September 25, 2008 – Minuteman Campground, Ayer, MA

We did some more sightseeing on our own today, driving a little north of Boston. We intended to go thru Salem first, then to Gloucester and Rockport which nestle together and sit on the coast. Somehow we ended up going to Gloucester first. Both Gloucester and Rockport are touristy fishing towns with lots of little artsy shops and overpriced clothing.

We enjoy just driving around and looking at the homes and the coastal views. We stopped at one of the restaurants and shared a lobster pie. It was described on the menu as the “Lazy man’s lobster”. It was lobster meat already picked out, cooked with butter and buttered cracker crumbs over it. It came with fries and slaw. It was really good. I think we’ll wait to get to Maine to get a real lobster dinner.

We stopped at the “Halibut Point State Park” and walked through some of their trails. It was on the coast and surrounded an abandoned granite quarry.

There were hundreds of giant granite boulders still there. I would have liked to have picked out a new countertop while there, but Larry didn’t think they would appreciate us trying to load their little rocks.

This afternoon we finally made it to Salem. We stopped at the Witches Museum, but we weren’t interested enough in witches to pay the $8 each to tour it. We walked around the adjoining block to the tourist center and went in there to see what kind of literature they had on the area. As we were leaving the building, we walked past a man sitting on a bench. I looked at him and when we were past, I said to Larry “that man looked just like David Roady”. He said “I thought so too.” Could it be??? Surely not! We turned back and he had left the bench. There was a lady standing there and Larry asked me if that wasn’t his wife. I wasn’t sure as I had met her only a couple of times. We stood there waiting to see where the man had gone. He came back to the lady in question, and Larry asked him if he was Dave Roady. When he asked, Dave recognized us also. They are in the area waiting to board a cruise ship to Nova Scotia and Canada. They were with a group touring the Boston area prior to the cruise. Small world!! For those of you not from Troy, Dave is a former teacher at the Junior High, formerly our tax preparer and city treasurer for Troy. Dave and Marguerite are also parents of Lenny’s best friend, Patrick. I guess it was fate for us to miss the road to Salem till later in the day.