Summer

Summer in Westport

Or, What did you do this summer?

Editor’s note: The “Bite by Bite” family is on vacation, so we called upon a guest writer to create this week’s Bite by Bite. Join George Hollenbeck as he shares about his and Ruth’s trip to their summer home in Westport, Mass. earlier this summer.

ou went WHERE this summer? Westport? Where Paul Newman lived, and doesn’t Martha Stewart live there? Didn’t F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda live there? Yes, but … that’s the wrong Westport! That is Westport, CT. We went to Westport, Massachusetts … a small “right to farm” community on the shore about 70 miles south of Boston. We first went there in the 1990s, but in 2008 we found our “home.” We’ve gone there nearly every summer.

Where is Westport, Mass.? It is tucked in between New Bedford, Mass. and Fall River, Mass., and Little Compton, Rhode Island. When we think of that area, we think of Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. But being tucked in there, many people looking for a shore vacation have never heard of it.

We don’t go ALL summer … can’t afford that. We go for a week, or two weeks, or maybe three. We go in late May and early June when the fishing is best and landlord’s kids have not descended. June weather can be great (“ bustin’ out all over”), or it can be foggy and cold and rainy … we’ve seen it all.

How did we start going there? It starts with fishing, as many of my stories do. In 2008 we were looking for a place to rent for a couple of weeks, not too expensive, but with lots of things to do for Ruth and guests, and fishing for me. We were lucky and hit the jackpot … we found a place that met all our needs. It’s become our vacation “home.”

Over the years, we became friends with our landlord Charles, and his wife Susan and we became more or less their default renters for the end of May and early June. I say “friends” but not exactly “social friends,” and they are not exactly farmers as we know it … say “gentleman farmers.” Charles’ father bought the original “farm” in the early ‘70s, and Charles and his brothers and sister and their families live there now – it’s more like a compound. These are true northeasterners, schooled and careered in Boston … really nice people, but not looking for friends. Their house is on the hill and ours is on the water, so we don’t see a lot of them. But, our informal rental agreement includes having cocktails together one evening where we can catch up on the year’s events.

What is it that we love about going to Westport? Westport is what a vacation home should be … far enough away to be “different”… it is about as different from Texas as you can get … climate-wise (cool!), geographywise (a mix of woods and small farms with smooth winding roads yet on the water); people-wise (a mix of Boston-educated types and ordinary people … the largest ethnic group is Portuguese). A vacation home should also be reasonably easy to get to – a nonstop flight to Boston and a 70-mile drive south. It should have “things to do” within an hour or two (museums, historic houses, whale watching, Cape Cod, Fenway Park, et.al). A must-have for us is good eating, so a good location must have good “food” places (e.g., a great grocery, lobster and seafood, delicious bread and creamy ice cream). It needs good shopping places for Ruth and friends, and last, but not least, easy fishing places for me.

Our house is on the water on the East Branch of the river before it joins with the West Branch and goes into the ocean. The water is saltwater with tides that go in and out with the moon, each branch a few miles across with marsh islands in the shallow places – a perfect place for great scenery and fishing for striped bass.

2024 was a special summer because we weren’t sure we would get to go. Fact is, we are not as sharp physically or mentally as we used to be. We don’t notice that, but our kids must. They decided that we shouldn’t go to Westport by ourselves, they would go with us – they would chaperone us for two weeks … first week our daughter Deana and the second week our son Bruddy and his wife Paula, with a weekend visit from granddaughter Savannah and her “friend” Jeremy who live in New York.

How did it all work out? Couldn’t have been better. The food? Our goto restaurant is only a couple miles away with lobster rolls to die for. We ate at the Bayside so often that I suspect they ordered lobster rolls or fish and chips and a couple of Golden Flounder beers when they saw us park the car.