Providence's Water and Fire and a Special Surprise

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

July 30, 2022

We have a special surprise ending to this day, but we're not going to tell you what it is until the end of the blog. No fair scrolling to the bottom! It all started as a regular day. We had plans to go to the Water and Fire event in Providence, Rhode Island, in the evening. We're not exactly sure what this event will be, but we know it involves lighting fires along the river that runs through downtown Providence. We also know that it gets very good reviews, so we're looking forward to it. Because we know we'll be out late tonight, we didn't leave the motor home until about noon for our trip to the state capitol. Denisa had a short list of places to see in Providence, and we started at the botanical garden.  

We usually try to pick one favorite flower, or one most unusual plant, but we just couldn't do it. Denisa just kept taking way too many pictures.

The indoor part of the botanical garden had tall palm trees that look strangely out of place here in the north.

Looking at so many colors of green and different textures of these plants reminds us that we are wandering through more of God's wanders.

We'll call this our favorite insect picture,

and this one our favorite rose picture. This plant didn't just grow single roses, it grows entire bouquets on a single stem!

It was a little surprising to see a botanical garden with resident goats. We met Vincent Van Goat and his other artsy goat friends. But that wasn't our special surprise. In fact, at this point in the day we didn't even know that we were going to have a special surprise today.

Just a few steps away from the botanical garden is the Providence carousel. Denisa loves a good carousel ride, so she found her favorite horse and took a ride.

It's while she was on her ride that her phone rang. Surprise! Do you wonder who she is talking to?

We finished our list of things to do in Providence. We started a ride on the East Bay Bike Trail. It runs 14 miles all the way to Bristol along the bay.

We don't have time to make the entire trip, but after two miles we came to the Ponham lighthouse.

It was hard to get a good picture, but it's always a good day of touring when we find a lighthouse. But that's not as good as our surprise.

We ended up going five miles down this very nice trail, before we turned around to head back towards the pickup.

As if Denisa hadn't taken enough flower pictures this afternoon, we found some perfect wild Turkish Caps blooming beside the trail. These orange blooms face the ground, with their curled petals looking like a turban from the top.

But if you lay on the ground and look up, it is a perfectly lovely lily. Of course, some people might think you are crazy for laying on the ground beside a bike trail looking at flowers. But one of the joys of travel is that we'll never see these people again.

We learned from the locals on the Block Island boat ride that there was a local food we hadn't eaten yet. They told us that we needed to try spinach pie. We found a place right on the bike trail that advertised spinach pie on their cafe window, so we stopped in. Besides, shouldn't you eat at a place called Rhode's Cafe, when you are staying in Rhode Island? We ordered a spinach pie with sausage and cheese added, and it was surprisingly delicious. But that's not as special as our surprise.

We came to Providence to see the state capitol, and it is a beauty. The lighting and clouds were perfect for a postcard-like picture of the outside of the building.

We walked to the front for more pictures, but we couldn't go inside. It is closed on the weekends, and this Saturday was our only option for visiting.

But when we walked to the very top of the stair case, we could see quite well through the glass doors. It looks like we missed a beautiful capitol tour. Perhaps we will have to visit Providence again some time.

From the front steps, we looked at the statues on either side of that grand staircase. We couldn't help but notice that this statue looked like Elvis Presley.

Actually, the statue is of Commodore Ethan Perry, and he is really rocking those side burns. 

Our parking place by the State House was a great place to leave the pickup for the Water and Fire event in downtown Providence that we had come to see. When we arrived to the central water plaza, we could see that the fire containers were already filled with wood.

There will be over 100 bonfires that stretch over a mile on the waterways in downtown, and we have perfect weather to enjoy the show.

In the meantime, downtown is teaming with entertainment. It was fun to see the "statues" on display . . .

that broke pose for a high-five when fans added money to the tip jar.

We enjoyed live music on the side streets . . .

and glass blowing demonstrations with a portable red-hot furnace.

We walked the entire mile of the river walk, ready with wood stacked carefully for each bonfire.

We spent more time playing with the wooden xylophones . . .

and trying a very Rhode Island treat. We had seen fresh fruit lemonade for sale in the area, so we had to try this local favorite for ourselves. Shaved ice with fresh lemon was surprisingly good . . . but not as good as our special surprise.

The sun is going down, lighting up the building behind the veteran's memorial tower.

At the base of the tower we saw several new statues. This gargoyle also broke pose when visitors added to his tip jar.

But this guy got our vote for the most real-looking unreal statue of the day.

At 8:06, ominous music started playing from the outdoor speakers, and a parade of the brazier boats started down the river. These are the people that will ceremoniously light all those piles of wood. The six boats made the entire circuit of the river walk while the ominous music continued.

Some of the boats even had fire jugglers balanced on the bow.

After sunset, the braziers began lighting the wood.

It was quite a sight to see the line of flames stretching the entire mile of the river walk . . .

and encircling the central plaza. Thousands of people lined every square inch of that mile.

All the bridges and overpasses were full. It was a surprisingly special event . . . but it wasn't our special surprise.

That's when we got another phone call. It was from our nephew, Brian, again. The rest of his family flew from Newfoundland, Canada, to his new work assignment in Texas. But Brian and one of their sons are driving one of their vehicles back into the United States. They were going to a Boston Red Sox game when they called us the first time this afternoon, wondering where we were wandering. When they found that we were only 50 miles from Boston, they decided to meet us for Water and Fire in Providence.

On the way back to our vehicles, we walked by the State House, to get a different look of it all lit up.

We are excited that instead of staying in a hotel near Boston, Briand and Cole decided to come spend the night with us in the motor home! 

Besides, no stuffy hotel room will be serving up cookies and cream milk shakes around 11:00 p.m.

We had a great time on our trip to see Providence's Water and Fire event, but our favorite part of the day was our special surprise guests that came home with us. We had no idea when we left the motor home at noon that we would get to host some of our favorite people here in Rhode Island! Surprise!