over the weekend: cape ann

Since this was K's first weekend back on the east coast and we weren't able to spend the holidays together this year, we decided that a little weekend getaway was in order. We have always loved exploring little seaside towns, so K did a little research and we were off to Rockport, MA!

We arrived at our hotel (Rockport Inn and Suites) pretty late on Friday night, so we just picked up a quick dinner and drank champagne in the hotel room. The next morning we got up bright and early (for us) and explored historic Rockport village. It was a gloriously beautiful day for January--50 sunshine-y degrees!

When we had seen all that Rockport had to offer, we headed into Gloucester for more wandering and lunch at Destino's!

We spent what seemed like (and very well might have been) hours searching for the Annisquam Lighthouse, which turned out to be a major disappointment because it was in a residential area and the locals were not very keen on sharing their historic sights. I went on a bit of a rant about entitled rich people. But seriously--I just wanted to look at it!

We had a delicious dinner at Giuseppe's that night--fettucine alfredo and lasagne (which was unbelievable massive) accompanied by smooth Tuscan red table wine--and headed back to the hotel for more champagne, chocolates, and a soak in the hot tub.

The next morning, after breakfast and coffee at Brothers Brew in Rockport (his: Norwegian coffee bread, hers: egg&cheese sandwich), we drove down to wander the grounds of Hammond Castle. Unfortunately, it was closed for the winter (like most of the Cape Ann area), but we definitely intend to go back in the spring/summer to check out the museum and to look around inside.

It was much colder yesterday than it had been on Saturday, and overcast, and we had pretty much exhausted everything there was to do in the Rockport/Gloucester area, so we headed home. We took the back way and ended up in Newburyport, which we thought was so fabulous that we stopped to wander around a bit more:

Finally, we made our way back home, where we made nachos and freaked ourselves out with a few episodes of The Walking Dead (and now I'm hooked--who'd have thought?).