As a Jersey Girl who has never been north of New York State, I was totally in awe of walking into the picture-postcard town of Rockport. It has a totally different feel than any NJ seaside town (no, I am not saying ‘better’, I am saying ‘different’) It is bumpy, hilly and oh so rocky! I am no history buff, but I honestly thought to myself ‘can you just see those pilgrims sailing up to this shore?’ It is cool to me to think that 400 years ago, our nation was born on that coastline.

I had the benefit of being accompanied by my dear friend, who is a native of Rockport. First line of business was beaches – three to be exact. We took advantage of one of the only good weather jags predicted for the week to see the best local beaches – and we loved them!

The town is quaint and full of cute little shops serving up everything from dog treats to beach sand jewelry, fantastic strudel to pewter creations, candy shops (plural), country stores and shops full of beach themed gifts.

There were enough rocky outcroppings to keep a bunch of kids busy for….well, a looooong time!

We visited Halibut Point State Park, which was a really neat place and we found a fabled ‘kid tree’ 🙂 We learned a bit about granite mining and took in some fantastic scenery.

We visited Salem, which I had wanted to do for a long time. It was as cool as I had hoped. You just follow the red line painted all through town and it will take you to all the sites. We did all the Salem Witch Trial stuff, visited a national park and peeked at The House of Seven Gables and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s house.

We visited The Paper House, ate at The Lobster Pool, played two games of candle pin bowling, stopped by the Gloucester Fisherman’s Memorial and had a backyard-birthday BBQ. Did I mention we fit all of this into 5 days? ‘Just a Jewelry Girl‘ was an efficient tour guide!

As you can see – we were 2 moms and 7 kids. We did really well considering how badly we were outnumbered. There were some squabbles here and there, but they were quelled pretty quickly. We definitely made memories on this trip.

Ethan and Dennis did great home by themselves. I don’t know how much take out they ate, but the house was clean and the laundry kept up 🙂 I learned I could drive not only the 5 hours it should have taken to get to Rockport, but the 8 hours it took to get home. Now I know I can make it to Niagra Falls 😉 Stay tuned.