OLD ORCHARD BEACH, Maine — There are three things messing with your summer in Boston. 1. The Heat.
It’s already the hottest summer ever recorded at the Blue Hills Observatory. 2. Traffic.
The college kids are gone but all-day traffic remains. 3. Politics.
The presidential election, tragic for oh-so-many reasons, still has more than 100 days to go. It’s important for sure, but 24/7 is too much. Is there any escape from all this madness? Get in the car, put on the Boss, and drive 100 miles north of Boston.
“Once the weather goes to steam, you go under the boardwalk,” Bruce Springsteen said while hosting a radio show. Two hours later, we are under The Pier at Old Orchard Beach , which juts almost 500 feet over the beach and out into the mighty Atlantic. Advertisement The New York Times once called this place “a kind of Riviera for middle-income French Canadians.
” Many of the beachgoers are speaking French, so it feels like you’re on vacation and out of the country. Under the pier, on the soft, brown sand — no rocks — is the place to be, despite the 90-degree day. There are huge swaths of shade and a delightful breeze coming off the 62-degree water.
At Old Orchard, there’s no pretense, like in Nantucket or Kennebunkport; instead, it’s got a fun Jersey shore vibe. The smell of French fries and fried dough wafts through the air. The pier was built in 1898 and has been rebuilt (and shortened) several times after fires, hurricanes, and the Blizzard of ‘78 de.