Massachusetts - Day 14 - Newburyport, Rawley, Ipswich

The Pines Camping Area
Friday, 14 September 2018

today's route

From Salisbury I drove south across the mouth of the Merrimack to Newburyport.  It looks like it still has a strong fishing presence, based on the harbor and surrounding businesses. Driving through Newburyport, I saw an old brownstone building with the legend, "Home for Aged Men."  It reminded me of my mother's godmother, an orphan, who lived her early life in Boston in a "Home for Little Wanderers," and ended her long life in a "Home for Aged Women."  Massachusetts has good safety nets for its citizens, but it isn't very tactful about them.

I drove first out to what they call Plum Island, which looks a lot more like a peninsula to me than an island, but hey, so what.  As I found 2 days ago in Salisbury, the only parking near the beach entries is expensive pay parking, and dogs aren't even allowed on the beach until the 16th (not at all in the summer), so all I was looking for was a view.  Not a chance.  On Google maps, I saw a boat launch at the end of the road, and on the paper map I saw a lighthouse, so I thought that might be a good place to aim for.  If either a boat launch or a lighthouse exists, you could't prove it by me, I'm sorry to say.  All I found were many houses and little area to turn around in.

Driving back to the "mainland" I pulled into an area that had intrigued me on the way out, because I thought I saw a cross flanked by 2 flags.  And that is what I saw.  It's a memorial to a Vietnam veteran, right on the edge of the salt marsh.  And at the parking area was another of the signs that I'd seen explaining the salt marsh.

salt marsh in the fog

sea oats on the edge of the marsh

We stayed for lunch there and I walked the dogs, trying to stay away from the marsh and its wildlife.

We drove from there down the north part of the Essex Coastal Scenic Byway, which runs all the way down to Lynn, south of Salem.  We just drove as far as Ipswich today.

I almost missed the best part of Ipswich following the "coastal byway," but luckily I noticed a small sign telling me to turn off to see the historic houses of Ipswich.  These 2 are essentially twins, though built about 5 years apart.  The one with the flag was built 1668.  Sadly I ran out of memory in my camera so missed taking some that were different, but many were from this same period.  By the time I saw some built in the 1800s, I was ready to dismiss them as being practically modern.  Incredible that they could last this long, though I imagine it took a lot of money and renovation somewhere along the line.  But still.

Ipswich seemed like a nice town except for one thing.  All the houses are built right on the road and there's almost no parking.  It made great sense when many of these were built because transportation was by horse or on foot and the road was plenty wide enough for that kind of traffic.  Not so much nowadays.  I wondered how on earth people could go visit their friends.  Surely they don't all walk everywhere.  Otherwise, nice place.

Coming back into Salisbury, I stopped at an old cemetery I'd seen, and it turned out to be really old.  If you can look closely, you'll see two of these say the person died in 1717-18, one says 1718-19, and one says 1719.  The sign says they started using the burying ground in 1639, and there were a lot of markers I couldn't read so don't doubt it.  I just took miscellaneous photos, though the last one was more interesting than usual.   I'd say the same stonemason carved many of these.