Weekend in Rhode Island

Well, I found a festival while there-just like I knew I would. The semi-annual Catholic Holy Spirit Community in Central Falls was holding their fund raiser that weekend and Deja, me and my friend Nancy ended up going.

It was alot of fun, although the weather could have been warmer. (it's supposed to hit the 30's tonight and a possible frost-so glad I haven't planted my garden yet!) It also rained, so I was in a hurry to get Deja to the outdoor games for kids as soon as possible BEFORE the rain started. She had fun, and won some cool kids prizes like the inflatable alien buddy she is holding in the pic above.

I entered a few raffles and won a couple of gift certificates for Papa Gino's pizzas (which is good, because we have one in Maine about 45 minutes from here which we go to once in awhile!) and Nancy won a gift certificate at a local garage for an oil change, which her car desperately needed.

After spending most of the day at the festival which finally got over shortly after 11pm when they drew all the prizes-we were tired and headed to the hotel. Unfortunately, the FREE wireless that worked last time I was there now needed a password in order to access it-and the night clerk didn't know what it was. So, I couldn't check email or anything until I got to my sister in law's house the following day and hacked into her internet service. Talk about internet withdrawal...lol.

So, I am sharing a few pics of Deja at the festival. I actually behaved myself and didn't cruise around town. Things have definitely changed since I was there-many houses are boarded up, victims of the foreclosure market and several well known night spots have also shut down due to the sagging economy and/or because they supplemented their poor alcohol sales with illegal drug sales and got caught! It was kind of depressing to see so many homes empty there, and to hear another friend of mine tell me she'd been looking for work for 6 months and not even an interview. Even the numbers of people who showed up at the church festival were less than I had seen before, which tells me that RI certainly is suffering through this recession more than I had anticipated. Hope you enjoy the pics and even though I enjoyed my mini vacation, I am glad to be home!