On Thursday, with the sun turned on high, our good friends Karen and Maia took us on a mother daughter road trip to their summer digs in Wickford Rhode Island. Aside from working in an ad agency in Providence for about a year (where one of my accounts was the state of Rhode Island), and going to Newport a few times, and Watch HIll with my mom and sister, in like 1968, where I rode the carousel and ate unforgettable fried chicken and mashed potatoes, I haven’t really explored the smallest state in the country, that has, as I so frequently used to tout in the ads I wrote, “384 miles of coastline.” As a lover of all things beach, I musta been in an extended coma.

Anyway, we packed a lot into our mini vacay, and I came out a believer. What a great place, a hidden gem, Rhode Island is. From Allie’s Donuts (sublime with local color and a line 20 long) to the Farmer’s Market at Casey Farms (with the friendliest vendors anywhere, not to mention a cornucopia of mushrooms that were like art, and where I bought a sugary scrub that I KNOW will transform my summer-worn skin to lovely and young again) to the amazing Narragansett Beach,( where a spontaneous text would allow us to meet up with my good friend Ginny, who invited us to her sister’s INSANELY beautiful ocean front home, and where, at last, I met the Princess of Cute,Ginny’s granddaughter, Madeline), to our walk through historic and crazy adorable  Wickford (including a super find $18 scarf), a late afternoon boat ride, a candlelight dinner where we ate Karen’s delish food, drank this summer’s drink–crushed blueberries, lemonade, basil and vodka (which desperately needs a name), and played phone charades (you wear your phone on your forehead to play), we had a freaking ball. I will be back. MEGA thanks to our hosts. It was just what I needed. Rhode Island forever.