Visiting Cape Ann
Being back in Boston during (what I consider to be) the best days of summer has been marvelous. I've got to visit some of my favorite places and also new places I've never really spent much time in. One of those places is Cape Ann, a peninsula (otherwise known as a cape) just north of Boston.
I first became interested in visiting Cape Ann when I picked up the current issue of Edible Boston and started reading the an article called “Edible Destinations: Essex and Ipswich.” I, like most, thought the area’s main claim to fame was fried clams. Delicious? Yes. A foodie offering? Not really. The article, however, detailed a lot of interesting foodie sights that I never knew existed on the North Shore including wineries, farms, dairies, distilleries and breweries. With a little more research, I also found that the Trustees of Reservations, a local land preservation society, had a number of cool properties. These attractions combined with the temptation of finally getting to the ocean made this the ideal Father’s Day trip.
So, last weekend, we all piled into the old Subaru, fought through the traffic on 128 and took a family trip there. We had a lovely time visiting the farms and natural spaces that characterize this coastal remarkable destination. We didn’t get to see too much, but we did travel the scenic byways and highways of Cape Ann and visited a farm, Russell Orchards, with Pick-Your-Own fruits and an excellent barnyard; took a walk on Castle Hill; grabbed an ice cream cone at Down River Ice Cream (a must-do when traveling with my mother); and capped things off with dinner at a Massachusetts institution, Kelly’s Roast Beef.
During our adventure, I took a few cheeky snapshots which you can check out in this slideshow.
