Providence

Since J and I have back-to-back birthdays (his was Thursday; mine was Friday) and they fell close to a weekend this year, we decided we would take a trip. We didn't want to have to book (or pay for) flights, nor did we really want to go very far, so after a lot of deliberation between Vermont, New York, and other places, we somehow landed on Providence. So, we booked a hotel, put the dog in the kennel, and took off on Friday.
Now, we didn't really have a lot of plans. We knew we wanted to eat at some good places and found a whole long list of fantastic restaurants, and we knew we wanted to walk around and see as much of the city as possible, but that was about all. In the end, that's about what we did, but it wasn't as easy as it sounds.
First and most notably, the weather this weekend was utter crap. The rain was torrential, for one, which sort of put a damper on the walking part of things. The surprisingly strong wind didn't help. Nor did the cold. We had parked the car by valet and really didn't want to take it out until we left, so we figured we'd buy an umbrella, wear our rain coats, and deal. Two things: a $10 umbrella from a drug store may as well be made out of straw, and cheap Ugg knock-offs do not foul-weather footwear make. Halfway through Saturday, I had given up on the umbrella and consoled myself with the knowledge that my newly waterlogged shoes were a nice replacement for ankle weights. We spent a lot of time laughing about the whole weather thing, but I have to admit that it made me more than a little grumpy on several occasions, particularly when I realized I had failed to pack a second pair of pants (or shoes).
More frustrating, perhaps, was that for the majority of the weekend we seemed incapable of finding anything we had set out to see. Jeremy is fairly legendary for his sense of direction, so I left all navigation up to him, but this weekend his gift had...malfunctioned. We first realized it when it was noon on Saturday and, after an hour of walking, we found ourselves not at a bakery a mile from the hotel, but instead in the midst of what we each silently presumed might be the preliminary stages of a gang fight. Hmmm. The same thing happened at lunch, after we had returned to the hotel, dried off (somewhat), and ventured back out; rather than finding ourselves at a coffee shop near Brown, we ended up at a restaurant we had previously deemed "way too far away" for walking. Jeremy was thrilled because he got the moules frites he had been praying for; I was, again, grumpy. And dripping.
Weather and navigational mishaps aside, we had a fantastic time. Here's why:

• The Biltmore is beautiful, historic, and central. Plus, it has that awesome sign on top, and I love staying in hotels that are old enough to still have mail slots by the elevators.
• Amazing breakfast sandwich, especially when I was about desperate enough to eat sand for breakfast.
• I've never seen so many officially-designated historic homes in one place, and that's usually criteria numero uno on my tourist list. Add in the fact that they all surround two (three?) universities, and you've got yourself a lovely place to live (and that possibility is forever in the forefront of my mind)
• The friendliest shoe store (only friendly shoe store?) I've ever visited (and also the store that happened to have my brand new Frye boots....)
• Despite the inherent pretension that seems to come with moules frites, and despite the looks we got when we stumbled in wet and less-than-fashionably-dressed, this place has some darn good food.
• Okay, so this is a chain (though I'd never heard of it), but they called us by name all night and gave us free truffles for our birthdays.

We've decided we're going back some time to visit what we missed and try walking around when in weather that permits us to look up from the sidewalk on occasion. Verdict? Loved it despite the mishaps, which means it was really good.