Dry in Wompatuck

Don dragged me out of bed at dawn to watch the sun rise over the Atlantic.  It was beautiful and probably even worth that last hour of sleep.

We brought out the camp chairs and watched the tide go out as we drank our morning coffee. 

Campers salute the sun

When there was enough beach for a walk, we headed out with the pups.  We saw shore birds, herring gulls with their young, and lots of clams.

Peeps and a gull

The little lumps are clams

If you look out to sea you can see a lighthouse in the distance (6 1/2 miles).  It marks a small stone island.  Apparently this pile of rocks was the cause of 14 shipwrecks and many deaths.  The lighthouse is over a hundred years old.  It was built of solid granite because its predecessors could not withstand  the pounding from the sea.

Resisting Karen’s insistence that we drive inland to the interstate, we followed the shore south to Kittery Point, a picturesque community on the southern edge of Maine.

A bridge connects the point with Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a wonderful place to spend an afternoon.

We walked along some of the waterfront, through a botanical garden that my mother would really enjoy,

and around Strawbery Banke Museum—a collection of 18th century buildings that provides a view of life in the 1700’s.









We also walked through the downtown area with its many restaurants and shops.  This appears to be the region’s cultural center—it has live theatre, music, an art museum, and a lively pub and restaurant scene.

From Portsmouth we headed south through Boston, learned that the big dig was big enough for the Tiger,

Cider and cheese

and found our way to Wompatuck State Park in Hingham, Massachusetts.  A sign at the registration office warns that alcohol is not permitted in Massachusetts state parks.  Fortunately for us, the state still has blue laws and, it being Sunday, we had been unable to find an open liquor store on our way to the campground.  (We regretted not stopping at the huge state-sponsored tax free liquor store that we passed when we crossed the New Hampshire border.)  

* miles;  N 42° 12.175’ W 070° 51.199’