Being an almost life-long resident of Western Massachusetts, I haven't spent much time at the beach, so it never occurred to me that beaches can be foggy. But why not? There's fog everywhere else. Still I was surprised to witness the speed with which the mist concealed the view at Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester, Massachusetts late last month. Sharon and I were there for our fourth annual stay at the Good Harbor Beach Inn.
The top photo is of the sunset seen from the dune. This year, as in years past, I took pictures of the shrubbery on the far side of the dune. But I won't do that again because this time I brought four ticks into our room.

Cape Ann, Gloucester, May 4, 2008

We went to Gloucester during the off-season; based on what we saw last year on the postcards in the inn lobby we figured that the city and the beach would be impossibly crowded during the summer. Of course the off season was also cheaper, especially in 2007. There are always trade-offs to everything, however. In our case the trade-off for a better rate, a quiet inn and an empty beach was that during the first two days it rained and it was cold. When I took these pictures that afternoon I was afraid my hands would be chapped.
We stayed at The Good Harbor Beach Inn with a view of the beach from a sliding glass door. We were the only guests in the quaint worn out 98-year old building. It's the red structure at the bottom of the embankment in the bottom photo.
Of course, I could not photograph the smell in the air and the sound of the rushing of the water.
This tree is scrub near the marsh on the other side of the dune, which was grown along the top with long grass.