Boston - coast to the north

After a night in Boston we awoke to a lovely sunny, crisp morning and decided, rather than driving straight home, to take an extra day and explore the coast north of Boston. It's one of the great things about being retired, flexibility!

Beach with lifeguard station on the left.

There are some lovely communities within an easy commute of Boston with rugged shorelines, fishing ports and sandy beaches.

The coastline is a little like the Canadian Maritimes but much more built up, houses that may have started as cottages, summer homes, most are four season homes now, small towns that are quite close to each other and wonderful undulating roads that hug the coast.

You can just see Boston in the distance but this beach feels worlds away from that metropolis.

Not many people to be seen on the beaches even though it was a Sunday.

There were fishing boats still coming and going from the harbours and there was also a dive boat out with four divers down. I am very curious as to what they were doing, in a fishing channel in mid November.

Marblehead Lighthouse. Not as picturesque as some but had a historical plaque and it has an ancient and essential pedigree.

There are some massive and beautiful homes along this stretch of coast.

We stayed overnight in Keene, about halfway back to Canada. As usual we asked at the motel desk for a local diner or family style restaurant and were directed to Lindy's. This was everything a diner should be. It was just a block from a beautiful and pricey downtown area. It had booths or counter seats. The counter was grey, metal trimmed, Formica and the booths had reddish vinyl seats. The menu was not huge nor too small (sounds like the three bears doesn't it). The walls were steel with lots of windows on the booth side. Metal refrigerators and glass showcases (for the homemade goodies) were easily accessed behind the counter by the waitresses. George had Chicken fried steak, with mashed potatoes and gravy (it just looked like a mountain of white gravy when it came) and I had liver and onions with mixed veg (you know the kind, in little cubes). He had a pop and I had a coffee and it was about $15.
We had breakfast there the next day and overheard the priceless question "Would prefer genuine maple syrup or authentic artificial syrup with that?" (no, I want that artificial syrup that is not genuine). Full breakfast, unlimited strong coffee for 2, for less than $10. We started to discuss what actually constituted "a diner". Everything described above plus it can't have a liquor license, closes by 8pm but is open at 6am, has to have local specialities on the menu (sweet tea here) but overall needs to be basic, pleasant, cheap and full of locals.