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Friday, August 26, 2011

Rainy Day Adventures During Your Rockport Holidays


Rainy Day Adventures During Your Rockport Holidays

Yes, the skies do have a habit of opening up on occasion in Rockport, unconcerned by the fact that you are on your holidays, but there are things to do here regardless. Many of our guests decide to lounge around in their room for hours after breakfast, oblivious to the weather forecasts, but when you do resurface, here are some suggestions.

For the hardy soul, if you are equipped with rain gear or umbrellas, we love to enjoy the wild seas along the coast, Bearskin Neck, at Granite Pier, or along Bass Rocks in Gloucester. You can also have a nice lunch or dinner downtown while enjoying the surf through the window. During the winter, we have a nice cozy fire going in the living room, if you like to cuddle up with a good book and a hot cup of tea...you are always welcome.

Of course, the draw of shopping (or threat, depending on your perspective) is always available downtown as well, because most of the shops and galleries will be open. We enjoy meandering through the Rockport Art Association and the North Shore Art Association in Gloucester to view some of the multitude of Cape Ann artists. Then we love the Cape Ann Museum for its vast collection of Fitz Hugh Lane paintings, along with its collection of maritime artifacts. You should check out Beauport and the Hammond Castle in Gloucester as well.

For the children , you might check out the Gloucester Marine Heritage Center. There are 20 lanes of candlepin bowling to be had in Gloucester as well...over near the first rotary. For theaters, there is a triple-plex in West Gloucester, as well as Hollywood Hits and a huge Loews Cinema 15 miles away in Danvers.

If you're up for a brief drive or train ride (station is just 3 blocks away), you could go to Salem, to see the House of Seven Gables, various witch related attractions, or tour the wonderful Peabody-Essex Museum or the Phillips House, all of which are readily accessible. Then a longer ride away (about an hour) will open up all the museums and attractions of Boston as well. Our favorites being the Aquarium, the Children's Museum, the Science Museum and the glass flowers at the Fogg Museum.

If you are a dedicated shopper (one of my least favorite things to do) then you'll be in your glory here, with antiques galore in Essex, two huge malls in Danvers and Peabody (25 minutes away), or an easy drive to the outlet stores in Kittery, Maine (1 hour and 15 minutes from us).

You'll find all of the above along with a multitude of other things to do here on a rainy day and we'll be happy to give our recommendations and directions. Or you're welcome to sit back with that book by our fire and just relax a bit as well, because that's one of the reasons for you to get away also!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Tuck Inn's Innkeepers


The Tuck Inn has been owned and operated by 4 families since it began in 1949. Many of the inn's guests assume that the inn's name was just a cute play on words, but the inn was actually named for Edie and Albert Tuck, the local residents who first purchased and converted the 2 family house and started the inn with the purchase of two abutting properties. Over the next 30 years, the Tuck's expanded their operation eventually to 18 rooms for lodging and full dining. From all accounts, the Tuck's had an extraordinary operation and an exceptional reputation, but in 1979 Albert passed away, and Edie sold it the following year to couple from Sudbury named Carlson.

The Carlson's ran the inn for a few years, but soon discovered that inn-keeping was not for them and sold the inn after a few years to a family named Tranos.

The Tranos' briefly ran the inn as well for another few years, parceling off one of the buildings and eliminating the full dining, until, they too discovered inn-keeping was not to their suiting.

The local bank took back the building in 1989. The then vacant building fell into a terrible state of disrepair until your current starry-eyed inn-keepers scooped it up (or as some of our family members have suggested, were scooped by the bank) and we embarked on our new career in 1991!

Fast forwarding us by 20 years, we've reclaimed the Tuck's prominence within the town and run a comfortable, hospitable and affordable inn. You'll find us to be a bit older, grayer and broker, but still just as starry-eyed, for there is nothing we would rather be doing than running the Tuck Inn B&B.

Come visit and meet Tuck Inn's current owners and your caretakers: Liz and Scott Wood.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Online Guest Reviews!


While our inn has received numerous highly complimentary guest reviews on www.tripadvisor.com (60+ reviews) and www.bedandbreakfast.com, those numbers pale in comparison to our in-room guest books which we've now transferred to the on-line guest book page on our site. We welcome you to read a bit more about us from our satisfied guests. We conservatively estimate that over the years, we have had at least 6,000 in-room guest reviews. For your reading pleasure, we've included about 300 of them here, which we think you'll enjoy.

Also, as part of this new site upgrade, going forward, our guests can add their own guest book comments to our site via the link on this page or on Tripadvisor at www.tripadvisor.com or on www.bedandbreakfast.com.

So please take a few minutes now to look at this page on our site: Inn Guestbook, and when you next come to visit with us allow a bit of time to read the books within your room. The guest books are generally light and funny and isn't that what you are hoping for when you go away, to have some fun?

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Hollywood Comes to Rockport


Did you know that Cape Ann in general and Rockport in particular has become a huge draw for the movie-making industry? In part due to Massachusetts' favorable tax breaks but more so due to the quaint feeling of our town along with its natural beauty, Rockport is a huge hit with the studios, directors and actors alike.

The last movie which was shot in town was "The Proposal" in 2009, starring Sandra Bullock, Betty White and Ryan Reynolds. This was the movie for which Sandra was nominated for an Oscar, by the way. For the movie, our downtown area was transformed into Sitka, Alaska, with a totem pole erected downtown in our "Dock Square". Many of the retail shops changed their names for the duration of the shooting, and the town magically received a mountain range as its backdrop. All the cast were courteous and very down-to-earth, but Sandra and Betty in particular were favorites among the townsfolk. (Your author didn't get to meet any of the stars, unfortunately, but I did get to see the back of Sandy's head in a truck going the wrong way down School Street, which I thought was pretty special.)

Some of the other stars and movies shot in town include Matt Damon in "Stuck On You", Cher in "Mermaid", Hal Holbrook in the classic I'll Be Home for Christmas" and McCauley Culkin in "The Good Son". For a complete list of all the movies shot in Rockport and throughout Cape Ann, please link to Cape Ann Films.

So the next time you come to stay with us or just come to visit the town, keep your eyes peeled, because who knows, you may be hobnobbing with the stars!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Tuck Inn's recipes! Tasty treats!!


As part of our new website, we redesigned our recipes page at the Inn and included the recipes for each and every one of our baked goods that we serve our guests. The page is fairly extensive as we serve about 75 different baked goods at the Inn. Along with pictures of each item, you'll discover a few different features on this page as well. You'll be able to print a blown up picture of each recipe, and we've even set it up so you can e-mail any recipe to your friends or family as well!

The file includes about half a dozen gluten-free recipes as well and I've been able to adapt several of my other recipes for gluten-free flour. We will continue to expand on our gluten-free section along with a lactose-free group, and should eventually have a small sub-file of them as two of our grandchildren have gluten sensitivities.

So we invite you to page through these files and then roll up your sleeves and break out the spatula! Of course, if you don't want to bake yourselves, you can always come visit us here at The Tuck Inn for the treat...and no dishes to clean!! Happy Baking!!