The first stop on our New England Foray – 2023 was the decidedly sea coastal environs of Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Cape Ann is the home of Gloucester, Rockport, Essex, and Manchester-by-the-Sea. And Manchester-by-the-Sea is home to my son Donny and his wife Hilary, and the kids, Augustus, Adelaide, and Eleanor (twins!)
This place will be familiar to some of you who have been following the Travels since The Beginning back in 2020. For the rest of you this may be the first time that you have been to this part of the country. Cape Ann is less than an hour north of Boston, but it may as well be 100 miles away. It has more of a “Down East” Maine vibe than anything else and that’s just fine with us!
While we were here, Gloucester celebrated its 400th Anniversary as the first fishing port in the New World. I can still see the Gorton’s of Gloucester Fisherman staring at me from the box of fish sticks that were the staple of a Friday Night dinner in our household growing up! That figure, immortalized as a bronze statue stands watch over the harbor here where many a person has gone to sea and quite a few have failed to return. It’s a way of life in this small village. This is also the port from which the Andrea Gail embarked on that fateful voyage during the Perfect Storm back in 1991. They still put to sea from here as Gloucester is a major landing port for everything from scallops to swordfish. History runs deep here, even at low tide.
Those weather gods must like everyone around here because the day could not have been better! There were many activities planned for this event; music, street fairs, sailboat races, and something called the Lobster Crate Race. Apparently, you can string a bunch of lobster crates together in the water and attempt to cross them. The totals were not determined by the act of successfully crossing the expanse of harbor-water, but by how many times you were able to do so, the Grand Total of ‘feet traversed’ being the deciding factor.
We were watching my grandson Augustus, in his sailboat race so I was only able to snap a few pics of the kids (Featherweights) crossing these undulating platforms with somewhat of an ease. Apparently the excitement starts when the adults (heavyweights?) start their part of the contest!
Sailboat races are by their nature difficult to see, never mind watch! They need to be held ‘offshore’ for obvious reasons! Then mix in the confusing rules by which they race, and you’ve got a recipe for a dish that only “Sailing” people would enjoy and understand. We were fortunate that the kids have been in sailing lessons for the entire three seasons that they’ve been here, and they love it! Donny and Hilary have started in a Thursday Night Adult sailing class run by the same folks that teach the kids. This entire area is sailboat/motorboat crazy as you may imagine. Everything is “waterfront” here! Luck was running rampant for us this weekend as this particular Racing Venue afforded us a unique opportunity to watch the races. Even the Parents were excited because unless you have a boat, watching your kid race is extremely difficult!
We stayed at our usual campground here and that’s a good thing because it’s the only campground that’s on the Cape! The roads are crazy narrow which makes getting in and out of here something that is done at an unusually slow speed, which is fine with us as this rig is not built for speed and agility!
But the view is Spectacular!
The evening was spent back at their house engaged in an activity that was quite new for us. That of making our own “Brick Oven” Pizzas!
This little wood-fired oven gets up to 800 degrees in about seven minutes with just a few small pieces of wood! The results are yummy and it’s fun to try and work the dough. Needless to say, we will not be asked to fill in down at Mario’s Pizza any time soon!
