The Week Before Fiesta

It is the week before Saint Peter's Fiesta. If you have never been in Gloucester for the days leading up to it, the shift is subtle at first and then everywhere. Tents start going up on the lawn at St. Peter's Square. The carnival rides arrive in pieces on flatbeds and get bolted together over a couple of mornings. Italian flags appear in windows on Prospect Street and Friend Street and along the streets that climb away from the harbor.

Fiesta runs Wednesday, June 24 through Sunday, June 28 this year. That is nine days from now. The greasy pole walks are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The Sunday procession winds through the neighborhood in the afternoon. If you are arriving for that weekend, the rest of this post is mostly the warm-up. If you are here this week instead, you are in a good window: the city is buzzing without yet being full.

The harbor this week

The water is finally warm enough to feel like the ocean and not a dare. Good Harbor and Wingaersheek are both worth a morning. Low tides this week are pulling far out at Wingaersheek, which means the sandbar walk across to the rocks is in play. Bring shoes you do not mind getting wet and check the tide chart before you go. Coming back over a flooded bar in waist-deep current is a Cape Ann rite of passage that we recommend you skip.

Good Harbor is the safer bet if you want a beach you can settle into for hours. Parking fills by 9am on a clear day. Get there earlier or come after 3pm when the morning crowd thins.

The whale watch boats are running daily out of Harbor Loop. June is a strong month for sightings. Cape Ann Whale Watch and 7 Seas both have multiple trips a day. Book the morning run if the forecast looks mixed; afternoon wind tends to build.

Rockport just woke up

The Rockport Farmers Market opened for the season yesterday, Saturday morning at Harvey Park. It runs Saturdays 9am to 1pm through October 11. Early-season tables lean toward greens, radishes, herbs, eggs, bread, and a few flower growers. By July the strawberries are in. This first month is the quiet, friendly version before the lines.

Bearskin Neck is open and humming but not yet in peak-July gridlock. A weekday afternoon walk down the Neck right now is close to ideal. Ice cream, the lobster shacks at the end, the harbor view from the breakwater. If you want a lunch that sits on the water, the lobster counters out near the point are doing their thing. For a sit-down dinner in town with a view, the seafood places on Bearskin Neck take reservations and you should make one for the weekend.

The Rockport Chamber Music Festival is in its first week. The 45th season runs through July 12 at the Shalin Liu Performance Center. Even if classical chamber music is not your usual, the hall itself is worth the ticket: a glass wall behind the stage opens directly onto the harbor, and the late-evening light during a Friday or Saturday concert is something you will remember.

Father's Day is Sunday

A reminder, since it sneaks up. Sunday, June 21 is Father's Day. If you are hosting, the working piers in Gloucester are a good late-morning walk before brunch, and there are a couple of good breakfast spots on Main Street that do not take reservations but turn tables fast if you show up before 9. For dinner that night, book now. Waterfront tables on a Sunday in late June go early.

A charter is a strong gift if Dad is into fishing. The party boats out of Cape Ann Marina take walk-ups but a private charter wants a few days notice. Half-day striper trips in the harbor and along the back shore are productive right now.

A quieter afternoon

If the beaches feel like too much, Hammond Castle is open Tuesday through Sunday. The grounds alone are worth the visit, with the stone arches framing the open Atlantic toward Norman's Woe. Maritime Gloucester is also a good rainy-afternoon backup, with the working waterfront right outside.

The Cape Ann Museum downtown is still closed for its renovation and reopens Tuesday, June 30. That is the same week as Fiesta, which is good planning on someone's part. If you are here over that weekend you will have a brand-new museum to walk into on a hot afternoon.

What to do tonight

Walk the HarborWalk at dusk. The granite markers tell you what you are looking at. The Man at the Wheel faces the outer harbor and the working boats come in past him on their way back to the fish pier. It is free, it takes about an hour, and it is the single best orientation to the city we can recommend. Do it on a clear evening this week and the rest of your stay will make more sense.