Family Activities

Newport outing with lunch, tour of the Breakers
(Friday, June 12)
Our day beings with a trip to Newport’s International Tennis Hall of Fame. Guests may either tour the museum or shop along Newport’s Bellevue Avenue. Then it’s lunch at the Hall of Fame, followed by a private tour of the Breakers, Newport’s grandest of summer "cottage" and a symbol of the Vanderbilt family's social and financial preeminence in turn of the century America. Today, the house is designated a National Historic Landmark.

Farmer’s Market (Friday, June 12)
Join Farm Fresh Rhode Island at the Downtown Market, a premier venue for locally grown foods and artisan food products in downtown Providence. Come by for the fresh foods and live music in the heart of the city as we offer a casual segue to your weekend. You've never felt so fresh on a Friday.

Walking tours of downtown Providence
(Friday, June 12, 11AM and 1PM)
Premier Rhode Island tour guide Barbara Barnes of the Rhode Island Historical Society will lead our guests on tours of downtown Providence, showing architectural highlights as well as pointing out important historical sites.

Golf lessons/skills test at Button Hole (Friday, June 12)
US Conference of Mayors guests will have their choice of playing Button Hole’s 9-hole course or taking lessons and having fun with a skills test. The golf facility consists of a Golf Course and 6 Practice Areas. Button Hole is a non-profit initiative dedicated to providing a short course and teaching center focused on kids.

AfterZone End-of-Year Carnival (Friday, June 12, 4PM to 6PM)
The Providence After School Alliance (PASA) invites the mayors to its annual year-end celebration at the Pell Chafee Performance Center, 87 Empire Street. This event is a showcase of all the skills and art forms over 1,200 youth have learned this year from over 25 non-profit and city providers. There will be performances, displays, refreshments, and interactive events for youth and family members. (Within walking distance of hotel and Convention Center)

Providence Preservation Society house tour and lunch (Saturday, June 12)
Benefit Street serves as the showcase for College Hill, Providence’s oldest neighborhood, the first in the country preserved through a comprehensive planning effort, begun in the mid-1950s. An architectural treasure chest, the mile-long street includes China Trade mansions, magnificent public buildings, and block after block of pre- and Post-Revolutionary War houses. Guests will tour several private homes, guided by leading local historian, Mac Woodward. The tour will end with lunch at the Nightingale-Brown House (1791 et seq.) Built for one China Trade merchant and occupied by another’s descendants for 170 years, the Nightingale-Brown House reveals multiple layers of architectural development.

Providence Art Festival (Saturday, June 13, 10:30 – 5:30)
The Providence Art Festival takes to the streets of downtown Providence, hosting 100 juried artists for one day only. Westminster St.(around the corner from our host hotels) will be the setting of this day-long event. There will be children’s activities, food and entertainment, and lots of local art for sale.

Sailing lessons (Saturday, June 15, 10AM – 2PM)
Providence’s Community Boating Center welcomes the kids of the US Conference of Mayors to spend the day on the Providence waterfront experiencing hands-on learning. We use kid-sized boats, fun games, and lots of encouragement in a progression from basic instruction to more refined sailing skills.

Gaspee Days Encampment and Parade (Saturday, June 13)
Colonial fife & drum corps, Civil War era units, modern day drum & bugle corps, & much more! The Mummers are the grand finale unit. After the parade, visit the Gaspee Encampment, which gives visitors a feel for colonial military life. Dozens of Militia camp out for the weekend in authentic Revolutionary style. Hosted by the Pawtuxet Rangers, RIM, whom you will have seen perform on Friday night.

BIG NAZO LAB "PUPPET-CREATURE SHOW & TELL WORKSHOP" (Sunday, June 14, 10AM-Noon)
"This is an interactive, hands on (and heads on!) performance workshop in which participants are exposed to a variety of mask and puppet-creature movement techniques that encourage improvisation, creative storytelling and collaboration with others. Performers and fabrication specialists from Providence's BIG NAZ0 LAB will demonstrate how the characters in their storefront windows are constructed and brought to life. Participants will take part in experimental theater games involving a variety of fantastic and unusual animal, alien and robot NAZO costumes. The workshop culminates with a series of short skits and a Creature-Parade.

BIO:
BIG NAZ0 is an international touring group and creature-making studio that combines visual spectacle, witty improvisation and live music to create audience-interactive invasions of theatres, parades and festivals throughout the US and overseas

Bus trip to Newport, RI (Sunday, June 14, 1PM – 5PM)
For those who didn’t get to attend the Friday tour, this trip offers a second chance to visit the City by the Sea and get a taste of Newport. Visit the harbor, shop along Thames St. or simply take in the salt air.

Federal Hill tour (Sunday, June 14, 1PM – 4PM)
For the gastronomes among our guests, a chance to tour the great restaurants and shops of Providence’s famed Italian American neighborhood. Guests will stop in for tastings of wine and food at three top establishments in this eclectic neighborhood.

RISD Museum (Sunday, June 14, 1PM – 5PM)
Private guided tour of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.

Zoo tour (Monday, June 15)
Come visit this nationally accredited facility and have fun meeting its newest resident – a baby giraffe, born in December. The zoo is Rhode Island’s number one outdoor family and tourist attraction. Our guests will get a special “behind-the-scenes” tour and enjoy an outdoor lunch at the zoo.

Sailing lessons (Monday, June 15, 10Am – 2PM)
Providence’s Community Boating Center welcomes the kids of the US Conference of Mayors to spend the day on the Providence waterfront experiencing hands-on learning. We use kid-sized boats, fun games, and lots of encouragement in a progression from basic instruction to more refined sailing skills.

Ongoing daytime events:

• free admission to RISD Museum throughout visitors' stay at the Conference
• College tours – guided tours of Brown University, Johnson & Wales University, the Rhode Island School of Design and Providence College.