The not-at-all-interesting route we took, courtesy of Google Maps.

Date of trip: July 12, 2009

This was a short trip, so I’ll make it a short post. (And we visited Short Beach, but I’ll talk about that in a minute.) There isn’t much to say about Nahant other than it is a nicer place to visit than Revere, but not nearly as nice as pretty much any other beach town along the North Shore. Think of Nahant as a poor man’s Marblehead, without the welcoming B&Bs and scrumptious seafood restaurants.

For us travelers, Nahant had little to recommend. Throughout the island, parking was for locals only, and we saw more than one scenic vista marred by No Parking signs. The local cops enforced this rule by circling the island and pouncing on any riffraff who had the audacity to pull to the side of the empty road and look at the ocean. Move along, citizen. This ocean is not for you.

There were two beaches, however. Short Beach (point B on the map) was the smaller of the two. This beach seemed to be where the locals hung out; it was quiet and unassuming, with lots of families. One side of the beach was flanked with houses, with stairs leading right down to the water. We talked about how it would be a nice place to live, and also how we might actually be able to afford to live there (unlike many other places on the North Shore). Anyway, this is Short Beach.

Summer on Short Beach

After we visited Short Beach, we skirted around the island, staying close to the water. Eventually, we lost patience with not being able to park or even stop and get out of the car to take pictures, and we headed to the second beach, called Long Beach. A restaurant sits on the edge of Long Beach, and we had lunch there and enjoyed the ocean views. We ate in the pub: nothing special but not too bad. Jenny reviewed the experience on Yelp.

After lunch, we paid the $3 to park so that we could check out the beach. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was warm and comfortable. The beach itself was fairly crowded, so there was some trash, but I guess that comes with the territory on a public beach. I didn’t mind much. We walked about half the length of the beach, and it was a good place to be. I saw this seagull there.

Landing Gear Down

Here’s our route to the Wachusett Reservoir and back again. We took the Mass Pike there and the Boston Post Road back.

After two solid weekends of rain, we finally managed to resume our summer trips this weekend. How we ended up with the destination of Clinton is anyone’s guess, but I think I am to blame. See, the thing is, I sort of like the town’s website, and I was especially taken with the fifty great things about Clinton list. I imagined we would take a quick look at the Russian icons, and maybe check out the view from the Ledge, and then the dam. Most of all, I wanted to see the old railroad tunnel. How I longed to take pictures of that tunnel exactly like the one I just linked to. Alas, alas.

We drove into Clinton on a Saturday afternoon, and the place was like a ghost town. There were very few people around, and all of the shops were closed. If you think I’m exaggerating, see for yourself.

All that's missing is a tumbleweed rolling by

It took us awhile, but we finally managed to find a parking spot near Central Park, in front of the Russian Icon museum, which was due to close twenty minutes later. So we skipped that and took a walk around the park, a well-maintained public green space that is about a city block in size, ringed by the austere architecture of the surrounding buildings. The northwest corner of the park has a tall fountain, which wasn’t turned on, filled with funky-looking, stagnant water. As if to emphasize the filth of the fountain’s green, stinky water, a little boy ran up and peed in the fountain just as I was taking the following picture.

Ladies of the fountain

We had a late lunch at Via Alto 27, which we were amazed to find open in the deserted town, and even more amazed by the delicious, homemade pasta.

After lunch, we tried to check out some of the fifty great things, but we were denied at every turn. We couldn’t find the Ledge, and the dam was gated off completely. Also, while we saw no sign of the fire roads around the reservoir, we did see No Trespassing signs nearly every fifty feet. I understand that it’s a public water supply, but the signs make the whole empty town seem that much more unwelcoming. Most disappointing, though, was the old railroad tunnel being inaccessible and hidden away. This dude managed to reach it, but we weren’t really up for parking on a residential street, walking down the highway, and cutting through backyards and woods to see the tunnel. Maybe we should have.

Anyway, we ended up driving around town.

Everybody knows this is nowhere

After that, we drove around the reservoir, which is gorgeous in places, and then came home via route 20, which alternates between strip malls and wooded areas.

The route we took, courtesy of Google Maps, to rainy Salem.

Some stuff happened in Salem, but I can’t remember much more than the rain and the arcade. Maybe they put a forgetting spell on me.

The Salem Willows Arcade, with Rain Closing In

And this old baseball pinball machine, which I am considering going back to steal.

The little men run around the bases and everything