◂︎ Mandy & Lexi's Rhode Island Adventures

Providence

Roger Williams Park

Date visited: 6/20/2022

This is a really cool place! This park, within the Providence city limits, has a little bit of everything it seems. There are gardens, statues, a carousel, a couple lakes, trails, fountains, swan boats, and a lot of places to take photos. We actually walked a dirt trail around the lakes called "Big Lakes Trail", which is surprisingly about 3 1/2 miles long, but most of the photos below came from the main part of the park. Even if you prefer to stay on the sidewalks, there is plenty of park to get a good walk in. Mandy was even able to sneak in a quick dip! This is a fun spot to visit if you are in the area!

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Roger Williams Park

Date visited: 10/28/2024

Our return visit to this wonderful city park was two and a half years later. There was some spectacular fall colors here this time around, making it look considerably different than our summer visit. We didn't follow any specific route this time. We just kind of wandered aimlessly, taking photos along the way. It was a great autumnal adventure!

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Providence River Walk

Date visited: 8/14/2022

This was a fantastic walk on a great morning! There are many scenic spots along the walkway. We walked three miles total right along side the Providence River.

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Providence River Walk

Date visited: 1/22/2024

This was our second time on this walk. The first visit was on a warm, sunny, summer morning. This was the opposite! I re-created a couple of the pictures from the first trip, and took a few more as well. We were in Providence to see the prisms at 195 District Park, and crossed the pedestrian bridge to reach this area. While we were here, I was interviewed on camera by Channel 12 News about the impacts of the Washington Bridge closure, and the news that broke about the bridge possibly needing to be demolished and re-built from scratch. Being from Connecticut, my only impact is that I've been avoiding the areas of Rhode Island east of the bridge. It seemed like the reporter was having a tough time finding people to interview. He was really looking for native Rhode Islanders, but had to settle with me. I guess I wasn't interesting enough, because I don't think my footage was used for the story!

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India Point Park

Dates visited: 8/14/2022 & 10/8/2022

This is another nice spot by the river in Providence. There is a paved trail that circles the park. If you have driven on I-195 in Providence, you will recognize the India Point Park Bridge that goes over the highway. We also checked out the bridge too. The East Bay Bike Path starts here as well.

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East Bay Bike Path

Dates visited: 8/14/2022 & 10/8/2022

See Also: Providence, East Providence, Barrington, Warren, Bristol

This is the North end of the multi-town East Bay Bike Path. It starts at India Point Park, and crosses the Seekonk river as part of George Redman Linear Park.

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Blackstone Park

Date visited: 8/28/2022

This park lies adjacent to the Seekonk River on the Northeast side of Providence. The trails are mostly on a bluff on one side of a park road, and the river is on the other side. We followed the All Trails route which had us walking along side the river for a bit before climbing the hill and hitting the trails. At one point we climbed a very large set of stairs (looks to be at least 50 steps or so), but we stopped half way up because Mandy needed a break! This park is a popular place for dog walkers. It seemed like every person we passed was walking one or two dogs.

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Woonasquatucket River Greenway

Date visited: 10/9/2022

Rhode Island has plenty of these multi-town, multi-use trails. This one runs from the west side of Providence into Johnston. We started at Merino Park, and crossed the foot bridge over Route 6. The trail then runs along Route 6 for a while before heading into Johnston. You can read about the Johnston section on that page. The trail is pretty nice, and once you get over the bridge, almost perfectly flat. Just be aware that parking can be a nightmare if there are athletic games going on in Merino Park. Cars were parked along both sides of the very narrow road leading into the park. This caused a problem, as cars were trying to enter whle cars were leaving, and with cars parked on both sides of the road, there was no room for two way traffic. Needless to say, there was a delay exiting the park.

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Neutaconkanut Hill Park

Date visited: 5/10/2023

This was a pretty fun hike. We followed a two mile loop trail up the hill and back. We tackled the steeper part of the hike first. There's a sidewalk that leads straight up the hill, directly across from the athletic fields. We reached the summit in about 5 minutes. From the top, it is said that you can see a quarter of Rhode Island. Keep in mind, this is not as impressive as it sounds. The state is small. The trees are fully leaved now, so that definitely limited our view. But there is still a great view of Downtown Providence from up here. The rest of the trail follows orange and then blue blazes and loops around the hill. Part of the blue trail dips into the neighboring town of Johnston (pictures from that section are on the Johnston page). There are a couple other scenic vistas, though the trees definitely blocked the view from them. I love that they put a rope fence around the junked car. It's like they were turning it into a museum exhibit. There is also a very cool set of stone stairs leading back down the hill. These can be quite dangerous, but fun! My only issue was with the amount of garbage and broken glass on the sections near the actual park. This really needs to be cleaned up. The trail itself is wonderful and the view from the summit is great. It's well worth checking out.

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Blackstone Boulevard

Date visited: 7/24/2023

This is the stone dust walking trail that runs down the very wide median between the Blackstone Boulevard's two lanes. We started at the north end of the path at Lippitt Memorial Park, just south of the Pawtucket border. We made our way down to the other end of the trail near Blackstone Park. The path is almost two miles, and is the busiest walking trail we've visited. The boulevard is located in an affluent section, lined with scenic houses. The path itself is well maintained with benches, gardens, and trees that are all well manicured. It is used by walkers, joggers, and dog walkers, but not bikes. Each side of the actual boulevard features a dedicated bike lane for the bikes. We picked a perfect evening for this walk. It was sunny and warm, but not humid, with a refreshing breeze. We walked for about four miles total out and back.

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Dexter Training Grounds

Date visited: 1/13/2024

This park was originally a military training field, named for Ebenezer Dexter, who donated the land to the city in 1824. Rhode Island troops trained here from the civil war to WWI. The large building that looks like a castle is the Cranston Street Armory, headquarters of the Rhode Island National Guard until 1996. Now the park is home to a playground, a volleyball court, bocce courts and athletic fields. A farmers market is held here Thursday evenings in the summer. It seems to be a very popular spot for dog walkers as well.

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195 District Park

Date visited: 1/22/2024

We haven't been on many night adventures. This was fun! The park featured the Prismatic Display, an art exhibit that will be on display until February 20th. There are 25 prisms that are lit up with different colors at night. You can spin the prisms, and there are chimes inside of each prism. The chimes were very quiet and hard to hear. The prisms have been on display in Montreal and Cleveland previously. The park itself is across the pedestrian bridge from the River Walk, that we visited previously in the Summer of '22. We extended our walk by heading over the bridge and re-walking some of the River Walk as well. It was great to be able to go on an adventure after work like we do in the summer time. I need to find more things like this to make the winters more interesting!

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Roger Williams National Memorial

Date visited: 4/1/2024

This is a small National Park located in Downtown Providence. Roger Williams is the founder of Rhode Island. He came to Rhode Island after being banished from Massachusetts for his religious beliefs. There are a number of monuments and informational signs about Williams. There is a short walking trail around the park. It is a popular place to take a dog for a walk. It was gloomy all day, but the sun came out while we were here, and it turned into a very nice evening. After the short walk here, we continued our walk around the Rhode Island State House Grounds.

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Rhode Island State House Grounds

Date visited: 4/1/2024

This is the area around the Rhode Island State House, including the area around the train station and Providence Place. We came here after our visit to Roger Williams National Memorial.

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Blackstone River Greenway

Date visited: 5/31/2024

This is the last section of the "off-road" portion of this trail in Rhode Island that we had left to do. It's over six miles away from the next off-road section in Cumberland. There's a gap in Central Falls and Pawtucket where signs route the bikeway along regular roads. This part of the trail is also known as the Gano Park Bike Trail. It runs between Gano Park and the river. It's only about a half mile long, and connects to both the East Bay Bike Path and India Point Park. There are views of the closed portion of the Washington Bridge, and a lot of construction near the India Point end of the trail. The trail also passes by a shopping center. The painted mural seen in a couple of the pictures is actually on the back side of a Walgreens.

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Federal Hill Historic District

Date visited: 9/5/2024

This was our walk through the Federal Hill Neighborhood in Providence, known as Providence's "Little Italy". Our adventure covered about a mile stretch of Atwells Avenue, between St. John's Park and Garbaldi Square. Smack in the middle is DePasquale Square with it's iconic fountain. The square is lined with outdoor seating for the nearby restaurants. Speaking of restaurants, there are a lot of them here. It's not a good place to walk if you are hungry! Or, maybe it is depending on your viewpoint! Garbaldi square is a small park near the historic Gateway Arch. I did not realize that pets are not allowed in the park until I read the sign on our way out (the "No Pets" part is in very small print, so it's not obvious). This was a fun walk through an area of the city we had not visited before.

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Save The Bay Center

Date visited: 4/30/2025

According to their website, "Save The Bay" is a member supported, non-profit organization dedicated to a "fully swimmable, fishable, healthy Narraganset Bay". The Providence location features a building that is used primarily for marine science educational programs. The grounds feature part of the "Providence Urban Greenway Trail", and are open to the public for hiking. There's a large dock that is open to the public for fishing as well. Leashed dogs are allowed, and there is about a mile of trails on the grounds, with some nice views of the bay. It's good for a quick walk with the dogs.

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Brown University

Date visited: 5/1/2025

Fresh off their recent trip to Yale, Mandy and Lexi continued their tour of the Ivy League at Brown University. It's a beautiful campus, especially in the spring time. Some of the courtyards were very busy, and a number of students stopped to give Mandy and Lexi attention, which they absolutely love! It's a sprawling campus that includes 235 buildings spread out over 143 acres. We visited a large portion of that, but I'm sure there are some nice sections we missed. It was a beautiful spring day in Providence, and a fun 3.75 mile walk.

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Rhode Island College

Date visited: 7/22/2025

Mandy and Lexi continued their collegiate tour by visiting Rhode Island College. This college sits on the border of the North Providence and Providence. The pictures below are from the Providence section. You can read more about our walk and see the North Providence photos on that page. I love the photo below of Mandy and Lexi with the checker board! We've taken the same photo at various places with checker/chess tables, but this one is my favorite!

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Providence College

Date visited: 8/8/2025

Mandy and Lexi's collegiate tour continues with a walk through Providence College. I actually wasn't aware it was Catholic college until reading up on it recently. Many of the buildings on the campus look very religious! We walked through most of the campus. Like all the other colleges we've visited, the grounds are impeccably maintained. The highlight of the walk is the flame statue at Calabria Plaza, at the center of the campus. At night time, it is illuminated to resemble a torch. Overall, this was a very pleasant two and a half mile walk.

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Apsara

Dates visited: 6/24/2023 & 1/13/2024

The "Date Visited" above is misleading, because we've stopped here often when we are in the area. This is an Asian Restaurant with great food. I usually bring take out home from here when I'm nearby. I get the "Chicken On A Stick" to eat in the car on the drive home, which I of course share with Mandy and Lexi. My favorite dish here is the "Nime Chow", Cambodian Spring Rolls. I actually went here a few times years ago in the early 2000's. With all our frequent trips to Rhode Island, I thought I'd see if the place was still around. Not only is it still around, it hasn't really changed at all! On this day, I decided to take a moment to take a picture of Mandy and Lexi in front of the restaurant, as it has been such a key part of our Rhode Island Adventures!

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