You've probably figured it out by now, but when the girls go to Sky Ranch for the week, we go to parent camp! Long story, but Sadie was originally supposed to go to California for soccer so we were up in the air about camp for her & we thought we would be traveling with her, but that trip got cancelled, we were pumped. Unfortunately, that meant we didn't have any plans for the 2 of us but since we just had a big trip for our anniversary in late April, I told Bryan to book a business trip & I would just tag along with him. He had a commitment in Dallas on Monday, so we flew out late that night finally got to our hotel around midnight:
I am pretty sure this was my first time to Minnesota, specifically the twin cities. Bryan's client was in Saint Paul, so that's the side we stayed on. Bryan got up & met a client for lunch & worked all day, so I spent the day by myself exploring the city:
I headed to Saint Paul's Cathedral first:
I had to climb to get up there but then I had a great view of the city. I saw the state capital in the distance, so I walked there next:
From there I walked down to the veteran's memorial which was in front of the capital:
It ended up being a nice day because it was warm, but not overly hot & it was cloudy, so I didn't have to worry about getting sunburned. It's always fun spending time on the northeast because they have so much history up there - much more than we have, that's for sure! I saw so many beautiful pieces of architecture, especially churches:
I ended up at one of their best city parks. I stumbled upon it & loved all of the streams of water flowing though it so I had planned on sitting down to read for a while by the water but who knew they had a live band, so I ended up sitting here for a while just listening to the music:
Later that afternoon I cleaned up & met Bryan to head back to the airport:
We were headed to Rhode Island & had a layover in Chicago. It was supposed to be a quick layover, but we ended up getting delayed, so we had dinner & did a lot of this:
It was a late night, but we finally got to our hotel at 2:00 that night. Wednesday was a repeat of the day before - Bryan met clients for lunch & worked all day while I explored the city. I'm not sure if I have been to Rhode Island or not, but here I was:
I found an amazing gf bakery, so I picked up some pastries & headed to a local park on the water to have brunch by myself:
I lucked out & had beautiful weather again, but this time it was super sunny & super hot. Probably mid 90's but it was clear & I had the best view of the city walking around:
We stayed in Providence & again, so much history!
I didn't realize this was where Brown University is, so I headed that direction to explore campus. On the way I saw this & realized it is one of the oldest libraries in America. Apparently, Edgar Allen Poe spent a lot of time here. I was excited to go inside & that's when I realized it was Juneteenth, which is a national holiday now, so everything was closed. Therefore, I spent a lot of time walking around & couldn't go in anywhere:
I don't know much about Brown, but apparently these are the infamous gates they only open 2 or 3 times a year when school starts & ends:
It is a beautiful campus, very hilly & intertwines with the Rhode Island School of Design:
As I made my way around the city, I saw several historical houses & churches, but thought it was pretty neat when I discovered this:
I was having fun walking around, but after several hours, I was so hot & tired, I had to head back to the hotel & ended up sitting at the pool reading a book the rest of the afternoon. That night we met clients for dinner & this time I got to tag along!
On Thursday, Bryan took the day off & we spent the day together in Massachusetts. I will do a separate post for that, but we woke up our last morning together in Rhode Island on Friday. We were able to sleep in, work out & have lunch before we headed to the airport. We found this great tavern downtown that had amazing gf pretzels, so we enjoyed a long lunch while he worked:
I mean look at that - it was a gf asiago grilled cheese pretzel sandwich & it was amazing! It was so good, I was too full for dessert :( I really wanted the cinnamon sugar pretzel with a dip, but I couldn't eat any more bread, so I just ordered the cookie dough dip instead. Ha! And Bryan went with the root beer float:
They were both so good & filled us up before we headed back to the airport to fly home. It was a quick & busy week, but we were able to do 5 states in 5 days - Minnesota, Illinois, Rhode Island, Massachusetts & Maryland. 3 of them we spent substantial time in, 2 we just flew through or had a meal there. It was fun to go a few new places to explore without the girls & I always have fun tagging along with Bryan. The only bad news is that I picked up something along the way & came home sick, which is always disappointing. Next year maybe we will plan another big trip for parent camp, but at least we took the time to head out somewhere together just the two of us.
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