Yesterday we went to Gray's Ice Cream in Little Compton and I had my first Cabinet with coffee ice cream. I couldn't confirm it with a google search, but rumour has it that this is the official Rhode Island state dessert.

It was the first time I'd been to Little Compton and I was surprised how different it is from northern Rhode Island. Having grown up in Colorado, it is easy to underestimate the diversity of these little postage-stamp-sized states like Rhode Island. All I really knew about it before I moved here was that it could fit in the Great Salt Lake, which I never considered that big anyway. Anyways, it seems bigger than I ever imagined it, and I'm delighted to discover Little Compton. It is the kind of place where you'll find a trailer next to a old-eastern money style mansion. I wasn't at all surprised to find a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson posted on a cowpen.

    Ode to Summer
    
    Great is the sun, and wide he goes
    Through empty heaven with repose;
    And in the blue and glowing days
    More thick than rain he showers his rays.
    
    Though closer still the bends we pull
    To keep the shady parlour cool
    Yet he will find a chink or two
    To slip his golden fingers through.
    
    The dusty attic spider-clad
    He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
    And through the broken edge of tiles
    Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.
    
    Meantime his golden face around
    He bares to all the garden ground,
    And sheds a warm and glittering look
    Among the ivy's inmost nook.
    
    Above the hills, along the blue,
    Round the bright air with footing true,
    To please the child, to paint the rose,
    The gardener of the World, he goes.
    
    Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894