Silver Sands State Park, Milford, Connecticut. [April 2017]

This little-known, nature-focused gem along the Connecticut shores of Long Island Sound is a welcome escape on a long weekend (Hike the Hudson Valley guide). It is not a hike by any means but has a long, well-maintained boardwalk to stroll through on a breezy spring day.

The coolest feature is the evanescent sand bar to Charles Island that disappears during high tide and re-emerge as the waters recede, and the marauding seagulls swoop down hunting for stranded mollusks. It reminds me of the larger sand bar we walked across in Bar Harbor, Maine, a decade ago.

It also seems poetic in many ways – how it obeys the cadence of the tides, sustains life by taking others, and bridges the gap between two sides no sooner than it disintegrates.

Anyway, I babble on. The beach is for fun.

“Letters are just pieces of paper,” I said. “Burn them, and what stays in your heart will stay; keep them, and what vanishes will vanish.” -Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood