Shopping in North Kingstown

Beginning nearly four decades ago as a retail shop run out of a garage by legendary surfers Peter Pan and Dave Levy, Narragansett Surf & Skate now provides an endless summer with year-round surf lessons and equipment rentals. Boasting a 90 percent board-mastering success rate within the first hour, the shop's Eastern Surfing Association–certified instructors guide newbies through the surf process, regardless of age or size of dorsal fin. Hang ten on one of the shop's high-end surfboards while the undulating ocean invigorates muscles and relaxes the mind after a stressful day of eating alphabet cereal in iambic pentameter.

Waves of Creation's squad of more than 50 artists sell their one-of-a-kind wares and teach aspiring craftspeople to embrace their own creativity in a variety of arts-and-crafts classes. Wax wizard Laura Winward leads three- to four-hour candle-making courses, which shed light on safety measures, how to choose the appropriate container, and how to infuse dyes and fragrances into each piece. Through hands-on instruction, around 10 participants construct six paraffin wick-pods in their choice of colors and aromas. Afterward, guests take home four votive candles, a jar/container candle, a novelty candle, written notes, and a nest of fire eggs to hatch into flames at a later date. Students should prepare to get messy, so it's recommended that they wear paint-splattered sweat suits instead of freshly polished suits of rhinestone chainmail.

As the days begin to wane and the trees' green leaves start to turn, Clark Farms celebrates the arrival of autumn by hosting its annual fall festival. The friendly farmhands welcome in guests of all ages for themed activities, which allow them to savor the season while experiencing a small taste of New England countryside life. Visitors can navigate the corn maze's labyrinth of towering stalks and direction-savvy scarecrows, or satisfy a need for speed with a zip down a 30-foot slide or lap around a professionally designed go-kart track. Clark Farms also encourages adults and kids to learn about farm life by taking a hayride around the grounds, touring the pumpkin patch, or visiting the petting zoo's resident quadrupeds and bipeds. When the sun sets and the weather turns crisp, the staff keeps crowds cozy by selling warm treats—including fresh donuts and apple cider—and by building roaring bonfires.

• For $230, you get a square outdoor fire pit kit (a $460 value). • For $249, you get a round outdoor fire pit kit (a $499 value).

Nestled inside a 1728 home that sits next to the watery Wickford Harbor, The Grateful Heart houses books, gifts, jewelry, and services that appeal to the spiritually aware and metaphysically curious. Books such as Always Maintain a Joyful Mind harness Buddhist teachings to achieve contentment in the face of Mayan-predicted and Oprah-corroborated apocalypses ($14), and a versatile array of jewelry bedecks previously unsparkling bodies ($12+). A Kirlian aura biofeedback camera photographs customers and their multi-chromatic auras and energy fields ($20/photo). This Groupon can also be applied toward tarot or psychic readings, which, like coldly formal breakups, need to be scheduled in advance ($45/30 minutes; $85/60 minutes).

Pow! Science! makes good on its one-two exclamation-point punch with a vast collection of toys, games, and educational kits for budding paleontologists, potential physicists, and future-mad scientists. Specialty items include the wizard stick ($15.99), which shoots genuine fog at the pull of a trigger, and the electro chemistry wiz experiment set ($17.85, ages 5+), which potentially lets young scientists invent a new type of adhesive that, unlike glue or thumbtacks, isn’t mistaken for food. The smart lab car design studio ($19.89, ages 7+) gives grade-school gearheads a pre-license outlet for their vehicular devotion, and Sea-Monkeys ($16.49) teach kids that life is created by adding dry powder to water.