Monday, July 20, 2009
Beaches
posted at 9:16 AM |
Permalink |
I hope people who live in California appreciate their proximity to fantastic beaches. I'm going through my annual pining away for time spent on a pounding-surf beach. The air, the smell, the sound . . . they all simply knock me out and make me rejoice and feel blissfully happy. But it's at least three or four hours from me to any such public beach (I don't know anyone well enough who has a home near a private one) and the accommodations are never inexpensive so I continually put off taking the money and time. Rhode Island has a couple of perfect beaches but you really have to spend the night there at this time of year because people line up very early for the (limited) available spots. Northern Maine has fantastic spots (Bar Harbor wondrously chief among them) but it's an 8-10 hour drive from me. Southern Maine has a couple of nice beaches (Ogunquit, for example) but in mid-summer the hotels are almost priced like New York hotels - entirely understandably from their point of view but sad from mine.
When I visited San Francisco in September of 2004 I was particularly amazed by (and jealous of) Stinson Beach and Point Reyes, both within an easy drive and both public and yet not overrun by people - meaning that I could walk and sit and wander to my heart's content without feeling I was intruding or being intruded upon. And Carmel is not far from SF and is simply lovely, including two beaches at the foot of its main street, neither crowded and both places where many people gather briefly each evening to watch the sunset.
When I visited San Francisco in September of 2004 I was particularly amazed by (and jealous of) Stinson Beach and Point Reyes, both within an easy drive and both public and yet not overrun by people - meaning that I could walk and sit and wander to my heart's content without feeling I was intruding or being intruded upon. And Carmel is not far from SF and is simply lovely, including two beaches at the foot of its main street, neither crowded and both places where many people gather briefly each evening to watch the sunset.
0 comments
Post a Comment