Sunday, September 14, 2008

Providence and WaterFire

My friend Geri gave me a personal tour of Providence yesterday, with WaterFire and ice cream being the grand finale.

She showed me around College Hill, where Brown University and RISDI (Rhode Island School of Design) are. The architecture (mostly brick buildings) was pretty cool. We walked up and down the main drag (Benefit St). Tons of restaurants and stores there. We stopped at a bead store and Brown bookstore.
Then we headed downtown to find a parking spot. We parked by the beautiful Capitol building.
There are a couple of boats offering gondalier services. It looks like fun if I can find that special someone.
This is what WaterFire is all about--starting fire in each of these braziers to light up the river.

WaterFire extends for maybe 1/2 mile to 1 mile along the river. We walked the length of the WaterFire before it started. They close off a lot of the streets around the river and set up bands and dancing on some of those streets, along with food vendors and other festival-esque things.

We sat by the basin. Here is the before picture:

And the after picture:
WaterFire is beautiful. They have a little show beforehand and then start lighting the wood in each little basket. It's really pretty against the backdrop of downtown Providence. So glad I got to go--thank you Geri for your hospitality!
Photo courtesy of http://www.providencedowntown.com/event_calendar.php

2 comments:

Jaydee and Shaunda said...

That looks like an amazing event. I enjoyed looking at the pictures of it. I am glad you had a good time.

arizonamama said...

What a beautiful place. That's the kind of place I would love to go to just to sit and watch the people, the changing scenery, the history, etc. Thanks for sharing your photos.