Not all beaches are equal. Janet and I have been to a few beaches in our lives and know that some beaches are just way better than others. Two of our favorites in New Hampshire are Hampton Beach and Rye Beach. Except for the Cape, we hadn’t heard of many great beaches in Massachusetts. That is until today. Today we drove to Manchester by the Sea. It’s a little fishing town halfway between Gloucester and Salem on the south side of Cape Ann. There’s a movie with the same name that takes place here. The town is charming in itself with a quaint downtown that wraps around the harbor’s edge. The T runs right through downtown, and has a station which is less than a mile from the city’s beach, Singing Beach. I read that many Boston residents have ridden the train here because of how close the beach is to the station.  We didn’t ride the train so I needed to find a place to park.  If there weren’t signs, you’d never know you were headed toward the beach. We drove up the hill out of the downtown into a very nice area of houses.  Some were indeed, mansions. The road ended at a little parking area that clearly stated “residents only.”  It’s no wonder people took the train. We found a place to park along the street back at the bottom of the hill and climbed our way back to enjoy this little piece of paradise. I say paradise, because for a northern beach, it is practically perfect in every way. The beautiful sand is rock free and just the right distance for a leisurely walk in the waves. We didn’t come to sun bathe, but taking our shoes off and letting the water splash on our feet felt perfect. Many of the mansions we saw actually line the hill along the sand, and many were perched atop the bluffs at the end of the beach. It’s called Singing Beach because the sand squeaks when you walk on it. After walking on the beach we stopped and had lunch at one of the local diners in town. I know this is a place I will return many times!

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller