Friday, July 15, 2011

Gloucester & Salem Massachusetts

Last night we decided to take a run down the coast and visit Gloucester and Salem Mass. today.  After an exhausting day yesterday I was in bed and asleep by 11:00.  The ocean, the bike ride and the swim here in the park kicked my butt and I was soooooooooooo ready for bed.  I really think the past few, fast paced days finally caught up with me.  A storm went through our area late evening  and cooled the air quite nicely.  For the first time in ages I slept with the bedroom window open. What I didn't count on was the sun shining in the window this morning waking me at around 6:00. Our plan was to be on the road by 9:00.  Well, that didn't happen even though I got up so early.  Nothing new and as time goes on Jack gets less frustrated about me not being on time.  When I wakened I quietly tip toed out to the living room so that I could read the paper in peace.


Little Miss Sydney had other plans. 

The very second I closed the bedroom door, so as not to wake Jack, I hear Miss Sydney jump down from the bed and do her morning shake.  "Crap," I muttered, "there goes my quiet morning." I open the door to let her out of the bedroom; I see Tanner's head pop up from the blankets and give me a puzzling look as if to say, "Will you please shut her up?  I'm trying to sleep up in here."  So, Missy follows me to my chair and jumps in to my lap.  She wants her morning rub and massage.  With her cute little face starring up at me I guess the paper can wait.  And now it's almost 9:30 p.m. and I still haven't read the paper.

Finally we are all up, showered, dressed and ready to go.  However, we have to exercise the dogs before we leave them for several hours and the one very important thing we've learned about campgrounds since retiring is their advertisements sometimes stretch the truth about their amenities.  For example, a campground ad may boast of a beautiful swimming pool.  What they neglect to tell you is that there is no water in the pool; it is under construction (and has been for two years).  Large, graveled lots may be a grassy or muddy lot with gravel just outside of the front door.  We both try to research campgrounds ahead of traveling but obviously we can't always take their words as gospel.  And this one, a very expensive one and am staying in for a week, bragged about a new dog park they put in this past fall.  That amenity alone is what attracted me to this park.  Simply put I chose this campground  for their lovely, new dog park. OMG!!! This dog park is soooooo ugly, dirty and buggy that Tanner and Sydney put on the breaks the second time we tried to take them to their "lovely dog park". They both looked up at us as if to say,  "What?  You expect me to go potty in there?  You must be crazy!"  So now we load them up in the truck and take them down the road to an open field so they can run.  They love it and all is good.

FINALLY, we are on are way,  arriving first in Gloucester.  Jack has pictures that follow.  Cute little town full of so much history of this country.  We parked and walked all over the town enjoying everything we could see or read about including talking with several locals. We ate lunch at a place called The Causeway (came highly recommended by the locals) and I'm here to tell you I've never, ever eaten in a place so noisy or busy in my whole life.  Also, it was a BYOB (bring your own bottle) type of diner although when I ordered a beer I didn't know it.  Jack ran next door (also owned by Causeway) to buy us a beer and bring it back to our table.  While there I noticed people bringing in their little coolers of beer and wine. Crazy.  Also, for those of you who know me know that my idea of fish is a fish sandwich at McDonald's.  I'm happy to report that I've eaten several different kinds of fresh fish these past few weeks and have loved it all; except shrimp.  Yuk!  Jack's favorite.  Just cannot figure that one out.

Our last stop was Salem.  Jack captured some beautiful pictures there as well.  Lot of young people and a huge market for witchery, physics, and magic.  Some beautiful, really, really old homes.

Great day but I am dead tired now and turning this over to Jack.


Some might remember seeing this picture of the fisherman's memorial statue on the package of Gortons Fish product which is based here in Gloucester.

They off loaded three large fish from this boat into the fish market while we were watching.






The inscription says"Step into my shoes and become inspired"  These bronze sandals are a few feet from the sculpture of the artist kneeling on the rock.




This little house is out in the middle of the water.


Now that's a rock.  Gloucester used it to place a plaque commemorating the establishment of the colony.





This is the Fisherman's family memorial.


This was taken at The Causeway restaurant where Hulio, not a big seafood eater, tried clams, calamari, shrimp, scallops, and hadhock.  Yes, I had the fishermans sampler platter while she had fish and chips that was also very good.


The pictures below were taken after lunch in the town of Salem Mass. 



We do the above type of pictures so we can find the truck after walking or riding our bikes around new cities.  Rarely do we need to use it but in Salem we had to go back on the camera and find this picture and then ask a person who lives in Salem to help us get back to the truck.  As it turned out we were within six blocks of the truck when we ask for help.


Elizabeth Montgomery statue from the tv show Bewitched









There were tomb stones dating back to the 1600's in this cemetery