Celebrating Tom's 75th Birthday on Cape Ann, Mass

Tuesday was another beautiful day, a gift of a day for celebrating Tom's 75th birthday. Our plan was to explore Cape Ann on the Massachusetts coast. 

We began in Gloucester. 

Here on Gloucester Bay we visited the Fisherman' Memorial.

 Here are the names of 5368 known to be lost at sea.

 Around the bay, in East Gloucester, we found boat harbors and an artist colony.

 Around the point of this peninsula, filled with beautiful homes, We were allowed these wonderful views. 

 Driving on around the cape, our next stop was Rockport. 

 Here a charming old fishing village is now a charming tourist town. 

  Tom was enjoying ice cream for lunch. It's hard to pass up an ice cream shop. 

A Halibut Point State park we hiked out around the Babson Farm Quary pond and out to more views of the sea. 

We stopped for a late lunch at this lobster shop.

Here in a little cove we had lobster rolls and a view. 

Having completed the loop around Cape Ann, we set out to find Hammond Castle, because someone asked us if we had gone there.   So we did.

Hammond castle was built between 1926 and 1929 as the home of inventor John Hays Hammond. It now operates as a museum. It was closed, that was fine with us. We saw it as a curiosity, not a place of history. 

Tired from driving and navigating, we ended our tour at Manchester-by-the-Sea, just relaxing on a park bench overlooking the boat harbor. 

Then we headed back to Rowley, where our lodgings were, and dined at the Bradford Tavern, where we topped off a great birthday celebration.