Cruising down the New England coast in our very own version of a stretch limo we took a detour to Kennebunkport and checked out the summertime digs of former President George Bush (Senior).
The compound is visible from the road but is clearly nowhere near as luxurious as living in a 28-foot RV so we decided not to call in and moved on through the beautiful seaside communities of Ogunquit and Wells Beach.
The beaches themselves are fairly ordinary by Australian standards but the pristinely maintained homes brimming with charcter and set amongst the grassy salt marshes are what make these communities so exquisitely different.
After spending the night at a campsite in New Hampshire, we took a gorgeous drive through Massachusetts' beautiful Cape Ann the next misty morning.
We passed through Essex which was building ships as far back as the 1600s and Gloucester, home of America's oldest commercial fishing fleet.
Rockport was extremely quaint and heavily touristed.
Had it not been raining and had they not been staging a fun run there (on the American Labor Day Public Holiday) then we may well have parked and caught the free shuttle bus back into its heart to explore it at leisure.
Instead we continued onwards through the lovely towns en route to Salem, stopping in for a couple of hours at Manchester to make the most of a nice little oceanfront playground.
