Massachusetts Beaches – where do we start?

Mass is on the coast, Mass is beautiful by the water especially, Mass is rocks and boats, sand dunes and grasses, its picturesque and quiet compared to the glitzy nightlife of other holiday destinations. Mass is lobster and salt air.  I want a summer home there, maybe a winter one too. Anyway…

Rockport and Cape Ann Beaches – Good Harbor Beach and Front Beach

There aren’t too many drives more sweet in their scenery then driving from Gloucester to Rockport. The narrow road winding through past homes that have been standing forever, or at least since before I was a kid, have continued on with the rock landscaping around the driveways, the greenery growing and looping its way around the homes, the loveliness of New England captured best on this drive. I used to dream in my sleep, of that road going past Good Harbor Beach, and last year I had the opportunity to drive on it during an unexpected trip. Suddenly I found myself there on that road last autumn, and braked hard at the sign.  I’m not going to comment too much on Good Harbor beach because although I stopped there in October/08 and took photos, it was basically an empty beach with a few people sitting on chairs and strolling on the beach. The scenery is lovely with the rocks on either side and houses further up, but I cannot comment on the water itself anymore. If you had asked me as a child, I would have been more accurate as I didn’t want to get out of the water. Someone else more recently familiar with it can testify better. I do know it is still a very popular beach yet not overly crowded as the parking lot can only handle so many vehicles. The sand is raked regularly, there are lifeguards, bathrooms and a snackbar in the summer.

Past Good Harbor Beach is the town of Rockport. I am biased with this place as I reveled in the General Store with all its penny candy when I was growing up, the huge pickles in a glass jar, the rootbeer in the wooden keg, the piano that played for a quarter, and the smell of the boats at the marina, the shops along, how lucky I was to visit it every couple summers. Rockport has several beaches. There are all kinds of low budget to pricey places, all in a picturesque setting, to stay in, so take heart if you’re being careful, which most people are. If you have lots of money to blow on scenery, try the Beach House at the Beach and King Street Inn, which is right across from Front Beach. I don’t know why New Englanders have figured out the decore so tastefully while others fumble with their ugly coverlets and rundown rooms. It must be an inherited thing, a taste acquired at birth in Mass hospitals, to be able to bring about the most lovely of interior and exterior decorating in its simplicity and colors along Cape Ann and Rockport. Not all are like that, but you get the idea. The Eagle House Motel is one of the bargain motels a stroll from the beach and shops. It is clean and basic but room #5 is supposed to be smaller than small.

Its not Cannes, you don’t have to look fabulous at night, you can just be yourself. Front Beach has lifeguards in the busy summer season, metered parking, which is scrupulously watched, or you can catch a shuttle from Blue Gate parking lot on Upper Main Street which is part of Route 127. There are public restrooms in close proximity, and lots of restaurants within an easy step back and sideways. The Peg Leg Inn is directly across from Front Beach again, has a huge verandah to relax on at the end of your day, a Carriage House apartment as part of the Inn, and which is a lot cheaper per week than the Beach House at the Beach and King Street Inn and which is more simple, possibly spartan in decore. Their individual guest rooms are about the same price however. If you are looking for crème de la crème of New England charm in your accommodation, they may not have it there but the scenery makes up for it.

That rare Sunday that I was at Rockport this autumn, the final topping of the day was a man playing a violin ever so enchantingly by the water. A crowd was slowly gathering round, and I caught it on my videocam. I don’t know if he is there every Sunday, but I do know it was a good way to say goodbye.

East Coast Escapes: Hotels from $60