I have left behind the gold-rich country of the Lydians and Phrygians, the Persians' sun-struck plains, the battlements of Bactria, and passed through wealthy Arabia and Asia Minor where, all along the barren ocean, towns with handsome circuit walls enclose non-Greeks and Greeks alike.
The story, which unfolds over three days, is filled with incidents, some of them violent, but as ever the drama is rooted in the interior world of its authentically life-size hero, as he logs long hours on the highways and back roads of New Jersey, taking expansive stock of middle-age defeats and registering the erosions of a brilliantly evoked landscape of suburbs, strip malls and ocean towns.
We cannot yet begin to quantify the damage to the marine ecosystems on which these ocean-going towns and villages depend for survival.
The swell of anger from beachgoers and budget-watchers alike has blindsided the lifeguards, who have for years enjoyed the prestige of their jobs in an ocean-centric town that banks on summer tourism.
The proximity to the ocean makes the towns here more likely to get snow full of moisture, which makes it heavier and more dangerous as it lands on trees and poles.
Pros Birch Bay is all about the ocean, its small-town atmosphere and its easygoing lifestyle.
Where to Stay: Two Village Square (14 Village Square Lane, 207-646-5779, twovillanesquare.com), an 1886 inn overlooking both the ocean and the town, has rooms from $120 to $179 in season.
But it's hard to sell a house on land being eaten up by the ocean, in a town still showing signs of damage from multiple hurricanes, and in the middle of an environmental disaster.
MONTAUK - IN a move away from blanket prohibitions on seawalls and revetments on its ocean beaches, the Town of East Hampton is backing the use of shoreline armoring along a 3,000-foot 3,000-foot oceanfront in low-lying downtown Montauk.
"Their systems are good, but so are the sirens, and the sirens are already here," said Ocie Johnson, who lives two blocks from the ocean in the town of Rockaway Beach and who started, with her mother, a Facebook page, "SOS Save our Sirens in Tillamook County".
With all the edible treats, you might want to hire a bike to get around, and there is a great bike path from the ocean to the town.
