Motoring Along in Middlesex County

On the banks of the Sudbury River

Since we live in Middlesex County, we decided to do something that we had not done before in our home county.  Several years back, I had received a gift certificate for a river cruise from the South Bridge Boat House.  During last summer, I had booked a dinner cruise on four separate occasions, but they had all been rained out.  So, I picked a date on the weekend where we would be heading out to Tanglewood and hoped for the best.  And the best it certainly was.

After being stuck in some very sluggish traffic back on the Pike, I was questioning the wisdom of booking this dinner cruise for this particular Sunday evening.  We were rushed getting home and had little time to change and head to the South Bridge Boat House on Route 62 in Concord.  Peeking around the corner of the boathouse, we saw the pontoon boat that would be our dining facility for the evening.   There was another group of folks who were celebrating their Dad's 80th birthday.  This party of nine was seated up front and David and I had our own little table for two in the back of the boat.  We left promptly at 6:00 p.m. and headed up towards Lincoln on the Sudbury River.  Martha, the chef, boat-driver, and crew, was delightful, full of interesting stories about growing up in the area, about the wildlife, and about the rivers in general.  As we motored along past Emerson Hospital, we were served a delicious dip and pita chips, along with ice tea.  The bird life along the banks was spectacular.  We saw numerous Great Blue Herons, cormorants, hawks, geese, and ducks.  The ride was extremely relaxing and as it went on, I felt the hurried feeling slipping away.

Martha pointed out many historic sites along the way.  Native American sites as well as Henry David Thoreau's boat house were some of the things that we saw along the way to Fairhaven  Bay.   You can read some of Thoreau's writing about this peaceful bay here.   There were no other boats here on this quiet, cloudy Sunday evening, so we felt as if this was our own private bay.  Martha cut the motors and started the main course.   When you call to book your reservations, there are several options in which to chose from.  David had Shrimp Scampi, while I had the Salmon.  Both were delicious.  After this very filling dinner, we then had our choice of wonderful pastries for desert.   We slowly started to make our way northward back towards the South Bridge Boat House as the sun was beginning to set.  Both of us were extremely relaxed and happy as Martha pulled the boat up to the dock.  We wondered why we had never done this before.  In addition to dinner cruises (90 minutes in length), Martha offers breakfast, lunch, and high tea cruises.  When I arrived home, I told my son that this would be a wonderful way to spend our 25th anniversary in a few years.