For the long holiday weekend, we decided to make the trip to the New England area to visit Providence, Cape Cod and Newport. I had driven through Providence in the past, but never spent real time there, so it would be a new adventure and place to explore!

Our road trip began with dinner at Cafe Silvium, an Italian restaurant in Stamford, CT. The pasta is made fresh there and very delicious - I will definitely be making a return trip next time I’m in the area! Thank you to my friend Jess for the recommendation!

After a few hours of driving, we finally made our way to Newport, Rhode Island! Some of the highlights of Newport were:

• Gondola ride in the canal - it was a great, unique way to tour downtown providence compared to your typical boat tour, for just a little more money, we were able to get a private tour, which even came with cookies, drinks and some romantic Italian songs!

• Providence River Walk - a nice area to walk along the canal

• Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) - Art Museum

• To do: WaterFire - centers around a series of ~100 bonfires in baskets on the water along the canal of downtown Providence. Sadly I didn’t get to see this while I was there, but definitely want to go back to do this!

Next we were off to Cape Cod! It was a bit cold, but still a nice quaint town with great seafood! Despite the cold hoody weather, we:

• Took a boat tour around the cape, where we saw some mansions, light houses and just enjoyed being out in the ocean

• Walked around downtown

• Visited some light houses, national parks and even added a junior ranger bad to my collection!

• Ate dinner out on a pier in the middle of the arena, we got lucky and got a seat outside with the best view at the Baxter’s Boathouse

While we were there, we also had breakfast at Red Barn with my first VP, who took a chance on me and shaped the trajectory of my career for the past 9 years. I’ll be honest, we were a bit skeptical of the restaurant and had no idea what to expect as the restaurant looked very small and quaint, however there was a long line and wait. The food was definitely worth the long wait and turned out to be one of the best breakfast spots I have been too! If you are in Dennis, Cape Cod, I recommend he cinnamon bun french toast or the corned beef hash!

For our final destination we found ourselves in Newport for the day, where we:

• Found our favorite lobster rolls of the trip at Belle’s

• Visited the Cliff Walk

• Walked around downtown Newport

We covered a lot in just a few days! I can’t wait to go back to see Cape Cod in it’s prime when it’s warm out and to see the WaterFire in Providence!