Gloucester....so far.....

The last week has been a flurry of activity, even though it really hasn't been. I mean, overall its been busy, making plans, calling people, driving around, shopping, etc. , but really its been all about relaxing with friends so although it seems busy, the days were spent relaxing. We have been to my favorite town, Rockport, several times , and may go once more. We used to go to Rockport when we had the boat here. Its a great destination. Its a small harbor town, known for its granite. It has a small, beautiful harbor (several pictures in my slideshow) a lot of trails winding around the shore, several beaches, lots of little shops and restaurants, and of course, Motif #1. Motif # 1 is a small shack, with colorful lobster pot buoys decorating the outside walls. It is one of the most painted scenes in this area. We used to tie our boat to it for the weekend, which was really cool. You could walk over to Ray Moore's Lobster, order what lobsters you want for dinner, then come back and get them at the appropriate time- and eat them in the comfort of your own boat. But I don't like lobster, so I usually get clam chowder there. we haven't spent much time in Gloucester yet, since most visitors prefer to head to Rockport. However we did spend two afternoons with Stephen, in the inflatable, floating down the river to the beach. It brought back a lot of memories and was a lot of fun. Stephen was here for 4 days, which was awesome (and part of the reason I haven't written anything before now). He went back home last night, after we all had dinner with my brother and sister in law. We have visited with quite a few friends, but our time seems really short here. I would love to come back next year for longer, so I wouldnt feel so much like I have to make "appointments" to be able to see everyone. Tomorrow we are going out on our friends' boat for the day. They have the same boat we had, but a year older, and we bought them at the same time. They are what we refer to as "boating friends" - people we are really close to because we spent weekends with them all summer long, for years. We are headed to Misery Island for the day- an Island we used to frequent by boat, when we lived here. In the early 1900s it was inhabited by cottages and a resort, but in the 1930s a fire burned most of the buildings down, and the island was pretty much abandoned. The foundations are still there and the island is interesting to walk around. Plus, there is a lot of sea glass there, and I want to get some! Tuesday we leave for Maine- two days in Portland, with an old friend- he has a cottage on an island, and we've never been there so we are looking forward to that. From there its on to Acadia National Park for a week. In the meantime, we are staying inside to avoid the ferocious mosquitos, and we still can't drink the water, so we bought gallons of bottled water. There is no end in sight to the water problem, which was annoying to deal with all week, but at least no one got sick!