Newburyport's High Street is lined with splendid early-American mansions, built by wealthy sea captains and merchants. Just off Newburyport is Plum Island, a barrier reef island and nature preserve with six miles of smooth white beach. Salisbury, Massachusetts' northernmost coastal town, is home to the 520-acre Salisbury Beach State Reservation, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the Merrimack River. Whale watch trips leave from the ports of Gloucester, Salem, and Newburyport. Today, the Lowell National Park offers tours of the old cotton mills, barge trips through the canal and lock system, and rides on a replica of an early 1900s trolley.
Exhibits explore the rapid technological and social changes of the era.
The mill complex includes the New England Quilt Museum, which presents changing exhibits from folk art to fine art. The city's multicultural heritage is celebrated every July at the Lowell Folk Festival where traditional musicians, dancers, storytellers, and craftspeople from around the world showcase their art. Just west of Boston are the towns of Lexington and Concord where the first shots of the American Revolution were fired. Every year, the townspeople of Lexington re-enact the battle that represented the opening shots of the Revolutionary War. Whale watch cruises depart from the harbor.