Hello Rhode Island

On the Wednesday of our trip we drove down to Rhode Island.  We arrived at the capital building and found a tour group.  The tour was very interesting.  The dome in this capital is the fourth largest dome in the world behind St. Peter's Basilica, the state Capital Building in Minnesota, and the Taj Mahal.



We saw the original painting that has the face of George Washington that is on the one dollar bill, that was in the room where the governor gives press conferences.



We also saw the original state constitution for Rhode Island and learned that each of the original 13 colonies received an original copy of the Bill of Rights.  The one for Rhode Island was located at the State Archives, more on that trip later.

After the seeing the third capital building in as many days, we were hungry.  We were looking for a place for lunch.  The first place we tried was closed and we scored on the second attempt.  Thanks to Yelp we found The Abbey about a 10 minute drive from the Capital.  This place had so many different types of burgers to pick.  Scott ended up with the Mama Mia and I, creatively, went for the Classic.

[caption id="attachment_2252" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Mama Mia![/caption]

They were amazing and huge.  I was impressed with how much I ate.  After lunch we walked across the street to La Salle's for a quick brownie.

Then it was on to downtown Providence to look for the State Archives office.  We quickly found the building and asked to see the original copy of the Bill of Rights.  After a little help from the librarian and co-worker, we were able to see the original through the glass frame.  This was the best random find on our trip.

[caption id="attachment_2246" align="aligncenter" width="280"] Rhode Island's copy of the Bill of Rights[/caption]

We decided to check out Brown University for a bit while we were in town.  The campus was very busy.



We stopped in at the bookstore and got a couple of shirts and decided it was time to leave Rhode Island and head to Plymouth.

We arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts and found the Mayflower II.  A full-sized replica of the actual Mayflower.  The Mayflower II even recreated the trip from England.



[caption id="attachment_2303" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Mayflower II kitchen[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2302" align="aligncenter" width="300"] On the Mayflower II[/caption]

After touring the boat we checked out the gift shops and then walked along the coast.  It was beautiful to see the fishing and sailboats out there.  We kept walking until we found the Plymouth Rock.  I wasn't sure what I was expecting to see but a gated  enclosure with a boulder that had 1690 engraved on it wasn't it.  But at least we knocked out some extra history with that stop.

[caption id="attachment_2304" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The Plymouth Rock[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2305" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Keeping the Rock safe[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2337" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Plymouth, MA[/caption]

Since I was starving, I always am now, I wanted to find some place to eat dinner before we left Plymouth.  I knew it was only 4pm but when a pregnant lady needs to eat, you don't argue.  Since our first choice was closed we went down the street to Isaac's for dinner.

[caption id="attachment_2256" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Dinner with a view in Plymouth[/caption]

The restaurant was a little fancier than we thought, but again, I was hungry.  For dinner we finally got our chowdah.



It was amazingly good and made me really happy that I bought a New England cookbook.  Of course since we had the chowdah, we weren't too hungry for our actual meal.  I really wished our hotel had a refrigerator or microwave so we could have brought that home.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel for a very relaxing evening.