They showed up at around 11:30 am and we took turns asking each other what we would like to do. We decided that we weren't ready for lunch quite yet and they indicated that they would like to do a little walking around Providence.
One of the things I like to do from time to time is cross the pedestrian bridge over route 195 to the little park by the bay. (I should really take pictures of it sometime.) Since it was a beautiful day and Dick and Chris had never been to this park before I decided that would be a good place to start; I wasn't sure what we'd do after that.
So we went over the bridge and looked around the park a bit, and I led them east towards Fox Point. At the eastern edge of the park we saw people planting trees and painting the tree trunks white. Chris asked one of the guys why they were painting the trees, and he explained that some people say that if you replant trees in a different orientation from the one they were in originally they can get sunburnt, and the paint acts as a type of sunscreen in that situation, which was a little startling to learn.
At this point we could have gone back to the car (and I think that's what we should have done, really) but we still weren't quite ready for lunch and it occurred to me that if we headed north it was almost a straight shot to Wayland Square, and there were some shops there that I thought they would enjoy checking out. So I suggested this to them (without, however, making it clear exactly how far a walk this was, partly because I wasn't sure myself) and we started heading over.
Well, in fact it turns out that it's a bit of a trek, and the sun was kind of beating down, and it became clear that it was a bit more than they had bargained for by around the time we got to George Street or so. We stopped by the East Side Marketplace to get some more water and I apologized for not telling them how long a walk it would be. I said that if they wanted we could head back to the car, or if they wanted we could continue to Wayland Square and I could then head back and get the car. (It had occurred to me that if we actually bought anything we would have to carry it back to the car, too.)
Dick and Chris talked about it a little while and they decided that neither option was necessary, so we continued on and checked out a few stores (A Stitch Above, Myopic Books, some clothing store that I forget what it is). Then we returned to the car and headed over to Federal Hill, having worked up quite an appetite.
We got to Venda Ravioli (according to the waitress it was about five minutes before the kitchen closed), had some excellent food, and did a little shopping. Then we went back to my apartment for some power napping. It was around 5 pm.
At my apartment, I went to wash my hands, and when I came out I discovered that my father had triggered one of my apartment's booby traps.
As you may recall from the post I made a few months ago when it started snowing in my bedroom, many of the windows in my apartment are in poor repair. My father had decided to open a window, but the counterweight holding the top part of the window in place was broken, so as soon as he released the latch the top part of the window slammed down like a guillotine, smashing down on the tips of two of his fingers. Fortunately they did not break, but I suspect that one of the fingernails will fall off eventually.
We put some ice on his fingers and everyone settled in for some napping. I called my landlord and suggested that it might be nice if the windows could be fixed sometime so I didn't have to worry about guests getting injured by them.
At around 7 pm we got up and chatted for a while, and then at 8 pm we went to Haruki East for some sushi, which was another very good meal. After that we went to the Hi-Hat on Point Street for some free music. The lineup was different from last week -- different guitarist, different pianist, and different drummer, none of whom I recognized -- but the music was still good. At around 11 we headed back to my apartment and went to bed.
So, the two things I feel I could have done better were: Not talking to my landlord sooner about fixing the windows, and not taking my parents on a deathmarch through Fox Point without explaining in advance exactly what this entailed. I will try to do better in the future.
Still, it was a pretty good day, it was good to see Dick and Chris again, and I really couldn't have picked a nicer day to take off as a vacation day this week.