Welcome back to Connecticut’s Shoreline and the 19th annual edition of The Shoreline Book.

Connecticut enjoys a wonderful 110-mile coastline, end to end — but at the heart of it all are eight small towns steadfastly referred to as The Shoreline by both residents and summer folk alike. In fact, most insist that you aren’t truly at the shore until you can actually feel the sea breeze or spot gulls circling overhead…smell the brine-soaked mudflats at low tide…hear the quiet whisper of the marsh grasses in the late afternoon…or fall asleep to the ebb and flow of waves off in the dark distance. And in Branford, Guilford, Madison, Clinton, Westbrook, Old Saybrook, Old Lyme, and Essex just upriver, you can.

But it’s more than just that. Whether you’re here for the day, a week, the summer, or year-round, you’ll notice that here, life is a little less hurried and a little less harried, because that’s the magic of the place.

Indeed, The Shoreline is a place where the cross-town Boston Post Road is actually narrower than some downstate Connecticut driveways — and the speed limit happily accommodates mallard duck and tractor crossings alike. It’s a place where the wooden floors of the country markets are worn by centuries of patrons their proprietors knew by name. A place where travelers can still leave a dollar under a stone in exchange for a clutch of fresh-picked snapdragons. And a place where one can count on grabbing a bucket of steamers or crabs right at the town dock.

Here, family names like Griswold and Blackstone and Reynolds, Platt and Meigs, Scranton, Bradley, Wilcox, Chittenden, and Lord have been prominent since the 1600s, with many historic homes still occupied by descendants who serve as the stewards of cherished centuries-old
architecture with tasteful care and generational pride.

Oh, sure. From time to time, squabbles erupt over cottage-to-water sightlines or disagreements over a project that may compromise marsh-sparrow habitat. And it’s a well known fact that town meetings are lively events, punctuated as much by laughter as controversy, with sparring partners on either side of any argument often related — at least by marriage — for centuries. But mostly, The Shoreline is a community of neighborliness where newcomers find it easy to relax. And why not?

For some, it’s the way the water creates a calming perspective, and for others it’s the reassuring way cedar shingles weathered to a silver gray on cottage after cottage lean in against the wind, undaunted. For others, it’s the promise of uncovering secret places among the hidden beaches and quiet coves, much like children thrill at discovering precious shells tucked beneath the driftwood and seaweed carried in on the tide. And some simply delight in the abundance of local wildlife, the shifting salt meadows, or the garnet-sand beaches. But it doesn’t really matter. There is a beauty here, tangible and otherwise, that is not just beguiling. It’s the stuff over which writers wax poetic. And it goes beyond even that.

Woven into this tapestry of The Shoreline’s small-town heritage, community, and nature are the subtle textures and colors introduced by the ex-urbanites who flocked here in earlier decades from the big cities — the influence of New York and Boston always present in the vast array of restaurants, shops, galleries, concerts, plays, and other cultural offerings readily available.

So if you live here, please keep The Shoreline Book handy, because just about everything you’ll ever need is in here somewhere. And if you’re just visiting for a bit, choose a path and follow it, using The Shoreline Book as your guide. There are no wrong decisions, so you can’t miss.

Either way, we hope you’ll enjoy not only what The Shoreline has to offer but what The Shoreline Book has to offer.