This morning I visited Roger Williams National Memorial in downtown Providence. Not much to see here (although they did have a map of other historic places to visit). It was just a city park and visitor’s center. But I did watch the video about Roger Williams and learned some interesting things. I knew he was the founder of Rhode Island, but I hadn’t realized he was kicked out of Massachusetts for having “new and dangerous opinions.” He believed in freedom of religion, and also that we shouldn’t be stealing land from the Native Americans. So yeah, he was a pretty cool guy!
For Blackstone River Valley National Historic Park, there were a lot of different places to get stamps. I chose a historic library. I happened to meet the children’s librarian and we got into a big discussion about books and she gave me some great recommendations for my classroom. It was also just a really cute library; I love the small town libraries. They’re small, but they always have a ton of stuff going on and everybody knows each other. Several kids came in while we were talking and the librarian greeted them by name.
And then I stopped at a place called The Muffin House. Oh man, that place was dangerous. I ended up with three enormous muffins because all the flavors sounded so good, and I was only able to eat half of one. (It was apple cranberry walnut.) Oh well, I’ll just be eating muffins for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next few days.
At this point, it was only 11:30, and I was 10 minutes away from my Air BnB that night. I had a lot of time to kill. This has been the difficult part of traveling on the east coast- I HAVE to have reservations, but I hate being tied down. I want to be able to linger in one place, or move on quickly if I’m not that into something. Especially because, if I finished my travels faster, that would be good for me financially (less hotels to pay for). So, even though Springfield was an hour and a half away, and I have to go back there anyway since I have an Air BnB reserved there in a few nights, I drove out there to see the armory and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. I was mad at myself when I discovered that the armory was closed; I forgot that some of the smaller parks have limited hours. This resulted in me spending several hours re-planning my trip last night because I discovered that some sites are only open on weekends, and I hadn’t planned on being in that town on the weekend. Not fun! But I’d be upset if I missed any, because it’s not exactly easy for me to get out here, so hopefully I got it all figured out.
(They had a seating area with the books that the artwork came from.)
This last picture was appropriate for the day because there was a huge storm yesterday and the museum lost power. I was really impressed with how they handled it. (Basically, they had a plan, so even though the backup lights were a little dim, it was just business as usual, even in the gift shop. Where I wanted to buy at least three shirts and a bunch of other stuff, but limited myself to just one shirt.)
For Blackstone River Valley National Historic Park, there were a lot of different places to get stamps. I chose a historic library. I happened to meet the children’s librarian and we got into a big discussion about books and she gave me some great recommendations for my classroom. It was also just a really cute library; I love the small town libraries. They’re small, but they always have a ton of stuff going on and everybody knows each other. Several kids came in while we were talking and the librarian greeted them by name.
And then I stopped at a place called The Muffin House. Oh man, that place was dangerous. I ended up with three enormous muffins because all the flavors sounded so good, and I was only able to eat half of one. (It was apple cranberry walnut.) Oh well, I’ll just be eating muffins for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next few days.
At this point, it was only 11:30, and I was 10 minutes away from my Air BnB that night. I had a lot of time to kill. This has been the difficult part of traveling on the east coast- I HAVE to have reservations, but I hate being tied down. I want to be able to linger in one place, or move on quickly if I’m not that into something. Especially because, if I finished my travels faster, that would be good for me financially (less hotels to pay for). So, even though Springfield was an hour and a half away, and I have to go back there anyway since I have an Air BnB reserved there in a few nights, I drove out there to see the armory and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. I was mad at myself when I discovered that the armory was closed; I forgot that some of the smaller parks have limited hours. This resulted in me spending several hours re-planning my trip last night because I discovered that some sites are only open on weekends, and I hadn’t planned on being in that town on the weekend. Not fun! But I’d be upset if I missed any, because it’s not exactly easy for me to get out here, so hopefully I got it all figured out.
Anyway, the museum was sooooooo cool! It was the kind of place where I wished I had little kids to take there; there were so many fun activities. They had a Paddington exhibit, and artwork by Virginia Hamilton and Leo and Diane Dillon (all have won Caldecotts), and of course, Eric Carle. His art was my favorite because he did collages of painted tissue paper. That’s not something I could tell from his books! It was neat to see the texture up close.
(They had a seating area with the books that the artwork came from.)
This last picture was appropriate for the day because there was a huge storm yesterday and the museum lost power. I was really impressed with how they handled it. (Basically, they had a plan, so even though the backup lights were a little dim, it was just business as usual, even in the gift shop. Where I wanted to buy at least three shirts and a bunch of other stuff, but limited myself to just one shirt.)
I would tell anyone traveling through Massachusetts (especially with kids) that this is a place worth seeing!
Comments