Both Hampton Beach and Salisbury Beach live up to their names in spades, with miles of walkable beach with hardly a speck of seaweed to smoosh your foot upon. No shells or sea glass either. Cottages line the beach and while Hampton Beach provides a mini Wildwood, NJ along the street, Salisbury offers the requisite cheesy liquor stores, fried dough and pizza joints.

Newburyport proved a lovely surprise and only a ten minute drive down Rte 1. Located on the Merrimack River, it is welcoming to boaters, walkers, shoppers and diners. The attractive waterfront is easy to enjoy; the younger set taking selfies and the older crowd wishing they could.

On our must-do list was fried clams at Woodman’s of Essex, MA and lobster pizza at Atlantic Pizza Co. in Rockport, oh and find a beach with sea glass.

Bonus finds were the Essex Shipbuilding Museum, Russell Farms, Crane Beach, Halibut Point Park and great sea glass at Loblolly Cove in Rockport. On our way in to Rockport we’d scoped out two likely sea glass beaches; Pebble and Loblolly. Pebble lived up to the name; loaded with smooth multi-sized rocks and pebbles large and small. Nary a shard of glass nor an unbroken shell. But I knew I’d hit pay dirt, aka sea glass heaven, at Loblolly. A man about our age was walking the beach, head bent down and I figured he lived nearby and knew the beach offered something to beach combers.

He asked what I was looking for and his response was, “I beat you to it.” So you think. He told me that he’d “mined this beach” for years, using the glass to fill lamp bases and other containers to give as gifts. The corner would be the best spot. We started at the corner and worked our way around through the larger rocks with pockets of coarse sand nestled in between, every spot with sea glass. I added a new color to my collection; yellow.

 

This talented mother hen made her way slowly down the ladder. The farm offered PYO and the raspberries we picked tasted divine.
The day after our sojourn to Essex and Ipswich Massachusetts we visited Rockport. You can check the link above for why we loved it so much the first time. You won’t be surprised to hear we had to have another lobster pizza! Nor that one of us visited Beadles Bead Shop. 🙂

A luscious lunch followed by irresistible ice cream didn’t pile on guilt because the next stop was Halibut Point Park, the site of a former granite quarry. The visitor center was closed for repairs so we didn’t get the full scoop on dates, process or volume. From the looks of it, the cut granite was hauled down to the water and loaded on a schooner or barge to be delivered throughout New England.

 

Saturday the temp hit 87 and we joined hundreds of other escapees at, can you believe it?? The beach!! Yep, loaded with beach gear, what little we have, we spent 2 ½ hours at Salisbury State Beach. The state park campground there has 481 sites and is so popular that even 5 mos ago booking a week’s stay wasn’t possible. Luckily our site at Pines Camping less than two miles up the road is mostly moderate shade and that allows the air conditioning to take the morning off and work like crazy in the afternoon. Monday, Annie and crew would head NW away from the coast to…??