Planning guide -- [link] I like the one on the water! They all look fine.

Thank you. I have already submitted the RFP to all of the hotels in Providence that I think are suitable, and I am waiting to hear back from several of them. I am not sure which hotel you mean by the one on the water, but if you are referring to any of the hotels in Newport, I seriously doubt that they would be affordable or offer us any kind of deal in the summer months, since that is their busy season.

Also, there's a commuter train (not Amtrak) that runs from Providence to Boston (run by the MA transit system). Hours are limited, natch, but they are seven days a week (I swear once upon a time they didn't go all the way to Providence on the weekends).

Providence pimping

Federal Hill in Providence is a historic Italian neighborhood with great restaurants and some interesting shops. You might want to make reservations ahead of time for some of the restaurants: link

Here is a list of restaurants in the College Hill area of Providence (near Brown University) where there are also some very cool stores: link

Roger Williams Zoo: link

Newport has historic homes that you can visit, great restaurants, and is a fun place to just walk around on a good weather day: link

You can see pictures of the historic homes in Newport here: link

This is the mall right in downtown. There is great shopping (including Lush!), lots of popular restaurants, a movie theater, a Dave and Busters, and if anyone wants to do a manicure day here, I’d be happy to make the appointments: link

The Rhode Island School of Design has a very nice museum and gift shop: link

There is a list here of other galleries people might be interested in going to in the area: link

Here is a general website for the city of Providence: link

Links for transportation to and from the city can be found here: link

Waterfire is an interesting thing to do in Providence in the evening. They don't have their summer schedule up yet, but more information can be found here: link

Providence to Boston is about an hour by car.

Providence to Newport is about 45 minutes by car, and the Narragansett beach area is about 15 minutes closer.

Providence to Worcester is about 45 minutes by car.

If anyone wants to do a day trip to any of these places, we can probably arrange a carpool with localistas including TCG and I.

I’d be happy to pick up people from the TF Green Providence Airport (Which is technically in Warwick) if I can and I get some advanced notice.

If there is anything else that people are interested in and want to know about, just ask me.

Sounds great, thanks sj!

x-posted with Press

Reminder:

This is your last chance to vote for F2F 2010! Click here to vote.

Poll will be open for three days until 3/21, Sunday. We only have 26 respondents so far, which concerns me since we had 42 on the previous survey.

Side note: I'm also concerned that adding a third date to the mix may have split the vote. June 26-27 is leading substantially at the moment (the only non-NYC weekend), but the two July dates (if added together) equal the exact same number. I didn't add a question about how many people couldn't attend, but I'm concerned about this situation. Anyone who would like to hash this out, please join us in conversation in F2F.

Great info, sj!

sj - do you know if Al Forno is still in business, and is it's reputation still as good as it used to be? At least, was it before you moved away?

I've just heard about it for years, but never managed to get there.

I haven't voted on a date, because I can make any of the dates and don't have a strong preference for any of the places, and I don't want to maybe push the vote onto a date that someone can't make it when it doesn't matter to me. But I will be coming to the F2F, wherever/whenever it is.

I'm with Zen. I'm not voting because I can make all three of the dates, so don't want to skew the voting for someone who has a preference.

Huh. Now I'm questioning my survey design. Maybe I should have added a "can't make XX" and a "can make all" category.