Providence is the capital city of Rhode Island, and is home to about 180,000 (Rhode Island itself has about a million). The city contains several high-profile universities and colleges plus a correspondingly large student population. Providence was in fact one of the first cities established in the United States, and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies. For those interested in a bit of US history, the Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America, founded between 1607 and 1733. Each colony developed its own system of self-government. Residents of these colonies were mostly independent farmers, who owned their own land and voted for their local and provincial government. Following a series of protests known as the American Revolution, the colonies united to break from the British Empire. On July 4th, 1776, they finally declared their independence from Britain and formed a new nation - the United States of America. Hooray!

Anyway, this is Benefit Street in the College Hill area, where the city's colonial history is reflected in the 18th-century houses that line the street.

These are, for the most part, private homes, but many are open for tours one weekend in mid-June during the annual Festival of Historic Homes (very appropriate name).

College Hill is plonked right alongside the downtown area, and if you venture up the (bloody steep) hill for a bit...

...you get this view (of downtown that is, not me :)

The capitol building - Rhode Island State House. Not bad.

Me doing a handstand. Not bad. I tore a hole in the ass of my jeans yesterday while jumping up on a stone fence to get that photo of horse country in the middle of nowhere, Connecticut. You can kind of see it here - the white mark on my butt.

We had a quick wander through downtown before moving on.

Almost looks like downtown Chicago with the river winding through it.

Jack, I'm flying! I'm flying Jack!

On the other side of downtown is Federal Hill, best known for its Italian-American community, abundance of restaurants, and Mafia ties (apparently). And that was it for Providence. As with everywhere else it was a fleeting visit, but something to keep in mind for later.

Next up was Newport, a beautiful seaside city in Rhode Island that is famous for its mansions, shopping, and scenery. It's pretty dead at the moment, but as a favourite New England summer resort this place will be mayhem in just a couple months. In sticking with the colonial theme of the trip, Newport contains among the highest number of surviving colonial buildings of any city in the US.

Newport actually sits on an island, making it home to many great beaches for which it is well known. Not being beach weather, we settled for lunch instead along Thames Street here - the main commercial drag of the city. And we found some pretty purple flowers - isn't that nice.

Now for those mansions I mentioned.

I said above that Newport is a popular summer resort. Well the same was true back in the day when the rich and powerful of the time poured their excessive quantities of cash into building mansions for themselves along Bellevue Avenue here, and they have since become a big tourist attraction. The joint on the right is called the Marble House and is now a museum open to the public, but a few of the mansions are still privately owned.

As we left Newport along the coast we passed a few more over-sized homes. Not a bad view.

From big mansions to big colleges. Our final stop of the trip was the city of New Haven back in Connecticut, home of Yale University.

Yale is a so-called Ivy League school - some of the most selective colleges in the United States. Each one of these universities has top-ranked academics and award-winning faculty. Four of the eight Ivy League schools are located in New England.

Among Yale's notable alumni are five US presidents including Bill "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" Clinton, and George "Dubya" Bush.

Yale has more than two dozen libraries holding 12.5 million volumes. This one was designed in the style of a cathedral. The security guard was telling us the designer had always wanted to build a cathedral but never had the opportunity, so he built this in the style of a cathedral instead. Well why not.