August 17 & 18 -- Two Lay Days in Providence

Well first let me try to show you where we are docked here in East Providence. A Google map satellite view, where the two boats are docked on the facing dock in the center of the picture, showing the bridge above. and the restaurant to the right gives a bird's eye view.

We are only a $9 Uber ride from the downtown area. So it is a convenient place for land touring. But at $150 per night for dockage for our three nights here, a smarter location would have been a mooring at the friendly, welcoming, efficient Edgewood YC, about five miles away, back down on the west side of the Providence River for only $20 per night for a mooring and a few bucks per day more of Uber charges. Cruises of exploration lead to learning and we have discovered the right place to stay in Providence.

In addition to the Beach Boys concert our first night, we stumbled into the colorful 30th Annual Bolivian Cultural Festival the next day on the plaza in front of the State capital building. We were led there by our ears-- the music was loud.

It included some excellent inexpensive Bolivian street food.

We spent a few hours at the RISD (art) museum which had several sea scenes and an exhibit of Gorham solid sterling silver including this "cup" given to Admiral Dewey after his destruction of the Spanish navy at the battle of Manilla Bay in the Philippines in the 1898 Spanish American War. Lene is 5'9" so one can see that they really knew how to honor a guy back in those days.

We also strolled through the sprawling leafy campus of Brown University, founded in the 18th Century but renamed after a major donor who made some but not all of his money in the slave trade. The university is doing what it can to make amends for its part as a recipient of America's "original sin". Most of its buildings were erected in the late 19th century, Victorian style, with several to the east from the 20th and renovation of some older ones underway.

We took in three movies at the local Seventeen-plex theater in the downtown mall; not a very nautical thing to do but it fits our lifestyle.

Again, we accidentally lucked into the monthly "Burn the River" "event". Several narrow canal-like rivers run through the downtown area with stone walls at their sides. and "riverwalk" type paths at the sides. Large floating fire pits stuffed with what looked like wood were floating throughout these waterways. The large multistory federal style window of a nearby skyscraper was lighted with  a moving projection of flames as a hint at what would be happening.

A group of young men and women performed the ritual martial arts/dance of Brazil - Capoeira, like we had at the harlem a few years ago at Brazilian Night..

Then at sundown, the performance concluded they descended down the stairs to the water's edge with flaming torches and the floating fire pots were lit. Music of various types was to commence as the tens of thousands of spectators walked along the riverwalk area while the fire parts were slowly towed through town.

But at that moment the rain began in earnest and we left; so I cannot describe the full effect.