Newburyport, MA

We took a final walk through Rockport on Sunday morning, July 28.  We strolled up to a spot overlooking the harbor that a friendly woman had shown us the last time we were here.  The view from the rocky outcroppings was beautiful!  Returning to Zendo we took off for Newburyport by 10:45. It was a good day, the seas were flat and calm and we had a pleasant cruise up the Massachusetts coast.

We arrived in Newburyport by 1:15 and grabbed a mooring that had been arranged for us by a friend of Joe Apicella because this was a very busy time for Newburyport - it was the Yankee Homecoming.  This is a week long celebration with all kinds of activities for families in the area. There were lots of food stalls, face painting  and other activities for kids, art exhibitions and music in the park every night. We took the dinghy to the main dock in this historic town located up the Merrimack River from the coast. Newburyport is a very popular town for tourists with lots of attractive stores and restaurants.

We got a kick out of this sign in one of the pet shops.

We stopped at a restaurant called the Sea Level Oyster Bar to have a drink and an appetizer. It had an appealing outdoor area which made for good people watching. We had delicious Rode Island style calamari for a nibble before heading back to Zendo.

That evening after dinner Jonny brought Archie into town and stopped by the concert in the park that was featuring a Billy Joel cover band.  We could hear some of the music onboard Zendo but I skipped the outing that evening.

The next day, MTOA members Curt and Cathy Downing came by for a visit. They live over an hour away but they have a Heritage East just a couple of years older than ours and they wanted to see Zendo.  Curt and Jonny talked mechanics and repairs while Cathy and I talked about books and our families. Unfortunately it was a rainy day, but we put on our raincoats and went to a local pub called The Grog for lunch. The rain lightened up enough to walk around town since they had never been to Newburyport. The rain put somewhat of a damper on the festivities that afternoon but we had fun strolling and chatting before it was time for them to leave.

Luckily, the rain stopped altogether and after having dinner onboard we went in to hear the band that was playing on the green that evening. They were not as good as the Billy Joel band so we just walked around a bit before heading back for an early night.