A Bunch of Conformists
The most amazing thing happened on Sunday: the sun came out. And based on the day’s name, it couldn’t have happened on a more appropriate day.
True, there was some sun on Saturday…perhaps from about noon until 3PM, but then the clouds (and storms we’ve had almost daily) came through. We did manage to do a bit of shopping on Saturday (completely forgetting that it was the tax-free holiday) and went to see Sex and the City at the Capitol Theatre that night.
But Sunday was the day. We headed out just after 11AM to go to Crane Beach on the North Shore. They were turning cars away because it was so crowded. I’ve had this happen before…but you combine what feels like 12 consecutive weekends of bad weather together and have the first completely storm-free weekend day all summer, and EVERYBODy does the same thing. Damn conformists.
So, since we were already on the North Shore, Randy and I drove around until we found another beach (yay GPS). Still, we didn’t arrive until nearly 2 hours after leaving the house (my longest attempt to go to the beach…ever!
This one was in Gloucester and had a long Indian name. It was a small beach (compared to Crane) but was in a rather lovely setting. Straight ahead of you was the Atlantic Ocean with a lighthouse perched at the end of land sticking out on the right. To the left were houses and trees and big rocks. To the right was a river (or narrow harbor) with some beautiful buildings on the other side (presumably mansions and clubs/boat houses). The beach had the softest sand we’d found in New England, but at the end there were enormous rocks you could climb. As the tide went out, you could walk great lengths to wear people had anchored their boats for a day at the beach. But as the tide got lower and lower, boats were stranded on land.
But being stranded didn’t matter to these folks, because the further you walked (away from the beach parking lots) the more it felt like a college kegger. Seriously…people tied boats together so there was a continuous wall of 25-50 boats. People were blasting music and I saw more public consumption of alcohol than I had in my entire life (considering it’s illegal in Massachusetts).
It was somewhat disconerting since all of these partiers were eventually going to get back into their boats and navigate around while drunk. And it was somewhat shocking that police weren’t interfering. However, since this section of the beach was behind the rocks and around the corner from the family-friendly, lifeguard-protected area, I suppose the city may turn a blind eye.
Besides, this was the first nice weekend day we’ve had in ages so it was worth celebrating.
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Ahhhhh you discovered the beauty and fun of Wingaersheek beach 🙂 Definitely the lesser known of the Gloucester beaches (well compared to Good Harbor) but nice if you want a peaceful day lolling along in the water.