Friday. Renée’s folks now in town, we start the day off right with some awesome seafood at Cello’s. I dine on fine-tasting fried fish and chips and crab cakes.

We then, having a few hours before the wedding, head over to downtown Central Falls to visit the houses that father-in-law and mother-in-law grew up in, most still in good condition. Then, we merrily drive to our second tour: Slater Mill.

Slater Mill was one of the very first mills in the initial stages of the Industrial Revolution. They utilized water power to turn huge cranks and gears to power the machines they had to make all kinds of things. One of the most impressive parts was the process of turning cotton into fabric. They still have operational machines, and it is simply amazing to see the ingenuity of the creators of these machines, as well as their volume! If you were ever hurt in the mill, there was no yelling for help—you wouldn’t be heard!

After spending about two hours at the mill and being thoroughly impressed, we went back to the hotel to prepare for the wedding. We then arrive at the ceremony a good 20 minutes before showtime, and I meet another batch of Renée’s family—too many to keep track of! Finally, the ceremony proceeds, and Seth Slater and Julie St. Pierre, well, proceed to be married. And are. It was very nice.

But what was really fun was afterwards. The party had just begun at the beautiful reception hall, where prime rib or baked scrod was the plate-of-the-evening. After the food, the cutting of the cake, the tea ceremony, and some other small parts, the dancing erupted like crazy and continued for, oh, the next four hours. Renée’s family loves to dance!

After getting completely sweaty and also losing the keys to get home, Renée’s fam’ and I hop in the car to troll back to Warwick, where Renée and I were staying and where the fam’ was close by.

But, we ended up extremely close to Connecticut. On accident.

Three hours later, we got home. We were extremely tired, and we’re sure that Rhode Island was very pretty had we seen it, but we were home.