On Nantucket...

On our first day of vacation, we went to Nantucket. We had to ride an hour long ferry to get there. It was a great ride...much better than I had expected. Once we got to the island, we walked around trying to find our inn.


There was so much to take in. This new place was beautiful. I was captivated by the scenery. Old houses, cobblestone roads, flowers everywhere, really it was quite breathtaking. Once we were settled into our inn, we headed out to explore and grab some lunch. We ate at a place called "Provisions". It was a small Portuguese sandwich shop and it was really good.

We walked around "Straight Wharf" for a bit, then headed over to the whaling museum. Whaling was HUGE during the early part of Nantucket history. After they realized that whales had oil in them, whaling became nearly the only source of income on the island. Men would start whaling at the age of 12 to 14 and would do it their whole life. The museum was really fascinating.

After the museum, we walked to a few more historical sites. Nantucket has more than 800 houses that were built before the Civil War. "The Oldest House" is one of them. It was built in 1686 by two feuding families (The Coffin's and the Gardener's) for their children who were getting married. It was incredible to walk through this house and think of all the people who had been there. I couldn't stop asking questions! I had cold chills the whole time thinking of all the history in this one little home!

We also went to the "Hadwen House". It was built 200 years after the oldest house and it was incredible to see the differences in building styles. This house was built to resemble Greek structure and most of the money that went into the home was spent on textiles. This, too, was an incredible site to see. Across the street was "The three bricks". Joseph Starbuck built three brick houses for his three sons. They are still standing and lived in today.

We also went to Brant point. It is the second oldest lighthouse built in the United States. It was originally built in 1746 and has been rebuilt ten times. The last time it was rebuilt was in 1907. It was really beautiful.

Nantucket is a town, county and an island. The only place in the US to have the same name for all three. We took a bus to Siasconset( pronounced "Scon-set") early in the morning so we could have time to explore. We heard it was stunning. It was. The beaches were incredible and it was a very small town. Not many people, which made it even nicer. We walked on the beach and put our feet in the (freezing!) water. It was really wonderful.

Once we were back in Nantucket, we had to head over to the ferry and get back to land. We had two more full days to enjoy on the Cape. Nantucket was really wonderful. Very relaxed, very beautiful.