Road Trip Travelogue: Salisbury, Massachusetts Salisbury Beach

This summer has become an unplanned "one beach per week" road trip extravaganza for me. One perk of no longer owning a vacation home is that you don't "have to" go there. You can go to other places.

A few weeks ago, I went to Duxbury Beach. Fabulous, lots of parking, a little pricey at $20 for the day, but there are bathrooms, showers, a decent walkable beach with too many rocks, and a snack bar. I even was able to swim (well, ok, "dip")... the water was a tad chilly.

Despite the rocky terrain, this isn't Rockport.... it's Duxbury Beach.

Then, I spent a whole week in Rockport. You can read about that here. 

Rockport at Sunrise

On Thursday, I had an appointment in New Hampshire, and realized I would be just 30 miles from the more-northerly beaches (more northerly than Rockport, that is). But, surprisingly the water was much, much warmer. It was a toss-up between Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, or Salisbury Beach in Mass. The two being literally within walking distance of each other. I opted for Salisbury because a) I spent a lot of time there when I was a kid; and b) there is a "state park" where you can park for the day for just $14 if your car has a Massachusetts license plate ($16/day if out-of-state).

I deliberately arrived at 2:30 to avoid the crowds. At a pit stop to pick up supplies and some Aleve (headache!) at Rite-Aid, I got talking with the clerk, and she suggested I wouldn't be able to get a parking space at that time of day. But I knew better and hedged my bets. To prove me right, the parking lots were basically empty. Score! I had the entire bath house to myself, and there were plenty of prime places to plunk my umbrella into the ground and set up my towel and cooler for the afternoon.

At Salisbury, the beach is almost identical to my favorite beach in the world, The Cape Cod National Seashore. The dunes are much smaller, but the walkability is great. It is vast, flat, and especially at low tide, the waves are large but gentle... and the water is significantly warmer than in Rockport. That perplexed me for a while, until I realized that Rockport's Front Beach is really a "cove", thus the open ocean does not affect the water temp like it does on the outer beaches. The outer beaches, which are exposed to the expanse of ocean water, warm up because the water acts like a big radiator. Your science lesson for the day! (Hey, I might even be wrong, so go ahead and tell me --  I won't be offended.)

Salisbury has several bath houses, and several parking lots. You can park hundreds of cars there on any given day. Each parking lot has its own bath house and its own shower area -- one for men, one for women. It's very well organized. I thought there was a snack bar, but I tend to avoid the crowded areas of the beach (I call it "The Clump") and so I never went over that way to investigate further. Check online before you go -- I brought a small cooler of food with me and was very happy. A check of the beach's website does not indicate whether or not there's a snack bar, so be prepared and bring your own food just in case.

I walked for miles on this beach. I almost walked all the way to Hampton, NH, which IS possible, but I didn't feel like continuing, so I turned around and walked back to my towel. I carried my valuables with me in a plastic drawstring backpack that I got at a pet charity festival. The thing comes in really handy at the beach, and I highly recommend one for this purpose. You put your phone, keys, camera, money and a bottle of water in the backpack, throw it on your back, and you can got for a long walk without worrying about your valuables. You need to get creative when you travel alone. Nobody to watch your stuff, you know!

The beautiful Salisbury Beach in August. You can walk for miles, and swim safely.

I also swam, really swam, for the first time all summer. The water was beautiful. Unusually warm; and the waves, although high, were gentle. I can get a little freaked out by the ocean sometimes, as I've had some not-so-fun experiences with undertow and being slammed by large waves. So, it was a real treat to have some fun actually swimming in cold north Atlantic waters for a change.  Not like two weeks ago in Rockport... brrrr! I had to wear a long-sleeved sunscreen shirt in order to swim!!

The only thing I didn't like about my return to Salisbury was that the beach is not dog-friendly. "No dogs allowed" flashed in orange neon lights on a DPW message sign at the entrance to the park. Along with "Road construction beginning August 7th", or whatever. In other words, dogs are SO not allowed here, and they want you to know that while you are still on the main road, before you've paid your fourteen dollars.  Boo.

When I got up to the houses on Salisbury Beach proper, though, (this is a private beach area but you can still walk on it as long as you are just passing through) there was one guy and his dog playing with a ball on the beach. The ball rolled right into my path, and I was able to kick it back to the dog. The guy laughed. I laughed. The dog wagged its tail and grabbed the ball. I got my fix!

As usual, I like to take the back roads on my local journeys. Salisbury is just under two hours from my home by highway, three if you take the scenic option. A super-easy day trip and well worth it on a weekday at just $14! I think it may cost up to $20 on weekends, but again, check before you go so you are not surprised. I started my trip in Salem, NH because I had an appointment there, so I took Route 110 "the scenic route" to the beach. It was lovely. On the way home, I made an error and decided I couldn't resist the temptation of real fried clams from a drive-in clam bar. This landed me squarely in work traffic (after I ate the clams, in my car, at a cemetery -- hey, I never said I was normal! Widows learn to embrace cemeteries. They are peaceful places, and a nice quiet place to eat without anyone gawking at you. Dead people don't gawk, or tawk!). In my attempt to avoid the work traffic, I stupidly jumped onto Route 495 south, which was moving, as compared to 495 northbound which was a "parking lot" (or as we say here in Mass. "pahkin' lawt"). Unfortunately, further down onto 495 south, traffic was at a standstill. As soon as I could, I took the first exit and found my way back home utilizing highway-avoidance techniques. However, that added an hour to the trip.

I arrived home at almost 8 pm. Not exactly what I had planned. But it was such a beautiful day, I couldn't complain.

Next up: my return to Eastham. It's been almost a year. I can hardly believe it, time went by so fast. Stay tuned for my next Road Trip Travelogue report from ol' Cape Cod!

What adventures have your road trips taken you on? Tell me all about it!

Road Trip Travelogue: Rockport, Massachusetts

When I sold my vacation cottage on Cape Cod, it occurred to me that I would be able to go to other places. What a concept! If you own a vacation home, you pretty much have to go there on your vacation. Sure, you can go someplace else, but then your house is empty, or you're renting it out, or family and friends are using it. You feel bad not using this house that you're paying all sorts of money to own and maintain. It was a huge relief to sell the place, quite frankly. And, it enabled me to go other places, which is what I decided to do in 2017.

In the spring, I went to Myrtle Beach. It's now on my list of potential retirement places - if I can drag myself away from Massachusetts some day, that is!

To kick off the summer, I spent one day on another southeastern Massachusetts beach: Duxbury, just to see what it was like. It was quite lovely, easy to get to, and I intend to return regularly.

Duxbury Beach

But for my real vacation this year, I spent a week in Rockport, Massachusetts, on the north shore, by Gloucester.

Gloucester is where the events of "The Perfect Storm" took place, and there also happens to be a restaurant there named Passports, which I have to eat at every time I go there (because I work at the other Passports -- the student tour company -- which is completely unrelated, although we get their email all the time!). Great food, by the way. I highly recommend, despite the name.

Rockport is a "dry town". That means that there are no liquor stores, no stores that sell beer or wine, and no bars. Some, only some, of the restaurants serve beer and wine, but no hard liquor.  Now, for me, this is perfectly fine since I've been clean and sober since 1988 (one day at a time!). But, this might not be your cup of tea (oooo, pun!) if you like to party at a bar, your hotel, cottage or the beach. Ok, most beaches don't allow alcoholic beverages anyway.

Rockport is, however, a dog-friendly town. Hooray! Sort of. Dogs are not allowed on the beach. And you better have a superbly well-behaved dog.  Of which, Charlie and Cooper are not. Sorry fellas.

Booooo, mom didn't take us on vacation!

I had initially booked my accommodations at Captain's Bounty on the Beach Motor Inn (yup! Motor Inn! lol!) in one of their pet-friendly designated rooms. As my trip dates approached, though, I decided to leave the hounds at home, and I'm really glad I did. The rooms are tiny. The hotel is very compact, and they would have barked at everyone walking past my room. The hotel is not high-security. In fact, it's low-security -- like a throwback to the 1950s. You close the slamming screen door with a hook and eye, then you lock your inside door, then you use a chain to lock it further. Just like my cottage on Cape Cod, but not exactly what I wanted at a hotel. There is a fridge, and a/c, but no safes, so when I left the room for longer than a few minutes, I locked my laptop and camera gear in my car. Not ideal, since the temps were soaring, but it was the safest option.

You can walk to the town with no problem. The views from every room (EVERY room faces the ocean) are incredible. That was worth the trip, just to get these great sunrise photos every morning.

Sunrise shots, from my balcony, on two different mornings. Beautiful!

When I first looked at the photos of Captain's Bounty's pet-friendly rooms on their website, it looked as though ever-so-tall Charlie could certainly jump over the balcony onto the beach. Once I got there, that was probably not the case, but he might have tried. Especially if he saw a seagull or a child running. Even the first-floor balcony (pet-friendly rooms are on the first floor only) is quite high off the ground -- more like a second-story. But if he had tried it, he might have been successful. That was reason number one for leaving the boys at home. Secondly, they could not be left in the room unattended. That would have meant no shopping or beach for me, since I'm single, and it wouldn't have been fair to ask any of my traveling companions, "Gee, can you stay behind with my dogs so's I can go out and have fun?" Strike three was that dogs are not allowed on the beach. You heard right: dog-friendly town; dogs not allowed on beach. Oh well.  The water is astonishingly colder than on Cape Cod, just an hour or two south, which surprised this hearty New Englander. I actually had to wear my long-sleeved sun-protector shirt to swim. Never had to do that on the Cape!  (By the way, Gloucester/Rockport is on the other Mass. Cape = Cape Ann.)

The fog rolled in fast, and I managed to get this great shot of Front Beach socked in.

The dog-friendly factor came into play in the little town which was quite lovely. Dogs were allowed everywhere, with some exceptions. A few restaurants wouldn't allow dogs indoors, but dogs were welcome most places, particularly places with outdoor seating such as Top Dog (ha ha). There is also a dog supply boutique and my guys are way too big to have even fit in that store.

One of my favorite things that kept happening was that I kept seeing this older gentleman in a green Toyota with a cute little dog everywhere. For some reason, they kept turning up every evening -- at the ice cream store, at the convenience store, at the pizza shop.  I decided the man's name was Mr. Bojangles. And every time I saw him, I would point out to my friend who was with me... "Look! There's Mr. Bojangles again!" We kept seeing him! I wonder if he's a tourist attraction.

So, if you have a super well-behaved, small dog, and a partner or companion so you can switch off on dog duties, you'll be all set in Rockport -- even in the height of summer.  The town is so small, that once you walk through you've basically seen it all. Therefore, in my opinion, a whole week is a little too long to spend in Rockport. Watch your step at most shops -- the buildings are ancient, and the steps to get in and out are all different sizes, materials and shapes. Be mindful of the hot pavement on doggie paws, too.

Sunrise with fog

True to form, for this road trip I avoided highways and drove the country roads of Massachusetts from where I live to the north shore. It added nearly an hour to the trip, making it nearly three hours in each direction, but it was beautiful, and less stressful. Route 128 north of Boston? No thanks! I also learned of some towns I'd never been to before. In case you don't know, my favorite hobby is taking a long drive on the back roads of New England.

It's beautiful here. The Massachusetts coast (either north, or south) is gorgeous -- it's one of my favorite places in the world, and I've been to a lot of places. I mean, hey, that's why I live here! If you ever have a chance, check out the Massachusetts coastline... it won't disappoint. You can bring your dog to many areas in Mass., just be sure to do your homework and ask first. Some towns have restrictions during the summer months.

Where did you go on your summer vacation? Tell me about it in the comments!