This past week has been truly insane for me - a crazy work schedule that has tested my limits and boundaries. But while I sit in a conference room at 9 pm at night waiting for status updates, I will take some time to try to wrap up our final time in the U.S. We had one more week after Amanda's wedding, before I headed back to the U.S. with Lola and Michael continued on in N.Y.
After Amanda's wedding, we took Sunday to get everything together, figure out what we're doing, and then on Monday headed to Rhode Island (Providence, Newport and Naragansett, respectively) to hang out with Michael's parents and his sister Katie and her husband Justin.
On the first day, we drove up and checked into a Marriott in downtown Providence. We only had time for a brief dip in the pool before it got kind of chilly and Lola needed to go to bed. Michael and I both had to work that evening (what a glamorous life) so we shared a very romantic room service meal.
The next morning, Tuesday, dawned super chilly and rainy, much to our dismay. We had packed for hot, sunny heat wave Rhode Island and instead got cold, drizzly rain! We went to explore the Children's Museum in downtown Providence. It opens at 9 am, we got there in the midst of the worst of the downpour, Michael's dad miraculously pulled through the parking lot at exactly the right moment the second time around and nabbed a prime spot, and the place. was. packed. when we finally made it in at approximately 9:30. I guess, with school out and the weather being awful, there are only so many places in Providence that you can go!
We spent about 1.5 hours at the museum and Lola really enjoyed all of the exhibits, especially the one where she got to buy fruits and vegetables (the girl loves grocery shopping). Then we headed back to the hotel just in time for her to nap and relax. After that, we checked out of the hotel and headed to Katie's place, where we hung out for the rest of the afternoon. After some sandwiches (a delicious chicken parmesan sandwich for me) we took Lola to the park near Katie's house. There was a really cute swing set, playground with slides, and a little funhouse. There was a beautiful (and flourishing!) community garden next to the park that was full of kale, string beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, baby lettuce, and zucchini. It was beautiful to see.
Lola loved Katie and Justin's (beautiful) dog Griff, and the two were so cute to watch that we all neglected to take some good pictures capturing their relationship. Lola was really hesitant about Griff because he's a rather big dog (taller than her!) but he is such a gentle dog that it didn't take long before she was head over heels enamored with him, feeding him dog biscuits, patting his coat, trying to touch his ears, and even trying to poke his eyes! She loved (LOVED) watching him play fetch. Something about watching a dog go crazy running for a ball and bringing it back made her cackle uncontrollably. It was so adorable. At one point, she kept bending down in front of him, trying to pick up one of his paws so she could shake it. He kept tucking them under to avoid her little insistent fingers. When he sniffed and licked her toes, she then stuck her toes right under his nose!
Katie is the women's volleyball coach at Brown, so she gave us a tour of the campus and athletic facilities while we were there. Lola went to try to lift the bar in the weights room!
We took turns getting pictures in front of the bear statue on campus.
Katie and Michael had a great time pretending that we were there on a recruiting trip for Lola - oh you know, just another day in the life of academic decisions commencing at 19 months.
After the tour, we headed down to Newport, to check into a B&B in downtown Newport. I chose a small boutique hotel, The Attwater, and stayed in their largest 2 bedroom suite. The suite itself was beautiful, but the hotel left us with a terrible impression which was such a shame.
We had requested a crib when making the booking and my heart sank when we showed up and there was no crib in sight and the front desk lady had no idea what we were asking about. When Michael went to ask, one of the hotel managers really upset Michael by making a comment implying that he was a bad parent for failing to pack a crib. That in itself would not have been such a big deal, but then when we tried to talk to the manager, he refused to come out to see us and the other manager, his wife, managed to make it so much worse. All I wanted was an apology for the rude comment and potentially a small reimbursement for a crib rental, but instead she was interested in mediating and "figuring out" or "getting to the bottom" of what happened. I was not at all interested in that, given that it was past 10 pm at night and she was trying to find fault. When she tried to give me an apology, it was qualified with a statement along the lines of, "While I don't know what happened because I wasn't there..."
I am very rarely confrontational or direct in my daily life, but I flat out told her I didn't accept her apology and that her husband, who made the offensive comment, should be the one to apologize. Her response? He was "off" for the next day "or two". Folks in the hospitality industry, tell me, is that normal for a Tuesday and Wednesday in the hotel business? Based on that, we cancelled our second night's stay and decided to move on to Naragansett for the next day. We paid over $600 for a stay in that hotel that night and this is how we were treated? We were definitely taking our money elsewhere. What a disappointment and a waste of time.
The next day, Michael's parents and Katie and Justin came down to hang out with us for a day in Newport. Newport itself is beautiful and charming, although this trip has developed in me a serious distaste for New England. We found it very lacking in diversity, the people rude, and everything very expensive.
But they have beautiful gardens.
In the morning, we took Lola to a park near our hotel.
After that, we headed to the Breakers and then a picturesque drive by the coast. This post has gotten quite long so I'll break here and then wrap up the rest of the details of our trip in the following post.
After Amanda's wedding, we took Sunday to get everything together, figure out what we're doing, and then on Monday headed to Rhode Island (Providence, Newport and Naragansett, respectively) to hang out with Michael's parents and his sister Katie and her husband Justin.
On the first day, we drove up and checked into a Marriott in downtown Providence. We only had time for a brief dip in the pool before it got kind of chilly and Lola needed to go to bed. Michael and I both had to work that evening (what a glamorous life) so we shared a very romantic room service meal.
The next morning, Tuesday, dawned super chilly and rainy, much to our dismay. We had packed for hot, sunny heat wave Rhode Island and instead got cold, drizzly rain! We went to explore the Children's Museum in downtown Providence. It opens at 9 am, we got there in the midst of the worst of the downpour, Michael's dad miraculously pulled through the parking lot at exactly the right moment the second time around and nabbed a prime spot, and the place. was. packed. when we finally made it in at approximately 9:30. I guess, with school out and the weather being awful, there are only so many places in Providence that you can go!
We spent about 1.5 hours at the museum and Lola really enjoyed all of the exhibits, especially the one where she got to buy fruits and vegetables (the girl loves grocery shopping). Then we headed back to the hotel just in time for her to nap and relax. After that, we checked out of the hotel and headed to Katie's place, where we hung out for the rest of the afternoon. After some sandwiches (a delicious chicken parmesan sandwich for me) we took Lola to the park near Katie's house. There was a really cute swing set, playground with slides, and a little funhouse. There was a beautiful (and flourishing!) community garden next to the park that was full of kale, string beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, baby lettuce, and zucchini. It was beautiful to see.
Lola loved Katie and Justin's (beautiful) dog Griff, and the two were so cute to watch that we all neglected to take some good pictures capturing their relationship. Lola was really hesitant about Griff because he's a rather big dog (taller than her!) but he is such a gentle dog that it didn't take long before she was head over heels enamored with him, feeding him dog biscuits, patting his coat, trying to touch his ears, and even trying to poke his eyes! She loved (LOVED) watching him play fetch. Something about watching a dog go crazy running for a ball and bringing it back made her cackle uncontrollably. It was so adorable. At one point, she kept bending down in front of him, trying to pick up one of his paws so she could shake it. He kept tucking them under to avoid her little insistent fingers. When he sniffed and licked her toes, she then stuck her toes right under his nose!
Katie is the women's volleyball coach at Brown, so she gave us a tour of the campus and athletic facilities while we were there. Lola went to try to lift the bar in the weights room!
Classic picture here. We all had a great laugh over this one:
I am very rarely confrontational or direct in my daily life, but I flat out told her I didn't accept her apology and that her husband, who made the offensive comment, should be the one to apologize. Her response? He was "off" for the next day "or two". Folks in the hospitality industry, tell me, is that normal for a Tuesday and Wednesday in the hotel business? Based on that, we cancelled our second night's stay and decided to move on to Naragansett for the next day. We paid over $600 for a stay in that hotel that night and this is how we were treated? We were definitely taking our money elsewhere. What a disappointment and a waste of time.
The next day, Michael's parents and Katie and Justin came down to hang out with us for a day in Newport. Newport itself is beautiful and charming, although this trip has developed in me a serious distaste for New England. We found it very lacking in diversity, the people rude, and everything very expensive.
But they have beautiful gardens.
In the morning, we took Lola to a park near our hotel.
We went to lunch at Midtown Oyster Bar, sitting outside on a patio eating seafood and sucking down clam chowders and oysters. Michael got a po' boy that really did not look healthy.
We followed lunch with ice cream at Ben & Jerry's, where Lola had a great time trying various flavors of ice cream.
After that, we headed to the Breakers and then a picturesque drive by the coast. This post has gotten quite long so I'll break here and then wrap up the rest of the details of our trip in the following post.
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