So what’s the landmark that identifies your area?

Paris has the Eiffel Tower, Lady Liberty is to The Big Apple (or is it the just the apple?), The Big Ben is to London, etc. All across the globe, each destination may have several distinct landmarks but there will always be one that will stick to mind. Those are the must-haves behind each photograph taken when traveling hashtagged #souvenirshot #paris or #london or #nyc. It’s also your #braggingright, right?

Next stop.

For Rockport, the town in Essex County at the tip of the Cape Ann Peninsula, a 40-minutes drive northeast of Boston, Massachusetts, the man-made landmark is not as grandiose as one would expect it to be for a popular destination. In fact, for first time visitors (like me), expect the jaw to drop and utter, “Is that it?”

The red shack that made this town famous.

One of the most famous sites on Cape Ann is the harbor town’s “monument”— a red fishing shack on the rocks on Bradley Wharf, an active fish landing and storage area since the American Civil War. Built in the 1840s, a time when Rockport became home to fishermen and colony of artists, the shack offered convenient and immediate storage for gear and fish, and a favorite subject of painters referring to it as “a symbol of New England maritime life”.

A view of the cape and the harbor from another point of view.

Hornby, a painter, is believed to be credited for naming the red “Motif No. 1” since it became the preferred theme of the town’s artists. To the pupils of art and art history, this red shack is “most often-painted building in America.”

So this is one of the boats they use to catch my lobsters....

The former timber and granite town, and now a tourist town of Rockport saw an icon in Motif No. 1 and took measures to preserve the structure and appearance, red hue included. After the shack was razed to the ground during the Blizzard of 1978, a replica was immediately constructed on the same year.

The Atlantic

Today, along with the favorite Rockport vacation spots like the boulder-strewn ocean beaches and seaside parks, the Cape Anne’s Bradley Wharf and its iconic red shack has become one of the most-visited spots in the North Shore area of Massachusetts.

The town gets quiet when summer is over.

We know where you're going. This way, please.

The artist colony.

I wonder why the name. (leave me a comment if you know why, please)

Just one of the many galleries in this area.

Quaint-looking shop.

And now, I am ready to give another go at that lobster before I head back to Boston.

You mean we can have lobster again before heading back to Boston?

For more travel & lifestyle stories, visit http://jeepneyjinggoy.blogspot.com/ and http://apples-and-lemons.blogspot.com/


Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on November 28, 2013.

“Have you seen the movie The Perfect Storm?,” my host, Cris, asked me. I replied the affirmative and added that it was a depressing movie.

The Fisherman's Memorial at Gloucester

“Well, the movie was adapted from a novel which was inspired by real life events. This is the place where it happened,” he said. We were in Gloucester City a 30-minute drive from Boston. It’s a city occupying most of eastern end of Cape Ann in Essex County and part of Massachusetts’ North Shore, the coastal region between Boston and New Hampshire.

It was after a hearty seafood meal at Causeway Restaurant where I feasted on lobsters, mussels and oysters, and then boom!, the next top was a downer—the Gloucester Fisherman’s Memorial at the west side of the Gloucester Harbor.

Our next stop after a hearty meal of fresh seafoods (what a downer)

The 8-foot tall statue is called “The Man on The Wheel,” a fisherman in oilskins, grasping a ship’s steering wheel modeled after Capt. Clayton Morrissey, a prominent Gloucester fisherman. It was built to memorialize the thousands of fishermen lost at sea in the first three centuries of Gloucester History. A dedication is inscribed on the base of the statue is “They That Go Down To The Sea In Ships 1623-1923”, a line taken from the Bible’s Psalm 107:23.

The Man on the Wheel

On a recessed area on the waterfront fronting the statue are the names of the people lost at sea etched on bronze plates.

The men lost at sea memorialized.

Apparently the 1991 Perfect Storm was just one of the many devastating storms that hit this area. It’s the one event that became known since it’s the event that was made into a best-selling non-fiction book and then into a film. The 2000 cinematic biographical disaster drama it inspired that starred Clooney and Wahlberg made it more graphic—the raging storm, tidal waves, the Andrea Gail swordfishing boat sinking, the tragic rescue, a damaged town and the families of the people lost at sea in mourning.

Flowers & love note for someone special

I found it ironic how the place I was standing on—a very picturesque and charming city under the blue sky, tranquil water and serene surrounding—had gone through so many tragedies.

A serene scene.

Gloucester has picked itself up. America’s Oldest Seaport calls itself “The place to be in summer.” It already looked great during fall, the time I visited, and I can just imagine how colorful and exciting it is during summer when the famed waterfront festivals take place, and gorgeous beaches are the must-go destinations.

Gloucester is a very popular summer destination

Loving this house.

I think I will revisit Cape Ann again and savor much more of its scenery, music and art festivals and of course, the cuisine. Another bout with the Rock Lobster, yes!

For more travel & lifestyle stories, visit http://jeepneyjinggoy.blogspot.com/ and http://apples-and-lemons.blogspot.com/

Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on November 21, 2013.