On weekends, they run trolley buses that take you all over Cape Ann. Senior fare is only $2 all day, and you can get off and on as often as you like. We wanted to ride the trolley out to Essex, so we could visit the Shipbuilding Museum. Paddled in to the beach and tied up our Royaks. We thought we had missed the 11:30 trolley and would have to take the 12:30, so we walked down to the schooner "Adventure" and looked her over. Had a hard time finding a trolley stop, but eventually one came along and we flagged it down.
By the time we got to Essex, we were plenty hungry, so we went to a little seafood restaurant before going into the museum. Most of the prices were considerably more than we wanted to pay. Roy ate a fish sandwich and four clamcakes. I ate four clamcakes and drank a glass of pink lemonade. The clamcakes were very disappointing. The ones I ate when I was a kid were loaded with clams, but these were mostly batter with just a few tiny pieces of clam.
After lunch, we strolled over to the Evalina Goulart, an old fishing schooner that nearly sank in Fairhaven Harbor, but was rescued and towed to Essex, where she had been built. She's now sitting on stands and slowly being rebuilt.
The museum was small but had some interesting exhibits and a video on rescuing the Goulart.
When we left the museum, we had some ice cream and waited for the return trolley. We rode it all the way to the opposite end of the island, at Rockport. Returned to Gloucester and paddled back to the boat.
When I read some of the brochures I'd picked up at the Chamber of Commerce, I learned there's an old granite quarry near Rockport that's open to the public. Roy's been itching to visit a quarry and find out how they worked the stone and moved it, so we decided to go there tomorrow.
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