Cape Ann and Gloucester

On Wednesday, September 12 we took a day trip to the Cape Ann/Gloucester area in Massachusetts which was about an hour away.  We had an idyllic day.  We drove through Ipswich and Essex, Massachusetts on the way which have a lot of first period homes (1600's to early 1700's).  Our first stop in Gloucester (pronounced Glosta), was at the visitor center and park where the Massachusetts Bay Company first landed in the 1600's..  We had a beautiful view of Cape Ann from the clifftops.

 This area was very rocky.  We had lunch at the Cape Ann Brewing Company in St. Peter's harbor in Gloucester.  Eric had some great clam chowder.  We ate outside on their deck looking out on the harbor.  We watched the lobster boats coming in and unloading their catches.

 After lunch, we walked to the whale museum to see a humpback whale skeleton and then walked around the old downtown area.  We stopped at the Lone Seagull coffee shop for an americano and an italian bakery for a canoli.  We headed out for a driving tour around the Cape Ann peninsula.    Our first stop was the Rocky Neck arts colony.  We looked through some artist's shops and bought a piece of pottery glazed with melted beach glass. 

After our stop, we headed out to drive along the coast.  We hadn't gone far when we saw a lovely stretch of rocky beach, so we stopped for a walk.  The beach was in a little inlet that was so picturesque.  We walked along the pebbly beach for quite awhile picking up beach glass.  We found a whole bowl full of all different colors!  The weather was a perfect sunny 70 degrees with a light cool breeze. 

After leaving the beach, we continued our drive with the sun roof open and the windows down around the coast.  It was amazing.  Every turn brought a new picturesque view. 

We stopped again in Rockport/Bearsneck harbor.  Rockport was a very lovely little harbor village.. We quickly located "Motif #1" which is a red harbor structure which is supposed to be the most painted and photographed building in America due to its location near the artist colony.

 We continued our drive around the Cape and then headed back to Hampton. Our drive back was through some nice open farm country.  We stopped at a roadside farm stand and bought some fresh corn on the cob for Eric and tomatoes for me.  We decided that this was definitely an idyllic day and are ready for more.