Gloucester

One of the most beautiful drives we have ever made was the one from Beverly, just north of Salem, to Gloucester. It rivals the west coast highway. And the homes…oh my! We didn’t see all of Cape Cod, but of what we saw, we thought Cape Ann was lovelier. We drove down Rte. 127 which was a heavily forested road that curved along the rocky cliffs of the ocean.

This is the famous Fisherman’s Memorial. The inscription is taken from Psalm 107:23 and reads:

"They that go down to the sea in ships,
That do business in great waters;
These see the works of the Lord,
And His wonders in the deep."

The town was crowded on Sunday afternoon so we didn’t get out and walk much. We did follow a “private” road to Eastern Point Lighthouse. We were given permission by the security guard to drive down the road.

This was the yacht club for the residences on Eastern Point.

Dan out on the breakwater…

Of course we had to crawl over all kinds of rocks to get out to where we could take these pictures. Guess what shoes I was wearing…flip flops! (They were crocs, my most comfortable shoes.) It’s a wonder I didn’t break my neck. When you looked across the bay you could see the Boston skyline.

I was unaware until I got home that there are actually 6 lighthouses in Gloucester, which is the oldest seaport in America. Winslow Homer, the artist, once lived in the house adjoining the lighthouse.

We actually had to walk through a marsh to get to the rocks. There were wild plants with red berries that looked like cranberries. I didn’t get a picture since I was trying to avoid breaking my ankle in my flip flops.

  

People had come to this point to see the schooners. In fact, the security guard let us drive down to the lighthouse because he thought we were part of that group.

I loved this house. I don’t think the picture does it justice, especially since I was sitting in the car when I took the picture. It overlooks the ocean.

I could be perfectly happy sitting in those adirondack chairs.

From Gloucester we drove around the bay to Rockport. This was taken from the car as we drove around the seawall. There were probably a half dozen hotels/motels along this drive. Nearly every one of them was hosting a wedding on the lawn overlooking the water. I’ve never seen so many white chairs.

I want to know what these people do for a living.

This is just a shot of one of the main streets we drove down in Rockport.

Heading back into Boston after our Sunday adventure (and a stop to eat at the Cheesecake Factory-it’s not like we don’t have any of these at home!).