take the wheel of the world and drive

[alonewiththemoon]

I drove!  On the highway, even!  Fast is fun!  I took out my first Zipcar for a spin today, a Nissan Versa named Verdad (yes, they name all their cars).  It was a nice car, and I found that driving really is like riding a bike, you don't forget how to do it.  I feel totally confident in my ability to drive all over the place now.  Yay!

Gloucester is nice.  We spent the afternoon there yesterday.  On the advice of the info center person, we did not go to Dogtown (unspoken subtext on her part:  "we are so sick of having to go rescue lost tourists, please just don't").  However, we did get the contact information for a couple of people who do historical hiking tours of Dogtown, and that sounds pretty awesome.  We'll find out how much it costs and see about getting a small group together later in the summer.  Instead of Dogtown, we went to a couple of local museums to get a feel for what Gloucester is all about.  At the Cape Ann Museum we happened upon an excellent photography exhibit by Charles A. Lowe, who had been a photographer for the Gloucester Daily Times from 1957-1981, when he passed away relatively young.  The exhibit pieces were selected from the year 1975 and were arranged in chronological order, so you could really get a sense of a year in the life of the town.  He was an excellent photographer, clearly somebody who loved the camera for the vertité art it could produce as much as for its recording of history.  Really there was no better way to get a feel for Gloucester.  After that we strolled down to Cape Ann Brewing Company, where we expected to get some pub food and a beer for me.  The beer was successful, a nice doppelbock, food less so as what they had was bags of chips and pizza from a local place.  It was a nice atmosphere though and we conversed with the bartender and one other customer.  All in all, a happy lazy day by the sea.
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Comments

[christianet.livejournal.com]

Go visit Hammond Castle in Gloucester! It's so cool!!!!!

[alonewiththemoon]

We had hoped to go yesterday when we decided not to go to Dogtown, but unfortunately it's only open on weekends. We will definitely get there at some point though!

[kambriel.livejournal.com]

Wow! You haven't gone there yet? If you still haven't by the next time we're up there, we should all go together :)

[lepidosiren.livejournal.com]

I drove! On the highway, even! Fast is fun!

Someone's been living with ferrets a long time. *berk*

[alonewiththemoon]

If you see a Zipcar hopping across the highway, you'll know who it is!

[frankensplean.livejournal.com]

Cape Ann Brewing Company also beckoned the last time i was up there. i picked up a couple o' growlers (barleywine and hefeweizen for the lady, although the pumpkin stout called to me strongly). They didn't have a serving license at the time, so we could only sample on premises (yay!) and then take the growlers with us.

i like to think Lovecraft's Innsmouth, up yonder from Arkham, is inspired by Gloucester, and i'm on the lookout for creepy fish-eyed people when i go that-a-way.

[alonewiththemoon]

Gee, half of M's family is from Gloucester... ;-)

[nepenthedreams]

Dogtown is becoming more intriguing by the minute. It's so big that people get lost in there and can't find their way out? In Massachusetts? I figure you'd either hit the sea or I95 eventually.

[alonewiththemoon]

I gather the issues are that the trails are poorly marked, where marked at all, and there is a lot of rough terrain, including a couple of quarries. Plus the forest is all brushy due to previous clearcutting and poor soil, so it's dense and hard to push through. People end up wandering in circles.

[jasonlizard.livejournal.com]

Congrats! (should I think about surrendering my license? ;-)

[alonewiththemoon]

M said I was a very good driver, thank you very much! ;-p