Hi Everyone,
As a newbie to Gloucester, Joey asked that I share my view of things, so here’s my first post…
My first visit to Gloucester was through scuba diving. I fell in love with the area and starting spending more time here, not just diving, but exploring other things.(the diving here is amazing!) I had no preconceived notions of Gloucester, all I really knew was that it was a fishing town and close to the beach. I remembered thinking Cape Ann was so confusing to navigate, which is funny now.
I was tired of life in the North End, driving around for 45 min. just to find a parking space, lugging groceries and gear up 4 flights of stairs to our tiny apartment. By searching for more information on Gloucester, I found the GMG blog and that became my daily read. After bombarding my boyfriend, Mike, with real estate listings for over a year, we actually started viewing homes and in March found the one for us. I have now been a resident of Gloucester for 10 months!
I am discovering all the great restaurants, shops, artists, nature spots, etc and I feel like I am always finding something new. I can honestly say that the Italian food in the North End has nothing on Gloucester’s! My neighbors are kind, helpful and considerate, which reinforces the strong community this city has. I have friends who come to visit and they can’t believe that people actually stop their car to let you cross the street.
My weekdays are filled with a job in advertising and a long commute. When I come home from a bad day, I remind myself, “hey, look where I get to live”. On weekends you can find me on Good Harbor or the Blvd. walking Coconut, downtown eating and drinking with Mike, taking photographs, antique hunting, diving, attempting to surf, riding my ’89 Sportster and working on the house.
I am excited to share my discoveries with you and look forward to you educating me on Gloucester. I promise my next post will be shorter!
Attached is a picture of the urchins on the wall at folly cove.
Alicia
Good Morning Gloucester 
Alicia – You’ve got it bad. Many of us “locals” have a genetic disposition to the city and there is such a thing as a “fishing gene”. Bless you – Welcome to Gloucester — Gail Guittarr – Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate – Selling the North Shore (Joey’s cousin)
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Good for you Alicia! Welcome to Cape Ann!
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Welcome Alicia; Sometimes we need to be reminded of how lucky we are to live in Gloucester.Like many other cities Gloucester has its share of problems but I love it here for all the reasons you just stated and then some. So thanks for reminding me and I hope to hear from you again soon.
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Beautiful picture Alicia. Did you take it? If so I’d love to see more and find out what type of camera set-up you used for the underwater shot!
How funny was it when I just randomly met you guys at The Cormorant Shop before you moved here and the blog was in it’s infancy but you had seen it?
Crazy!
Welcome aboard
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Yes, I used a Sealife underwater digital camera, I think its the DC500, its a few years old now. I just use the internal flash and adjust the white balance. The hard part is using the controls with 7mm gloves on. You can probably get a case for the digital you have now, it just depends on how much you want to spend.
I will send you some more underwater shots soon.
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Welcome to Gloucester, Alicia. I’m a diver too. My husband, Fred Calhoun, and I run the scuba diving charter boat, Easy Diver, out of Cape Ann Marina on Essex Street. We’d be happy to have you and Mike with us for a boat dive once the weather gets warmer and the boat goes back into the water.
I agree that the beauty of Gloucester and the kindness of the people make this a wonderful place to live. It’s amazing to me that more people don’t realize how gorgeous the underwater vistas are. Scuba diving off Kettle Island or the Back Shore is safe, fun, and full of underwater life with color and texture to match the above water scenery – and sometimes surpass it.
Hope to be able to show you some of our favorite underwater sites this season.
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Chris- Mike and I will definitely join you on Easy Diver this summer. We only got 1 dive in last year! Now that we are almost settled with the house we will have more time to dive.
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Beautifully put Alicia. I also fell in love with this community to the point that I change careers so that I could live and work here. I’m looking forward to seeing more of your pictures. Welcome to Cape Ann
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having never living anywhere else but Gloucester for my 50+ years, i’m ashamed to say i don’t always appreciate all the great things you mentioned in your post about our city…thank you for reminding me…
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Alicia,
You got the same Cape Ann virus I got. Been visiting since the 70’s and finally succumbed last year with a house in Rockport. It’s not a Gloucester but a whole island virus no matter what these townies tell you.
You’re way more energetic than me. I have tanks and gear in the shop but have had too much fun doing everything else there is to do on this island to get my head under water in years. Been so long I need to get recertified. Real soon now.
Watch out, Joey will put you to work here. Hey, then I would lose the cub reporter title. Keep posting!
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