Providence

After an exhausting day visiting three colleges plus quite a bit of driving, we arrived at our Bed & Breakfast in Providence, Rhode Island Tuesday night, opened our blinds and this was what we saw. A gorgeous view of the state capital building.

Our room at the Christopher Dodge house was really lovely, however the breakfast part of the deal left quite a bit to be desired.

Christopher Dodge House B&B:

Our first Wednesday stop on the Providence college Tour was Brown University. It was a gorgeous day and the Brown Campus is really special. We enjoyed our time at the school. Below is a photo of one side of the Brown War Memorial Gate

Learning a little about the housing and meal plans at Brown on the Campus Tour

The Center for Information Technology

Old Dorm Building for upper classmen... great location right on the quad

oldest building on campus, used for Administration

Our afternoon info session and tour picked up literally one block from where our Brown tour had left off. The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD-pronounced Rizdee) is a really wonderful Art School (generally considered the best fine arts school in the country) with a decent liberal arts program and some pretty famous alumni including Gus Van Sant (Writer and Director including Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting and most recently Milk, who also graduated from Catlin Gabel high school--the boys' current school in Portland). Brown and RISD have a nice reciprocal agreement so students enrolled in one of the schools can also take classes at the other. Although I don't think Joey will choose a focused art school for undergrad, we had a great time on our tour and the RISD campus was awesome.

RISD Classroom building:

RISD had a really phenomenal nature lab

and the library was a sight to see. The library also had the same natural cork floors that we have in our kitchen. Easy on the feet and great for sound absorption. Very practical.

After our exhausting tours of Brown and RISD (did I mention the campus buildings are located on a very steep hill), we headed out of town to our next stop: Amherst, Massachusetts

We stayed at a really cute B&B in Amherst named Purple Gables.

Everything about Purple Gables was just wonderful, including the homemade breakfast of fresh fruit and yogurt and perfectly prepared Eggs Benedict.