and tell people I was from Indianapolis and they began to give me advice on interesting things I needed to see and take pictures of.

I walked around for almost three hours, until my feet ached and the camera ran out of battery power. Here are my favorite shots.

Westminster Street

Water Place Park. This is a great place to spend a summer evening as the city floats huge torches on the water. You can walk along the river, look at the fires, see some outdoor art exhibits done by students at RI School of Design, listen to music, etc.

This is the Wall of Hope, located under a bridge just off of Water Place Park. The wall is made up of hundreds of tiles painted by school kids just after the September 11th attacks. It is a very moving exhibit, every time I see it I discover another favorite tile.

A view of the State House and the city from Benefit Street at dusk.

A very cool tree in a park just off Kennedy Plaza.

And now the most notable Providence landmark, the State House. I've never been inside the building, I think that will be on my next Providence site seeing tour.

Until yesterday I didn't even know Providence had mounted police officers. Here they are in Kennedy Plaza.

This is a map of Providence back when it belonged to farmers. The map is located near the Wall of Hope. Each farmer owned a narrow strip of land, and now some of these farms have become street names, for example Thomas Angell's farm became Angell Street, Thomas Olney's farm became Olney Street, William Wickenden's farm now has it's own exit off of I-195, well, Wickenden Street does. Mr. Wickenden would never have believed that his name would be on an exit sign if you told him about it back then.

This is the ice skating rink that gets set up every winter. I've never skated on this one, but it looks like fun.

Fountain in a park near Kennedy Plaza.

A doorway on Washington Street, I think.

Del's frozen lemonade is an institution in Rhode Island. In the summer you can see Del's trucks at all the parks and beaches. Del's is fabulous with a shot of Citron as well, or so I've read.

The Providence Biltmore sign has been a fixture on the Providence skyline for I don't even know how long. Just to the right is the hotel's glass elevator, the view from which is amazing.

This is the clock tower on the Providence Amtrak station. If you are ever catching a train in Providence, please be sure to wear a watch. As you can see, the clocks on the tower appear to be quite unreliable.

Not Providence, But...

It was stormy out today, so I didn't get the chance to go on my great Providence Expedition. However, I did cruise around when I was running errands today. I drove through City Park in Warwick, RI, and a blanket of fog had covered most of the park. By the time I drove home to get my camera, the fog had lifted.

The fog, was extrordinary. The trees were black from being soaked by the rain, and they stood out against the white of the fog. The silence in the park had an eerie feel to it, as I stood there in the fog while looking at it contrast against the trees.

You'll have to imagine these pictures with thick fog surrounding the trees.

Ladies and gentlemen, City Park, Warwick, RI