“Beach Days”
Good Harbor Beach
Gloucester, MA
August, 2014

PENTAX K1000
Fuji Film Superia X-TRA400

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This post is coming to you live from the broken heat and shattered dreams of my frigid old house. I’m being so dramatic about it, but you understand. Brrrrr. I’ve got the space heater mere inches away from me blasting out as much heat as it dares to give + these photos are a good distraction to the cold.

Good Harbor Beach is our old stand-by. Unless we’re feeling up for something new {which we’re usually not!} we head up to Good Harbor, our favorite of all the beaches on the North Shore. Everyone around here has their favorite– Singing Beach, Wingaersheek, or even Crane’s Beach {if you can deal with the Black Heads! AHh!} and they are all completely gorgeous in their own special way, but Good Harbor Beach is where it’s at for us. Every single summer it wins.

We know where to park without having to pay and where we like to sit in the soft sand. I love being able to walk the length of the beach and when I’m up for it, taking the trek through the low waves on the sand bar out to Salt Island when it’s low tide. The views are also my favorite which is probably why I have hundreds and HUNDREDS of landscape photos from over the years. It’s the same each year, the same each visit and yet, I continue to jam-pack my iphone with photos of this place. It’s just so pretty.

This particular trip was a challenge for me because with the Pentax you cannot go wild with the click. If you do, you’ll run out of film and you’ll surely be sorry. On this day I had to take my time and think about each frame that I was capturing— the sea of people you see when you first get to the footbridge, the gorgeous old house up on the hill, my sister and our friend Jordan walking out to the water, and the way the sand looks like glass at low tide… each photo has a lot of thought that goes into it, at least I tried to put thought into each one, and still I only came out with a few that I really loved. But then again, that’s the beauty of photography, you know?

Even if I just get one good one it’s enough. I captured that moment. That moment is mine.

Blue skies
Smiling at me
Nothing but blue skies
Do I see

Bluebirds
Singing a song
Nothing but bluebirds
All day long

…

Wow was this day ever real.

I say that because when I look back on these pictures I have to ask myself, was this really real?

{It really really was.}

A few Fridays ago Zan and I decided to head up to the North Shore and enjoy the sunshine and blue skies. We left a little later in the afternoon, taking our time, since I’m on summer vacation (whoop!) and Zan took the day off work. This season is just so full of good. My sister had recently taken a kayak trip with her boyfriend Tom and some friends out to Thacher Island, so we thought we’d try the same. We brought up a canoe from Zan’s parents garage, filled some coolers with fruits and veggies, and paddled ourselves out to sea leaving from Pebble Beach in Rockport with Thacher Island as our destination. The ride was PERFECT! Calm waters so glorious I couldn’t keep my eyes off the gentle waves. It really was the ideal condition for canoeing in the ocean– it’s not very often that the ocean is so smooth and silky. It was amazing.

When you get to Thacher Island, you have to pull your boat {or kayak!} up onto the land and then sign in and leave a 5 dollar landing fee. After that you are free to picnic or walk the many trails of the island as you choose. There are also two working lighthouses on the island so there’s a chance you’ll see the lighthouse keepers while you’re there. We saw both {there is a lighthouse master keeper, and then an assistant} and both were very friendly and welcoming. You can even walk up to the top of one of the lighthouse, and so of course we did! How incredible it was to see the view from that high up! There is so much history in a place like this, I just love it.

Little day trips like this one are what summer is all about for me. I love seeing places that are new to me, and also love going back to places that I know and love. Today we’re headed up to Good Harbor Beach, I think! A place that we’ve been many a times and just can’t quit. Nothing better than a day trip to the North Shore for some beach time and ice cream on a hot summer day.

Forever, AMEN!