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The brutal summer heat, humidity and the huge thunderstorms sweeping the USA this summer suddenly gave way to fall overnight on the last day of July for a week in New England. 

Blue skies, a light breeze and a 20°F drop in temperature were sufficient for me to leave our friend’s pleasantly air-conditioned apartment in Seaport, Boston to head out on a day trip to the Massachusetts coast. I caught the local train to Rockport (which lies at the end of the Rockport Commuter line) from Boston’s North Station. It is an 80 minute train journey which whisks you away from the grittier industrial and urban north of the city, through the suburbs of Chelsea and Revere. Each passing mile of the train line reveals more rural landscapes as you travel through Lynn and Swampscott; by the time you reach Salem there are glimpses of marshland and inlets. There are coastal ponds, boats bobbing in the safety of natural harbors bounded by rocky coastline as you approach the idyllic coastal town of Manchester-by-the-Sea with its famous Singing Beach. 

Onwards past tidal marshes, ponds with wild blooming white waterlilies, stretches of dense woodland and then the harbor waters of Gloucester come into view and onwards until the train finally pulls up at the end of the line in Rockport. This small, quintessential New England coastal town is located roughly 30 miles northeast of Boston, at the most easterly point of Cape Ann.

Cape Ann is especially beautiful. It encompasses the towns of Essex, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Rockport and the city of Gloucester. Gloucester is the gritty hub of the local fishing industry infamous as the location of the 1991 fishing tragedy immortalized in George Clooney’s movie “The Perfect Storm”. It is a tourist mecca – visitors drawn by its attractive artist colony at Rocky Neck, its excellent waterfront restaurants, its whale-watching tours and its checkered history. Cape Ann offers rocky coastal state parks, stretches of beaches and idyllic New England coastal towns.

I can never resist a trip to Rockport on a sunny day. It is an easy day trip from Boston – from the main rail station it is only a 5 minute walk to the Rockport waterfront. Over time (both when we lived in New England – and in the years following – since we’ve spent so many summers up there after moving to Florida) I must have been to Rockport a hundred times. I love the whole town … from its tourist shops and galleries at Bearskin Neck to its beautiful harbor front views with multi-colored lobster buoys hanging on the front of lobster shacks; from its iconic red-painted “Motif #1” fishing shack on Bradley Wharf to its houses with their beautiful summer gardens and wraparound porches; and from its coastal trail running over the granite rock headland to the golden sands (and freezing waters) of Front Beach and Old Garden Beach (the latter, a short stroll from Mount Pleasant Street).

It is a small town of pristine clapboard-clad houses (maintained by wealthy out-of-towners and residents) intermingled with historic properties in somewhat greater need of costly attention. There are chaotic country gardens overflowing with English roses, orange day lilies, sunflowers, steel blue globe thistles and sunshine yellow black-eyed Susans; there are manicured plots filled with color surrounded by white picket fencing with abundant white and pink hydrangeas; and the warm summer breeze is perfumed with the scent of beach roses.

Whilst tourists and locals flock to the town beaches to stake their patch of sand, I aim for the inner harbor backing onto historic Bearskin Neck with its classic views over the boats moored in the harbor. On a calm day the waters reflect the surrounding colorful houses and the tip of the spire of the First Congressional Church on the hill in town. There are upmarket galleries and jewelry stores side by side with tourist stores and small cafes throughout town. Families rent kayaks in the harbor and head out along the rocky coastline. Fishing vessels come and go and small children liberally coat themselves in ice-cream from Rockport’s famous “The Ice-Cream Store”. Next door, at Bean and Leaf Cafe on the waterfront, I sit at the picture window sipping coffee overlooking the yachts and fishing boats moored in the tiny harbor. A family of baby ducks frantically paddles behind mom who feeds on sea grasses in the water.

Who wouldn’t love Rockport for a day out from the big noisy, crowded city?! 😊

Whilst the sunny early August weather continued (unusually) at a more appealing autumnal temperature, Geoff decided to take a day off work to enjoy a day on Cape Cod. We caught the 8.30am Provincetown Fast Ferry (from 200 Seaport Boulevard next to the World Trade Centre) with Bay State Cruise Company to famous Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod. The 90 minute ferry ride crossed Massachusetts Bay and into Cape Cod Bay in mill-pond conditions. It was so calm the waters were glassy. No need for the double dose of seasick tablets you might normally need to make this crossing! The view back towards the imposing high rises of the Boston skyline was soon a speck on the horizon. We passed small islands scattered in the bay and beach communities south of Boston before heading further out into the open bay. I kept my eyes peeled for whales since summer is prime season for whale watching tours but they must have been hanging out further off-shore. Long before docking in the P’town historic district at MacMillan Pier you will spot the skinny tower of the Pilgrim Monument on the horizon and then the undulating sand dunes on Long Point and Herring Cove Beaches come into focus. All ferries dock at MacMillan Pier which is lined with colorful beach huts selling trinkets and boat trips to the dunes. 

In town, the 252 feet tall granite Pilgrim Monument tower dominates the horizon for miles. The tower was built to commemorate the 1620 landing of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower. You can climb it for a view over the town and the beach – we didn’t because we were too lazy and we ran out of time 😉

In fact, there are many things we might have done in P’town if we had had more time. We might have rented bikes for the grueling cross-dunes ride to Race Point Beach … or we might have hiked across the dunes at Dune Shacks trail to see the historic “Exit 8” Dune Shacks … or we might have taken a short ferry ride out to Long Point Beach – but we didn’t do any of those things and maybe we’ll just have to make time for a long weekend there to finish the job! 

We were there to relax, to wander the streets without purpose and to eat our way around P’town without having to stick to any more of a complicated time schedule than ensuring we made it back to the pier in time to catch the pre-booked return ferry at 3pm. Aside from that, of course, we are a bit spoiled for beaches living on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida so the beaches in New England aren’t necessarily our main draw.

It has been many years since we previously visited P’town – the last time we drove the long and torturous route 6 through the entire peninsula from Sandwich – the entry point town of Cape Cod. Cape Cod is a nightmare to get to by car, let alone all the way to P’town. The road to P’town is much longer and slower than you expect it to be because the traffic is truly dreadful all summer. Given the opportunity, I’d take the ferry from Boston any time over that awful drive unless you’re planning to spend your entire summer vacation on the Cape.

P’town has a strong Portuguese history because the vast majority of the fishermen who came to fish the surrounding waters were immigrants from Portugal, many from the Azores in the Atlantic. Obviously, our first stop had to be the well-known Provincetown Portuguese Bakery to pick up some Pasteis de Nata (we tried both traditional custard and lemon flavor, the latter of which was excellent). We wandered on to Joes Coffee which had good reviews but was disappointingly average – still it was pleasant to sit on the outdoor terrace in the shade overlooking the activity on Commercial Street. There are some impressive murals and street art in town if you take the time to look for them. There was a very bizarre passageway of eclectic sculptural art and paintings just off Commercial Street in the Bob Gasoi Memorial Art Alley which attracts a lot of tourists. 

We continued to wander away from the crazy chaos of Commercial Street past the Coast Guard Station and took a side road west towards the water where the streets become infinitely more tranquil and the houses more immaculate with beautiful manicured gardens. We stopped at the small beach by Captain Jack’s Wharf – a collection of very colorful Cape Cod rental shacks on a historic fishing wharf jutting out over the beach and into the water. 

We wandered back up Commercial Street into the fray and stopped for lunch at The Canteen. Reputed to be one of the better seafood restaurants in town, it is certainly very popular with tables filled with diners as far as the sand on the beach. There is plenty of shady seating and if you sit at the far end of the patio there are beautiful views to the water. The restaurant is decorated with lobster buoys, painted lanterns and colorful umbrellas. The lobster rolls are considered the best in P’town but, in my opinion, they can’t compete with a half-decent lobster roll in Maine. 

Meandering back through the shops before catching the ferry back to Seaport, we stopped at Lewis Brothers Ice Cream for homemade ice cream on Lopes Square. It was pretty average. Overall, the cafes and restaurants we tried weren’t as good as we had hoped (not for a couple of foodies, anyway).

On the plus side we did see a burly guy in a huge blonde wig dressed in a pink Barbie dress zipping up and down Commercial Street on a scooter (with a matching pink handbag draped over the handlebars!). P’town is very, very, very touristy but the atmosphere is great and it is an entertaining place to visit for a day or two. The last time we were here back in the early 2000’s, the famous “Dancing Cop” Officer Thomas (well into his 70’s at that stage) was still spinning in the street and doing his best moves directing the traffic at Lopes Square. Since then it seems busier and even more touristy than ever with a holiday vibe pretty evenly divided between families, couples and the LGBTQ community (for which it is more widely known). It is chaotic and colorful and I’m sure if we had stayed to party for the night scene it would have been great fun.

On the next sunny day I caught the Rockport line train from North Station out to Salem just north of Boston. Whilst many of the tourists who come to Salem (also known as “The Witch City”) are in search of a pair of plastic fangs or an outfit for Halloween … or to visit the myriad of incredibly cheesy witch-related museums … I was more interested in the modern-day street art which adorns the back streets of the city. 

I didn’t spend much time perusing the offerings in the Essex Street Mall (which has all the Goth or the simply curious could ever need – from tattoo parlors to stores specializing in gifts related to witchcraft and magic). I also avoided being dragged into any of the museum tours since I’m still recovering from our visit 20-odd years ago to the hysterically awful Salem Witch Museum. Here, dusty, ancient mannequins tell over-dramatic renditions of the story of the witch trials. Truly, it was dreadful.

Salem is a grungy city in areas with, understandably, a lot of entertainment based upon its infamous history. Highlights on the usual tourist’s city tour would likely include the macabre and the historical; the House of Seven Gables (built in 1668 and ultimately the home of author Nathaniel Hawthorne who wrote the famous novel of the same name in 1851); the Witch House (the house of Jonathan Corwin, a presiding judge in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692); the Old Burying Point (Charter Street Cemetery founded in 1637) where various notable locals are interred; and the Peabody Essex Museum (of art and culture) with its current environmental installation piece – blue-painted trees lining the Axelrod Walkway which is intended to foster awareness of deforestation across the world.

I headed to the Welcome Centre at the Cemetery and to a Memorial of 20 engraved stone slabs (many of them decorated with flowers left by visitors). Each slab commemorates each of the innocent victims of this period of ignorance, intolerance, lack of due process and mass hysteria which swept the colony in 1692 resulting in the travesty of justice which befell these men and women who were erroneously accused and convicted of witchcraft. 

Having wandered through the Cemetery and the Memorial I thought I’d cheer myself up with coffee and a raspberry and pistachio croissant at Salem’s highly rated A.J. King Artisan Bakery on Boston Street (it was quite good). Next door is a fabulous and unmissable street art painting on Barrio Tacos wall. Just around the corner on Front Street you can access both Derby Square (backed by the imposing 1816 Old Town Hall) on the right and, on the left, there is a pedestrian alleyway called Artists’ Row with a couple of artists stalls and some colorful ground murals.

Anyway, I was really visiting Salem to take a look at some of the famous wall murals in the El Punto neighborhood created under the auspices of Punto Urban Art Museum. There are 75 murals in all dotted throughout the area – the pieces I had time to see were absolutely incredible. If the usual offerings of mystical Salem do not appeal, but you are interested in street art, Salem is (unexpectedly) one of the better cities to find it!

Final stop Pickering Wharf – a small purpose-built harborside “village” with waterfront dining and a replica tall ship called “Friendship” which was, unfortunately, wrapped in shrink wrap for repairs so it wasn’t looking its most photogenic. 

Whilst the good weather continued, I plotted (and executed) my favorite (energetic) day’s activities in Boston – which goes something like this:

1. Start first thing in the morning at Tatte Cafe in Seaport for coffee and breakfast. Literally anything and everything is great there – in particular the Honey Halva Latte with one of their almond croissants (even better a pear almond tart) or one of their breakfast sandwiches on challah bread.
2. Marvel at the striking structures along the harbor front – the architectural landscape of Seaport changes constantly with ever more beautiful, glittering, shiny, new glass skyscrapers sprouting up from the concrete. The latest addition – the St Regis Residences (with a penthouse running around $54 million) – brings to mind a jagged shard of glass piercing the sky. A few blocks away from the waterfront are the more industrial-looking red and brown brick buildings which have been converted into trendy apartments and offices. There are cafes, restaurants and upmarket stores popping up all the time in Seaport. The ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) is also on the harbor front (far more impressive on the outside than most of its exhibits are on the inside).
3. Admire the iconic view of Boston’s skyline from Harborwalk at Fan Pier Park. This view is why you have to start in Seaport first thing in the morning to catch the skyline lit by the morning sun. It is spectacular. Follow Harborwalk past the famous Barking Crab fish restaurant to the waterfront of the Fort Point Channel. Here you will find the Children’s Museum on the left and, on the opposite side of the water, the reflective glass towers of office buildings and the Intercontinental hotel. If you’re lucky the water will be calm enough for near perfect reflections of the colorful tableau. At the intersection with Congress Street you will see the iconic Hood milk bottle (a landmark since the 1970’s which sells ice-cream and drinks). On Congress Street bridge you will find the Boston Tea Party Ship and Museum tour. 
4. Cross Congress Street bridge, take an immediate right to follow Harborwalk in front of the InterContinental Hotel and cross over Seaport Boulevard (immediately passing James Hook and Co. lobster shack). Stick to the waterfront at Rowes Wharf where you will pass the New England Aquarium and Long Wharf (knee deep in tourists lining up for boat tours, Duck tours and whale-watching). Continue on the waterfront Harborwalk around Long Wharf, glance behind you for views back towards the city over the top of the ferries and boats and then on to Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park with its lovely summer flower gardens and water features.
5. Meander on to “Little Italy” to try one of the famous cannolis at Mike’s Pastry on Hanover street in the North End. Check out the myriad of Italian restaurants and cafes on Hanover Street and the must-see architecture of beautiful North Square Plaza (Mamma Maria restaurant, the Sacred Heart Catholic Church and the Paul Revere House built in 1680 which lies at the end of the Plaza). On Hanover Street there is a small, peaceful garden at St. Stephens Catholic Church and, further along, is the Paul Revere Mall with shady seating and an equestrian statue of Paul Revere. At the other end of the Mall there is a circular fountain close to the Old North Church. Don’t leave the North End without a quick look at All Saints Way on Battery Street – a colorful shrine created by a local resident who has been decorating the narrow alleyway with religious icons and images of various Catholic saints since 1991.
6. Head back towards Cross Street, pass through the Rose Kennedy Greenway with its flower borders and water features, past the Haymarket and the historic Union Oyster House. Cut (as hastily as possible😉) through the unappealing and ridiculously overcrowded tourist traps of Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall Market. Check out the historic 1713 Old State House (the former seat of the Massachusetts General Court) wedged between surrounding skyscrapers and modern office buildings. Meander along Washington Street and up School Street to the intersection with Tremont Street where you will find the King’s Chapel Burial Ground. Founded in 1630 it is Boston’s oldest burial site and is the final resting place of notable figures such as Massachusetts’ first Governor and Mary Chilton, the first woman to step off the Mayflower in 1620!
7. Weaving through downtown from Kings Chapel Burial Ground towards Boston Common there is an excellent view of the gold domed Massachusetts State House from the beautiful bronze Brewer Fountain forged in 1868. You’ll be sharing the area with tourists and a handful of Boston’s homeless alike. The Common doesn’t have great aesthetic appeal for me, so I hotfoot it across the park towards Beacon Hill – to Louisburg Square historic district with its 19th Century Greek Revival townhouses built for some of the richest Americans of the era. The bow-fronted homes have elaborate wrought-iron balconies and the planters on their stone steps and in their gardens are of the type manicured and maintained by well-financed landscape designers. Close-by you will find famous Acorn Street- the most photographed street in Boston – a 200 year old cobblestone alleyway decorated with gas lamps. The 19th Century federal-style row houses were formerly homes of artisans and tradespeople (none of whom could afford to live there now). 
8. Potter down Charles Street with its upmarket stores and cafes (including another much older branch of Tatte!). Aim for Boston Public Garden in the exclusive Back Bay neighborhood. The Public Garden is significantly more impressive than neighboring Boston Common (the latter of which was designed as the first public park in the USA in 1634 but served mainly as a thoroughfare). By contrast, the Public Garden was the first public botanical garden in the USA. Created in the Victorian era in 1837, it is notable for its creatively exotic flower borders, its water fountains and the popular white Swan Boats which have been carrying tourists across the lagoon for 100 years. There is a sizable equestrian statue of George Washington but the park’s most famous residents are, without doubt, the “Make Way for Ducklings” statues of Mrs Mallard and her 8 ducklings which are often dressed in outfits fitting for the season.Cross busy Arlington and take a right on Newbury Street where you can admire the historic 19th Century brownstones which now house upmarket art galleries, cafes, restaurants and expensive clothes stores. Cut through a side street to Boylston Street (which runs parallel to Newbury). Visit the Prudential Centre shopping mall (if you like gigantic shopping malls!). Better still, pop into the Boston Public Library which was established in 1848 and was the first public library to lend books in the USA. As you might have gathered by now, Boston is the home of many “firsts” in the USA! Inside the library there are spectacular murals, marble lion sculptures, marble staircases and an Italianate courtyard garden with impressive stone pillars and archways. There are coveted tables under the shade of the pillared porticos where you can sit in peace and admire the central fountain with its copy of the bronze statue of Bacchante and Infant Faun. The repressed 19th Century residents of Boston were apparently so horrified by the naked bronze figure (and even more by its glorified consumption of alcohol) that the original statue was eventually moved by the architect of the library to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Long after the furore had died down, a copy of the bronze was installed and now stands in place of the original back in the courtyard.
9. Continuing down Boylston Street, cross through Copley Plaza public park with its water features and attractive flower borders. The exterior of the spectacular 19th Century Romanesque Revival Trinity Church is reflected in the brilliant blue glass of the 60 story skyscraper, John Hancock Tower, which is New England’s tallest building. If you visit on Tuesdays or Fridays there is a popular farmer’s market in the plaza. There are any number of restaurants for lunch in the area – another Tatte, close-by there is a Flour (don’t miss the hummus with pickled veggies, daikon, cucumber, sriracha dressing and mint on sourdough!) … and many other options from chains to independent cafes and bars.
10. Or … take a detour through China Town to one of the many back street dim sum palaces or dumpling houses. Stop at the ornate green-tiled roof of the Chinatown Gate flanked by white stone lions for a quick photo. There is a very small contemporary park outside of the gates called Chinatown Park worth wandering through. By this time you’ve earned a foot massage at Happy Feet Spa on Lincoln Street in the Leather District, a 2 minute walk away. There’s nothing quite like the ministrations of a Chinese foot masseur when you’ve been on your feet all day. Sure, there will be moments when you’re biting down hard on the proverbial bullet as he or she digs his or her knuckles into the ball of your foot and steely fingers prod into your stiff calf muscles – but the benefit of all that pain is that you will bounce back out into the streets with your trotters on soft, puffy clouds. 
11. For dinner, choose uber-sophisticated, inventive and incomparable Japanese restaurant O Ya (in the Leather District) and you might find yourself on a table next to a movie star – make sure the coffers allow for a check of a couple of hundred dollars (+ booze + 25/30% gratuity per person); or Chickadee (our absolute favorite Seaport restaurant for both cocktails and food) on Drydock Avenue in the Boston Design Centre; or Bar Mezzana (a coastal Italian-inspired restaurant) on Harrison Avenue in the South End; or maybe Sportello on Congress Street between Fort Point and Seaport (a trattoria-inspired Italian restaurant by famed chef Barbara Lynch). Wherever you choose you should avoid Greek restaurant, Limani Grille, in Seaport at all cost. The cocktails were good but the food was inexplicably confusing and, worse, inexcusably bad. 

Back in Seaport – take an evening stroll (alongside the mainly privileged and trendy millennial population who live in the surrounding apartments) past the Institute of Contemporary Art to watch sunset over the marina; have a beer and listen to one of the bands performing in the Cisco Brewers Seaport Beer Garden; or wander the Harborwalk catching the modern glass tower residences and offices in the glow of their night lights.

That’s a perfect (albeit exhausting) day in Boston!

We made the usual culinary stops along the way whilst we were dipping in and out of New England and the Mid-Atlantic over June, July and August this year:

Wickford, RI: at casual Gardner’s Wharf Seafood shack for lobster rolls with a waterfront view.

East Greenwich, RI: at trendy Blu on the Water for good food, cocktails and a view over the marina watching the private yachts coming and going to the various waterfront restaurants;

Newburyport, MA: at our old favorite, Black Cow restaurant (close to the waterfront of the Merrimack River) where every dinner ends with a stroll along the wooden boardwalk at Waterfront Park amongst the holiday makers and the locals enjoying the summer evenings; and at The Juicery on State Street for healthy organic, vegan take-out lunches, snacks and juices.

Rehoboth Beach, DE: at Salt Air (extremely popular, trendy with excellent food) which is in the centre of town – so good luck with parking in the summer months!; popular Bluecoast Seafood Grill in a strip mall off busy route 1 is a good backup for quality fish dishes; for healthy take-out lunches or snacks SEED Eatery on Route 1.

Lewes, DE: at Raas Indian restaurant – an upmarket curry house in a gorgeous dusty blue-painted Victorian with white accents and a large wraparound porch which serves some unusual dishes – favorites are Cauliflower Manchurian and Swordfish Tikka; the excellent farm-to-table restaurant, Heirloom, in a beautiful white Victorian with red shutters located next door to Raas; and for breakfast, or lunch, or coffee and cake at the excellent The Station on Kings bakery and coffee shop. Don’t even think about visiting the high-end restaurants in either Rehoboth Beach or Lewes without making reservations at least a few weeks ahead of time.

Time to head home to the summer heat of the Sunshine State! The heatwave gripping the southwest and much of the USA is pushing our Floridian temperatures into the low 100°s F … and our Gulf waters into the 90°s F … yikes!