Cape Ann isn't just rocks and fish. Rockport and Gloucester have a long arts history and have attracted artists and tourists for many decades. The Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester contains some fine paintings, including many by Fitz Henry Lane, a Gloucester native whose seascapes were particularly brilliant.  The museum also has a fine scale model of Gloucester's working docks and two marine railways (one still survives).  

Both towns are full of tourists.  Rockport's Bearskin Neck, a slender isthmus lined with harbors, restaurants, and touristy shops, was largely overwhelmed in July by tourists slowly schooling, like herring in shallow water, along its narrow alleys. It is like Lahina, but with more clothing and less tanning. Rockport seems to have survived untraumatized by its long experiment, only recently ended, as a "dry" town. 

The towns provide ample street-scene subjects, many with a cheery overlay of Touristic Excess and enthusiastic shop signs. There is nonetheless the firm anchor of local history and flavor, ultimately seen in the footnotes of Rockport's ubiquitous granite.

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The bay is visible through the port in this gate.

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Sunglasses and tourist convenience shops abound.

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Modern times and historic religious roots meet on Rockport's streets.  The bell rests on granite.  Probably the church does, too.

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Rockport's gardens front historic houses.
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Reclamation project 
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A stately hotel, with granite slab in foreground of the lawn

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Boats are everywhere, of course, but dories live on mostly in history, resurrection, and promotion.  EF4A4708

Shore-side painting has long been practiced in Rockport; rock slabs both outline the studio and inspire the artist.

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