Although Cape Cod gets most of the attention, Massachusetts has a second cape that juts out into the sea that is smaller but similarly scenic. Cape Ann lies about 40 miles northeast of Boston and includes the fishing port of Gloucester, the scenic seaside town of Rockport, and several other cute little villages along its rocky shores. That's one significant difference between Cod and Ann; while Cape Cod is a huge glacially created sand bank with very sandy soil and unique shrubby vegetation that grows in such environments, Cape Ann’s rocky shores more closely resemble the coast of Maine. And in my opinion Cape Ann looks and feels quite a bit more like the coast of Maine around places like Camden, Rockland, and Booth Bay Harbor than it does other coastal towns in heavily populated Massachusetts.

Back in 2004 when I was in Boston for a week with my family we took a day drive to Cape Ann and I recall it being especially pretty, so I wanted to come back . As well as the scenic shore drives, I particularly recall Rockport as being a picture perfect coastal New England town. There was something about it that looked very familiar, as if recognized it as the setting from a movie or something. Some Googling indicates has in fact been the setting for several movies, but the one I recall best was the 1960s comedy "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming!" that I saw as a child or teen and seemed to find especially entertaining.

I drove around the Cape from Gloucester to Rockport and then north towards Newburyport, something that doesn’t take all that long because Cape Ann isn’t very big compared to Cape Cod, stopping at some seaside locations for pictures, but spent a few hours more time in Rockport. We stopped there in 2004 and I recall the inner harbor as being especially scenic. But back then it was during summer and things were particularly crowded and hectic. On this mid-May morning, though, I had nearly the entire village to myself .

And Rockport is gorgeous, a mix of a typical New England town with a Main Street lined with shops and restaurants, town green, and tall steeple churches, and a quaint New England seaside village with a busy harbor full of small craft that are actually used in fishing, piers piled high with lobster traps, a narrow streets lined with old fisherman’s shanties, and the smell of the sea and its denizens. The nature of the storefronts along Bearskin Neck, the small peninsula with most of the nautically themed businesses and small cottages, suggests that this is a very touristy place at some times of year with crowds of people fattening themselves up on fudge and ice cream as they waddle slowly between the tee-shirt and souvenir shops, but having the area nearly to myself on a sunny May morning I could almost imagine being in a authentic old-time New England fishing village.

Most of the restaurants in town were still closed for the season or at least not open for breakfast yet. Fortunately I found Roy Moore’s Lobster Company. Roy Moore’s apparently also has a large seafood restaurant in town which was not yet open (most people in America don’t eat seafood for breakfast), but its separate seafood shack along the harbor was open for business and willing to serve prepared food as well as sell live lobsters and freshly caught fish. I have no reservations about seafood for breakfast so splurged on a mix of smoked mackerel fillets, haddock fish cakes, smoked salmon, very meaty stuffed clams, and some real New England clam chowder. How protein packed – now if I had only been lifting weights recently and could have experienced the full benefit of it. What can I say – the breakfast of champions!