Boston Day 3: Amesbury, Newburyport, and Portsmouth

I spent Sunday with my parents. Mostly, they showed me cute, small towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire that they liked.

I have no route map of our travels for the day, though I did take many pictures.

We started the day by visiting Clear Flour, a bakery west of Boston that came highly recommended. After selecting our goods, we hunted for a place to sit, eventually deciding (after entering it and leaving it once) to eat in the cafe part of Wild Harvest Market. Our chocolate croissant was perfect, easily on par with the best we had in Montreal. The apple tart was similarly terrific. We especially loved the crust. The morning bun and Gruyere cheese croissant were also pretty good. My mom was surprised she liked the latter. The scone was fine enough, like an ordinary corn muffin.

After breakfast, my parents drove me quickly through Beacon Hill, a neighborhood of Boston with which they are familiar from when they lived nearby. Beacon Hill has lovely narrow streets framed by brick buildings with big bay windows. I should see it at a more reasonable pace sometime.

I navigated when we drove in Boston--not an easy feat because of Boston's irregular street layout.

Heading north, we drove on route one past many miles of chain stores.

The first town my parents showed me was Amesbury. As we entered, we saw really great views of the river, including a condo building on an island. From Amesbury, we could see a well-forested state park. My parents tell me it was created by a rich man who donated a large chunk of land for precisely this purpose.

We drove through Amesbury's cute downtown. Within Amesbury, my parents showed me an old mill facing the river that's being converted into condos, and an old hat factory doing the same. The latter had lovely balconies. They both looked like decent places to live.

Then came Newburyport. We first drove down High Street and glanced at its many, fairly nice single family houses. They reminded me a bit of Atlanta, but these houses weren't as big or elaborate as Atlanta's. Perhaps I saw a similarity because both locations have houses flying US flags, often with thirteen stars.

We stopped and strolled in Newburyport's downtown. It is similar to Amesbury's with one notable exception: it was more crowded, and thus has a livelier atmosphere. It's not obvious to me why more people go here than there. Perhaps it's because everyone else goes here too? Or perhaps it's because the merchants have more decorative flowers in front of their shops? (But maybe those came simply because the merchants here bring in more income and therefore have more to invest in appearances.)

Before leaving Newburyport, we gawked briefly at a run-down synagogue (paint peeling) in the middle of a pretty neighborhood. I wonder why it's not better maintained.

From Newburyport, we took highway 95 to Portsmouth. 95's greenery was a nice contrast to highway 1's retail outlets.

Portsmouth is bigger than Newburyport. Its downtown is great, with many stores, some quirky, some ritzy, some elegant. The streets are dense with restaurants, including many overlooking the nearby water.

While wandering, we found a cool park with clusters of flowers of different varieties. For instance, it had a section devoted to all the types of coleus, another for peppers, another for begonias, and another for fluffy grasses. It's neat to see the wide range of appearances within each category.

We also spotted an old car: an Auburn Cord Dousenberg. I found it surprising, as in Amesbury we spotted a model T. I wonder if this area has a high density of old car fanatics.

After Portsmouth, my parents drove me along route 1B at sunset, passing many great water views, and then through New Castle. The town's narrow roads with closely knit houses make one naturally slow down while driving. Near New Castle, we saw some tremendous sunset views of water.

Hungry, we chose Portsmouth Brewery for dinner. For an appetizer, we shared a Caesar salad. Although my parent's didn't appreciate it, I simply thought it was light on the dressing. I tried some of my dad's Smuttynose Portsmouth lager; it was good. As for my entree, the chicken in my chicken pesto sandwich was slightly burnt, but I loved the focaccia. The fries were salty and good and hit the spot.

After dinner, we drove back to the Boston area and had ice cream at Christina's.