Thanks so much for all the great ideas and advice on Connecticut and Rhode Island.
In Providence we stayed at Old Court B and B on Benefit Street - what a great location! We were able to walk to the RISD museum, Thayer Street, down to Parkside Restaurant for a nice dinner and then on to Waterfire. What a great event Waterfire is - I highly recommend.

In Connecticut, our first stop was the the NW corner of the state. We stayed at an amazing b and b in Norfolk called Mountain View Inn. Dinner at Inifinity Hall Bistro is a must. We hiked down to Campbell Falls - beautiful! We spent an afternoon in North Barrington, MA and then jumped back into Connecticut and had a nice dinner at Chatterly's in New Hartford. Then we moved on to Hartford and went to the Mark Twain house - this is really a must see. We stayed at Chester Buckley House in Wethersfield. What a lovely village (Wethersfield) - we had dinner at the local pub and then walked around the historical cemetary. Then went to the creamery for some homemade ice cream. Then we went on to Deep River near Essex and stayed at the Riverwind Inn - so nice. We drove around the little villages and spent some time in Mystic. Could not believe there was not a free beach in that part of CT! So different from NC and SC. We drove over to New Haven and walked around Yale's campus - lovely.

Finally we made out way back to Providence and had afternoon tea at the Duck and Bunny on Wickeden St - this is a really fun spot and I highly recommend.
It was a relaxing trip and so great to get away.