find the loveliest parks and preserves to walk/hike in. Glad you had a good time!
Just throwing this out there...have you considered Ogunquit, Maine? Maine is hundreds of miles of coastline and only, like, 10 miles of beaches. Ogunquit is a nice little beach town; I know they have lighthouse tours and I *think* they have either dolphin or whale watching excursions (or both?). Bonus: they're a VERY LGBTQ+ friendly town. I was just telling someone the story the other day about when bff and I went to Ogunquit at the end of tourist season. While back in our hotel room, we were looking for something to do one night and found a listing for a nightclub that advertised as LGBTQ+. Bff called to see if they were open (many places had closed for the year); they were. She then tentatively asked if "anybody" could go dancing there...the person who answered the phone said, and I quote, "Oh honey...you're straight, aren't you? Of course you can come--everyone's welcome here!" It was the sweetest thing...and we both felt terrible when we then sat down on our beds to rest a minute and accidentally dozed off, not waking till almost midnight, so we didn't go after all.