Nantucket Island Life
Off the coast of Cape Cod, I patiently wait to board a ferry by the name of “Grey Lady'“, an extremely fitting name. “Grey Lady” is a popular, historic nickname for the Island of Nantucket because almost every day, a dense fog rolls through the island covering everything in a sheet of grey. Sometimes the fog comes as quickly as it goes, other times it stays a little longer to hang out with the locals. One minute the sun is shining, warming your skin. And the next you can’t see more than five feet in front of you lost in a world of wonder.
Once on the ferry, we slowly begin to see Cape Cod drift away as wakes show where we have been. The trip is about an hour, just long enough for me not to get seasick. Out on the deck, the wind is so powerful, your hair becomes a tangled mess in minutes. But inside, an intense Uno game is happening between a family in the seats next to us. Halfway through the boat ride, when you look out the window, nothing but ocean surrounds you. A blue abyss is all the eye can see. And it feels completely magical.
The second we step foot on the island, it feels as if we have stepped back in time, into the pages of a beachside mystery story. The buildings are shingled, the streets are brick and cobblestone, the beaches are full of dunes, and the main mode of transportation are bicycles and jeeps (with the top down of course). There’s high-end restaurants, mom-and-pop ice cream shops, and museums where you can learn about Nantucket’s whaling history.
While most families who have their summer vacation on Nantucket island choose to live in a house, mine chose to stay in a quaint inn, about a five-minute bike ride from the center of downtown. It was everything we needed: comfortable beds to rest in after our long days of adventuring, a little yard to keep our bikes, and it even had a pool. (We spent more than a few lunches by the pool eating sandwiches and drinking Nantucket Nectars lemonade). We had close access to the beach and all the downtown shops. Every morning was spent biking to our breakfast before that day’s adventure.
Nantucket is home to three lighthouses, and you can bet that we saw all of them. We spent a whole day exploring in the jeep. The day started off at a family-run breakfast restaurant, eating as many pancakes as we could Then, as any good adventure starts off, we got food at the local grocery store for a picnic lunch on the beach. With the top of the jeep down, we made our way to the first lighthouse, Great Point Lighthouse. The drive consists of 20% paved roads, and 80% sand dunes, which in my opinion, was one of the coolest things of the trip. As my dad drove, my sister and I stood on the back seat, bodies fully out of the top of the Jeep, wind rushing around us. I even got a chance to drive…it’s not as scary as it looks.
Halfway to the first lighthouse of the day we stoped along the shore to eat a picnic lunch. We ate sandwiches with our toes in the sand and drank lemonade and sweet tea while watching sea lions play in the waves near the shore. Then started the couple mile walk through the dunes to the old lighthouse.
Next lighthouse: Sankaty Head Lighthouse. One of the best parts of seeing all these Lighthouses is the fact that you get a tour of the island without even trying. You drive past beaches, sand dunes, and houses for miles and miles.
Other days were spent at the pool at our hotel, enjoying the New England sun or exploring downtown. We enjoyed a few hours at the whaling museum and shopping in the various stores that line the cobblestone streets.
Every night, during our stay on Nantucket, we watched the sunset at the beach near our hotel. Every Night it was even more beautiful than the last. The sky turned colors of bright pink and orange. You could see sea lions playing in the water nearby and listen to the water lap at the shore from the top of an old lifeguard tower. The air cooled, the breeze blew and everything felt perfect.
Nantucket is by far one of the best places I’ve visited in New England. It has old beachside charm, good restaurants with good food, and is the perfect island getaway if you want to get away for a while. Nantucket is great for adventures, history buffs and everyone in between.
