GAME PLANS
Exclamation points
There's nothing quite like roaming a peninsula
By Lynda Morgenroth
There is something about an island, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, that changes us forever. The same might be said about peninsulas. These fingers of land pointing into ocean or bay are largely surrounded by water, washed by aqueous light, and separated from the mainland in a way that invites contemplation.
For the adventurous among us, peninsulas are also like little continents. Leaving the mainland, we can stride around Pleasure Bay, clamber over mussel shells at the edge of Dorchester Bay, and hunker down amid a North Shore landscape of rocks at the edge of the Atlantic.
What follows are some suggestions for explorations in New England - a sampling of urban, suburban, and rural points. This is not a comprehensive list, nor a beauty contest, but more an appreciation.
Marine Park
A few minutes from downtown Boston you can venture to a historic point of land for an invigorating, seaside promenade.
[continued]
Halibut Point
Points can be sylvan and dainty, smooth traceries of land at the edge of a tranquil bay.
[continued]
Maybe Route 3A is the closest some of us will ever get to traveling Route 66; the old shore road leads to lots of stuff - kitschy, sublime, and kitschy-sublime. You can head for any of the following points for a single expedition, or do a triple-play of urban, suburban, and rural points in one adventurous afternoon. For nourishment, clam shacks beckon along 3A in its Quincy Shore Drive incarnation.
Squaw Rock Park
Squaw Rock Park in Squantum is a well-kept secret, known mainly to people who live on this residential peninsula.
[continued]
Stodder's Neck
Farther south, beyond the Back River Bridge, is Stodder's Neck, a serene, well-landscaped MDC property.
[continued]
World's End
A few hours in aptly named World's End - panoramic as an opening shot by director David Lean - conveys the essence of peninsulas.
[continued]
Rhode Island
Rhode Island is a patchwork of islands and peninsulas.
[continued]
Maine
Even on the most ordinary of maps, unenhanced by the artist's hand, the coast of Maine is so bedecked by peninsulas and isles, it has the homey appearance of untrimmed pie crust.
[continued]
Cape Cod
Most peninsulas on the Cape and Islands are well known; not so the series closest to the mainland in Bourne, which point westward into Buzzards Bay.
[continued]
Lynda Morgenroth is a freelance writer.
Published in the Boston Globe Calendar's 1999 Wandering New England issue.
