Gloucester and Rockport Massachusetts

Wednesday July 3 2013. We said goodbye to Cape Cod and moved to Rusnik’s Campground about 45 miles north of Boston. There just aren’t many RV parks in the Boston area and this was the closest we could get a site in. It’s an easy commute down the interstate back to the city if we chose to go there. We didn’t do much of anything in the afternoon, just relaxed in the motorhome and took the dogs for a couple long walks around the campground.

Thursday July 4 2013. We drove south along the shore to Gloucester and then Rockport. Gloucester is the larger of the two towns; it has a large commercial harbor that services the fishing industry. Gordon's Seafood has a large operation in the harbor. The town is not particularly a tourist destination which surprised me; it does however have a nice promenade that runs along the harbor for about ½ mile. There is a narrow canal that intersects the walkway; it was interesting to see the boats negotiating the strong current flowing thru the narrow waterway. It brought back memories of my boating days, except it seemed like every time I committed to a similar traverse some yahoo in front of me would break down or do something incredibly stupid and I would have to do some fancy maneuvering.

The Gloucester is most notable for its memorial to fishermen that have been lost at sea; it is located on the promenade overlooking the harbor. The 8-foot-tall bronze statue of a fisherman dressed in oilskins standing braced at the wheel on the sloping deck of his ship. The surrounding plagues list the names of all the local fishermen lost over the last three century’s. A panel on the front of the base holds an inscription taken from the Bible’s Psalm 107:23, "They That Go Down To The Sea In Ships".

Rockport is much more tourist oriented than Gloucester. The harbor area is shops of all sorts, but Rockport’s claim to fame is its harbor carved into the rugged shoreline and of course it’s red fishing shack. 

 On Bradley Wharf, it has for years been one of the most famous sites on Cape Ann as the subject of hundreds of paintings and photographs by aspiring artists from all over the world. After touring the harbor area we were able to get lunch seated on a shaded patio overlooking the water; it doesn’t get much better than that!

                                                           Lobster Salad Sandwich