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Both of those rocky pictures I posted are from the South Shore. One of them is from Cohasset and the other one is from Scituate (my hometown). It's basically rocky the entire way down the coast until Plymouth....I'm pretty sure somewhere around there it starts to turn into the Cape Cod landscape.
It's not all rocks though! Here's another picture from Scituate. This is of Peggotty Beach, about 1/2 mile away from where I'm sitting right now
Taken from my BlackBerry, so please excuse the poor quality...this was actually taken as Hurricane Bill was making landfall at the end of the summer
Wow, I knew that the North Shore (Boston) was rocky but never knew anything about the South Shore. Apparently BTW, we both live on the South Shore! Too bad you live in Norfolk County and not Suffolk County!
The funny thing is, while the city size difference between Boston and New York City is pretty big, the suburbs seems to have alot in common. Even the Greenbush line (Old Colony RR) reopening by you, reminds me of projects that New Jersey Transit is doing in NJ, as well as what Metro North is doing in New York and Connecticut.
Haha yea they're extremely similar. Whenever I visit my friend down in Westchester County (Rye), we jokingly call it Shelbyville. The people are almost exactly alike, only down there it was all Yankees/Giants stuff and up here it's all Sox/Pats. The landscapes are all very similar too. Even when I went to Jersey to visit a friend it was very similar.
To sum it up, I'm happy I live in Boston, but would happily live in the NYC area too.
Cannot speak for everyone here but when I lived in Queens, I used to go out to Long Island ALOT.
In fact anybody who lives on Long Island during the tourist season knows about the wave of traffic that goes east from the city on the Friday, Saturday & Sunday (and increasingly Thursday evening). They are going to Jones Beach, Robert Moses, Long Beach, Point Lookout, Gilgo Beach, Fire Island, Smith Point, etc. They are going boating on the Great South Bay, deep sea fishing from Freeport & Captree, golfing at Belmont and dozens of other courses. There are clam bakes, lobster fests, craft fairs, u pick farms, museums, horse racing, various festivals etc. AND of course..... shopping malls!
Plenty of historic villages & hamlets with downtowns like Babylon (yay!), Huntington, Oyster Bay, Cold Spring Harbor, Amityville, Sayville, Oakdale, Port Jefferson, Stonybrook, Smithtown, Bellport, Locust Valley, Northport, Centerport, Bayshore etc. Further west there are more build up villages like Lynbrook, Garden City, Port Washington, and Rockville Centre.
Now the Hudson Valley, Connecticut and especially New Jersey have their own charms. I see for instance, you mentioned SALEM, Massachusetts (which is very timely since we are a few weeks from Halloween). Lol, do you know how they celebrate Halloween in SLEEPY HOLLOW in Westchester County?
BTW None of the Long Island places I mentioned are on the East End. All are in Nassau or the suburban parts of Suffolk.
Native, I'm glad to hear that Queens people head out to the rest of Long Island for fun. Even I know that people visit Fire Island and certain parks like Planting Fields arboretum. Maybe since Queens is already on Long Island, it's easy enough to go a bit farther out. In my own explorations I haven't found much to attract me in the suburban belt of Nassau and Suffolk. Bay Shore? Isn't that just a jumping off point for F. I.? Who goes to Bay Shore just for a visit? Sayville's kind of nice, Patchogue maybe, but again... Now, East Hampton, Greenport, yes. But that's 100 miles from Times Square, which is way beyond the suburbs. Within a 100 mile radius of Boston you have Provincetown, Nantucket, Newport, Northampton, Amherst, Peterborough, Exeter, Ipswich, Newburyport, Portsmouth... I was trying to keep it to the suburban area.
I'm with you on the Great South Bay--fabulous resource. The OP asked for a comparison of Boston to New York suburbs and my feeling is that around Boston more than NY you find towns with enough character and charm to be worth a visit. Lots of places are nice enough to live in but how many of them merit a visit?
Never know where you are in NY state with the odd township gov't. Each New England town has an unmistakeable sense of place, starting with the NY suburb of Greenwich. But that area's more wealthy than charming. Haven't found anything around NY like Ipswich, Swampscott, Marblehead, etc. The Mass Pike suburbs are a lot more generic, so in addition to town government, think some of it has to do with Boston having nothing due east, and a shoreline full of suburbs.
Never know where you are in NY state with the odd township gov't. Each New England town has an unmistakeable sense of place, starting with the NY suburb of Greenwich. But that area's more wealthy than charming. Haven't found anything around NY like Ipswich, Swampscott, Marblehead, etc. The Mass Pike suburbs are a lot more generic, so in addition to town government, think some of it has to do with Boston having nothing due east, and a shoreline full of suburbs.
I never knew NY had a Township Government, I thought that was just NJ.
Nassau & Suffolk combined are something like 13 townships, subdivided into villages, with school districts being drawn up completely separately.
New York calls its major form of local governments, towns (not townships) and cities.
In New York State, outside of NYC, the counties are divided into towns and cities. The towns themselves are further subdivided into villages & hamlets. Btw in contrast of what some believe, towns cover far more of the state's land area than cities do.
Suburban Long Island (Nassau & Suffolk) is divided into 13 towns, 2 cities and 2 Indian Reservations. Off topic, but most date from the 1600s and have interesting histories, to me at least.
Nassau County is divided into:
Hempstead
North Hempstead
Oyster Bay
Plus the cities of Glen Cove and Long Beach
Suffolk County is divided into:
Huntington
Babylon
Smithtown
Islip
Brookhaven
Riverhead
Southampton
Southold
Shelter Island
Easthampton
Plus 2 Indian Reservations
You've got your New England style suburbs in SW Connecticut like Westport, Darien, New Canaan, Ridgefield, etc.
Then you have your suburbs on Long Island which are a mix of dense and tight neighborhoods to larger lots the further you get away from the city.
Then of course you have New Jersey. Where you can find anything in between. Large lots, small lots, apartment towers, etc.
I think that the NYC suburbs have a lot more to offer but don't get me wrong I have always enjoyed suburban Boston. The Boston Suburbs where ever you go never seem to be very dense and you hardly see any "suburban sprawl" like you do in almost any other suburb.
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