At the end of August, we took one more little holiday. Just a low key trip.
I had faculty meetings all morning on Monday, Aug 24. We took off after lunch after Mike finished packing up the family. (This was a first in our marriage, and it created such an important balance that I really appreciated.) I took one more training meeting from the road while everyone else watched videos (and got a warning signal when I was going to have to speak in the meeting!) and we drove up to Gloucester, MA.
We had rented a little apartment and just planned to do beaches and cute towns for a few days. It was a really nice getaway. The weather was cooler, but lovely - a welcome break from the summer heat.
We went to Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester on the first day. At low tide, you can walk out across a sandbar to Salt Island. This was so incredibly fun! The older boys and I spent a good hour or two scrambling on the rocks on the back side of the island. The water felt really good afterwards as we were hot and tired. Then the boys did some boogie boarding, hole digging and burying, and we called it a good beach day.
We ate dinner that evening in Manchester by the Sea. I don't think I had ever been there before, and it was absolutely charming - a quintessential little New England town with the most adorable harbor.
Jalapeno pizza for Beau. He loved it!
The next day we went to the rock quarry by Rockport and scrambled on the rocks there by the sea. It was gorgeous!!! Rock scrambling is a favorite activity for everyone!
We got some lobster and hot dogs in town, and did a little browsing in just a couple shops plus ice cream.
The next morning we were booked on a Whale Watching expedition. I had been a bit nervous about it as the weather looked very iffy. In the end, it was perfect, and we literally hit the jackpot with a grand slam whale watching tour!
We saw at least 11 whales in total. They are so beautiful and amazing.
We got to see a mother and her calf breech 3 times! Apparently that only happens on about 5% of trips.
Then we saw a pod of about 100 common dolphins, which apparently are quite uncommon for that area. They were so fun and playful and so beautiful to watch jumping and swimming everywhere.
At the end, we had one whale who decided to play and explore right by our boat. We spent about 20 minutes running back and forth to each side of the boat, watching this whale come up right, right next to the boat. We could almost touch him, he was so close!
That apparently happens on about 1% of trips.
So, you put those percentages together, and we literally had a one in a million whale trip! We felt so lucky!
We spent the evening walking on Crane's Beach. It was so beautiful, and almost deserted because it had been raining earlier.
We went to a nature sanctuary in Ipswich before leaving the North Shore. It was an absolutely gorgeous place! There was a very fun loop to explore that had some fun rock structures, boardwalks, and a beautiful pond.
We left the North Shore and headed to Concord to see my old haunts. We had planned to spend a bit more time there, but there was a forecast for lots of rain the next day. It didn't seem to make sense to spend the whole day there in the rain and pay for a second night in the hotel. So, we just did the whirlwind tour of Concord. That fit some of the kids' moods anyway, as they weren't up for more sightseeing. We saw the Alcott House and Emerson House. We saw a bit of downtown. Best part was browsing the Concord Bookshop and letting the boys pick out a couple books each. (We haven't been to a bookshop or library for months!) We picked up lunch and headed to picnic at the Old North Bridge. Then on to see my old house and the pond. After that we got ice cream at Bates - still just as big and just as good. And, we headed to the hotel.
We swam the next morning (just us because only 1 family allowed at a time for Covid - so fun!).
Then we headed into Boston, just to see the Make Way for Ducklings statues in the Public Gardens. David is a huge fan of the book, and it was so magical for him to see it! We drove along the Charles, through Beacon Hill, and walked around the Public Gardens in the rain. David was so tickled seeing all the places from his book, and loved every minute. He was so sure that the real ducks there were actually Mr. and Mrs. Mallard and their children!
