April Travels
As usual, I put this post (like many other things in my life) off until the very last minute. It’s May 1st and here I am writing an April wrap-up! I didn’t do much this month, but I did take a weekend trip to Providence, RI and I also got Confirmed. I’ve been pretty busy as the end of the school year is approaching but I’ll try to get in a few more blog posts here and there before the summer begins. Speaking of which, this summer I’ll be working as a lifeguard at one of the pools in town as well as a swim lessons instructor, which is nothing new. I will however be a swim team coach for the first time, which is really exciting because I’ve always swam on summer teams growing up and now I’m going to get to experience it from a coach’s aspect! And also from the dry land instead of from the water at 6:30 am, something I’m especially looking forward to experiencing. Enough about the summer, let's get into a little bit about my trip to Providence a couple weeks ago!
Providence Trip | 4/8-10
My dad, Ben and I took a short little trip to Providence, RI at the beginning of the month. Overall, it was a really fun look into all the opportunities Providence has to offer and I can’t wait to head back out there this summer!
We left State College in the early afternoon on Friday and arrived in Providence around 7 pm. The ride was calculated to take about 6.5 hours and we did pretty well on time, since we didn’t really hit any major traffic. The first thing we did, naturally, was shop. The Providence Place Mall is definitely comparable to King of Prussia size and number of stores-wise so it was nice to be at a “real” mall. Since moving to Pennsylvania I mostly shop online or at the Loft in town because there aren’t many big stores or malls where I live. I didn’t really buy much because I usually have about $10 on my card and very little physical cash, but it’s always nice to browse!!;) For dinner we were originally going to go to Johnny Rockets because it was in the mall, but they weren’t seating people after 9:30 and it was unfortunately 9:37. So we went down to the PF Chang’s that was in the mall and they were having problems with their water and had to close early. Tired, hungry and annoyed, we decided to head back to the hotel and find somewhere to eat in Downtown Providence. We ended up settling on ‘Local 121’, where we had a really great dinner and I’ll put some pictures of our food down below. I’m kind of a professional food photography/casual foodie, as you can tell based on these images.
This first picture is of a savory fried dough. I can't remember what exactly was on it, but the little container on the side had incredibly delicious pickled peppers in it and I would pay good money for an entire tub of those things.
S'mores ice cream!!! This was really delicious especially because of the graham cracker crumbs in particular. So much yum.
And......a pic of me and Ben after dinner
On Saturday morning we were up bright and early to tour Providence College, which is right outside of downtown Providence. It’s a relatively small school with only about 4,000 students (significantly less than Penn State), but it was very quaint and I really liked the campus. Academically, I see myself somewhere else (cough, cough PSU) and I am also a fan of the big university setting, so we’ll see where I end up next fall! After we toured PC, we went back to the mall and did some more shopping and eventually went out to dinner at Union Station Brewery which was right next to our hotel. One more professional food pic is below for everyone to enjoy!;)
My lobster mac n' cheese...whenever I'm by the ocean, I jump at the opportunity to get fresh seafood, even if it's tossed in with some macaroni and cheese.
Here we are again, since we can't go out to dinner without getting a picture:)
Thought I would throw in this picture of ant-sized Abby and Ben in front of a beautiful building at Providence college! If you look close enough, you'll see us down at the bottom of the flag pole.
Sunday morning we had to hit the road pretty early but that was okay because I got to snooze a little in the car. Although it was a short trip, I really enjoyed the city and look forward to spending more time there in the future!
Other than the Providence trip, I didn’t really do much in April. I got Confirmed and I’ll put a picture of my sister and myself at my Confirmation below. May is going to be a pretty hectic month with SATs, Senior Prom, Junior Prom and finals sneaking up at the end. I also start work at the pool mid-month, and while it’ll be a stressful couple of weeks, I’m really getting hyped for a fun and adventure-filled summer!
As always, thanks for reading and don’t forget to follow me on Social Media (my accounts are linked on my homepage!
Have a great month of May,
xoxo Abby