Santa visiting Reynard St., MAD MERRY highlights tour, and 35,000+ views to Holiday Lights and Cocoa Drives 2020 map 🚗☕🎄✨⛄ #GloucesterMA!

photo caption: Santa visiting sign at white lights home on Reynard St. Dec 17-23. 5:30-7pm (no pix with Santa)

Holiday Lights and Cocoa Drives Map 2020 edition features 250+ decorated residential homes with Christmas light displays in Gloucester. Massachusetts. The map was viewed more than 30,000 times within 7 days of going live this year.

MAP

Gloucester is tough to match for winter lights charm and show stopping homes. From Beach Court to Stage Fort; West Gloucester to East; Magnolia to Annisquam; and Portuguese Hill to Plum Cove- Gloucester is illuminated. Many neighborhoods join in together glittering, and have for years. With each passing new day more join in.

Concentrated streets include:

  • Essex Avenue is beautiful and long– and it’s good driving from both directions. I split it up into Essex Ave stretch between Causeway Restaurant and Richdale and
  • Essex Avenue stretch (between Richdale and Rt.128 and then to Farnham’s)
  • Elizabeth Road neighborhood block
  • Reynard Street neighborhood block and Spruce Street expansive, elaborate displays
  • Hartz street charming sweet little block
  • Finch Lane delightful little block
  • Annisquam for an old timey route, mostly white & gold lights with multi colored trees at turns on the road.

Mad Merry Highlights Tour

as in deck the halls, doors, windows, roofs and yards with boughs of holly-holidays! These 20 or so Gloucester homes are LIT! Bedecked, top twinkling in 2020 (alphabetized by road):

  • 6 Abbott Road
  • Centennial Road – Hope 2x
  • 12 Concord St (next to West Parish-near Essex Ave.)
  • 4 Elizabeth Road (entire block, multiple homes)
  • 326 Essex Ave (all of Essex Ave is great/multiple homes)
  • 2 *Goose Cove Lane (end of block) & Holly Street
  • Grove (and Maplewood)
  • 6 Harbor Road at Bass Ave
  • Hesperus Ave (all trees- next to Hammond Castle)
  • 29 High Popples
  • 9 Lowe Drive
  • 22 Magnolia Ave and 124 Magnolia Ave
  • Luzitania Ave (off Friend St.)
  • 79 *Perkins Street
  • Reynard St. whole block (#22 white lights; #42 blue house)
  • 8 Spruce Road
  • 15R Stanwood Ave
  • 160 Washington Street

*animation Santas

Along with the map, winter lights house photographs were featured by neighborhood on GMG as follows:

This year’s trends include peace signs, illuminated words, melting multis, and a particular blue-green light (outlining windows in photo below).

Clear, mild nights make it easier to park, walk and linger. Snow and rain make for lovely routes, too.

photos below: Lanesville added, and homes missing from prior neighborhood batches

and pretty by day

Also **NEW** for 2020 — Gloucester with Manchester, Essex and Rockport (the Four Communities of Cape Ann) have collaborated to share beautiful Winter Lights on Cape Ann – 150+ businesses and organizations are merry and bright into January

after winter storm- white snow bright homes #GloucesterMA

Thank you to all the road crews and good eggs shoveling public ways!

Digging out photos: A few after the winter storm scenes of downtown Gloucester by 9:30AM 12/18/2020. Any surface brick or stone is slick as can be. Evergreen pine trees & wreaths were randomly frosted like the Kancamagus Highway. Yet snow was already gone from the marsh.

Little houseboat in the great frozen salt marsh #Gloucester MA

A photo journal after the storm documenting and comparing a few iconic and sweeping Gloucester vistas on January 7, 2018, when all was white ice frozen, and again after the Great Thaw on January 13 2018.

Gloucester Motif- the house boat in view just before the turn off at Nichols

Little house boat in the great frozen salt marsh - Gloucester MA January 7 2018 three days after historic winter storm © c ryan_095245

 

The Little House boat in the great frozen salt marsh reminded me of a mash up of two of Virginia Lee Burton’s children’s picture books inspired by Gloucester — Little House and Katy and the Big Snow. Here’s the little floating houseboat after the thaw at low tide January 13, 2018.

Little house boat in the great salt marsh - Gloucester MA January 13 2018 after thaw from historic winter storm © c ryan__133100

At high tide earlier in the day, January 13

Little house boat in the great salt marsh - Gloucester MA January 13 2018 after thaw from historic winter storm © c ryan__072700.jpg

Good Harbor Beach drive by three days after the storm

 

Good Harbor Beach salt marsh drive by one week after the storm and great thaw

 

Below the read more break: additional winter comparison photos (icebergs on the marsh by Lobster Land, Good Harbor Beach parking lot, Good Harbor Beach salt marsh, Stoney Cove pier at Little River & Annisquam River)

Continue reading “Little houseboat in the great frozen salt marsh #Gloucester MA”

Gloucester in the Boston Globe and at the Oscars: a win for Pratty’s and Casey Affleck for Manchester by the Sea

Meg Montagnino-Jarrett great job working with the filmmakers!

Pratty’s CAV bar

Kevin Cullen Boston Globe article.

kevin-cullen-boston-globe-pratty-manchester-by-the-sea

Another location from the film and winter, winter, winter

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Dec 19 2016