Arrival & Hotel Check-in, Program Registration & Orientation, Welcome Dinner

Arrive To: HOTEL CHECK-IN: Available from 3:00pm to 5:00 pm

Afternoon: REGISTRATION: After you have your room assignment, come over to the Road Scholar desk in the lobby to register with the program staff, pick up your arrival packet containing your name tag and up-to-date schedule, and other important information.

Dinner: Dinner served at hotel

Evening: ORIENTATION: We'll have an informative overview of the program plus an opportunity to meet your fellow participants during an introductory get-acquainted session. We'll review the updated schedule, cover responsibilities, safety guidelines, emergency procedures, and answer any questions you may have. (If you arrive late, please pick up your packet at the hotel front desk.)

Lodging: Rockport Inn & Suites

Meals Included: Dinner

Take a Rockport Harbor Cruise, visit Bearskin Neck and take a bus tour of Annisquam.

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel

Morning: You've enjoyed lobsters at home and in restaurants. Have you ever wondered how lobsters are harvested? On this 1-1/4 hour tour and demonstration, you'll learn all about lobsters and lobstering. As part of your cruise, enjoy a narrated tour of historic Gloucester Harbor, including the famous fishing fleet, Ten Pound Island, Rocky Neck Art Colony, Norman's Woe, and more. Here's a chance to see some sights inaccessible from land -- bring your camera! After your cruise, continue with your Program Leader to the charming Bearskin Neck peninsula of Rockport.

Lunch: Lunch at Bearskin Neck

Afternoon: This afternoon board your bus and take an invigorating tour of Cape Ann and Annisquam. Learn about the area's history, home to both a granite quarry and an artists colony including painters George Loftus Noyes and Margaret Fitzhugh Browne.

Dinner: Dinner at hotel

Evening: Evening lecture about the Gloucester commercial fishing industry.

Lodging: Rockport Inn & Suites

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast in the hotel

Morning: Learn about the history of Essex's shipbuilding industry. The museum was established in 1976 as part of the town's observation of the American Revolutionary Bicentennial. Its primary purpose was to provide Essex families a local repository for their ancestors' shipbuilding artifacts and to stem the tide of artifacts that were going to other museums, being sold to private collectors, or simply being destroyed. Its collections include over 7000 rare shipbuilding artifacts, photographs, tools, documents, builder's half-models and rigged ship models. Many of these items have come from attics, basements and barns in Essex.

Lunch: Lunch served in the museum's barn

Afternoon: Cruise on the Essex River, located in the village of Essex, Massachusetts, one of the four communities that comprise Cape Ann, along with Gloucester, Rockport and Manchester by the Sea.

Dinner: Dinner at the hotel

Evening: Evening talk by local historian on Maritime and the Arts in Gloucester.

Lodging: Rockport Inn & Suites

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast in the hotel

Morning: Depart Rockport for historic Salem, established in 1626. Enjoy a narrated cruise that brings Salem Sound to life through an informative yet laid-back narration. This is no recording so feel free to ask questions whenever. As we cruise by the beautiful shorelines of Salem, Marblehead, Beverly, Manchester-By-The-Sea and the Misery Islands you’ll learn of town history, the boom and bust of the local maritime industry, ocean life, historic landmarks and of course today’s latest gossip on all those multi-million dollar estates.

Lunch: Enjoy lunch on your own. Your Group Leader can make recommendations for Salem or Rockport eateries.

Afternoon: Enjoy further exploration of Salem or discover other highlights of Cape Ann on your free afternoon.

Dinner: Enjoy dinner on your own - you might dine in Salem, Gloucester, Rockport or one of Cape Ann's other beautiful towns. All are accessible by the MBTA rail system.

Evening: Tonight we will offer a showing of the movie, A Perfect Storm. The blockbuster hit that follows the story of the Andrea Gail, a ship caught in the Perfect Storm of 1991. The crew was based out of Gloucester, MA.

Lodging: Rockport Inn & Suites

Meals Included: Breakfast

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel

Morning: This morning, join a whale specialist for an opening talk to prepare for your afternoon whale watch!

Lunch: Lunch at the hotel.

Afternoon: While on a four hour whale watch on the Yankee Spirit, you'll learn about whales from our qualified naturalists, and have the opportunity to interact one-on-one with researchers working as trained crew members onboard the vessel. See real whale artifacts, and even participate in plankton tows, water visibility analysis, and temperature measurements.

Dinner: Farewell dinner in Rockport

Evening: Tonight’s final evening program is an entertaining talk on Tales of Shipwrecks.

Lodging: Rockport Inn & Suites

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel

Morning: Cruise on the Thomas E. Lannon, a classic schooner. Picture yourself relaxing on the deck of this beautiful 65- foot schooner as she sails out of Gloucester harbor on a light southwesterly breeze. Enjoy a two hour sail and get a taste for what it was like to sail on a fishing schooner a hundred years ago. Help the crew raise the sails or just sit back and take in the sights and sounds of Gloucester's coastline.

Lunch: Farewell lunch at the motel, followed by departure

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch