Not the biggest . . . but maybe the cutest.
It’s a bit of a misdirection, to say “by foot” because we’ve been covering a lot of ground by foot ever since we arrived. But today we are taking a walking tour of historic downtown. As with all our other guides, today’s Historical Society docent was very interesting and well-informed. We learned a lot more about the interesting citizens of Nantucket (like Macy, Folger and Ben Franklin) and in particular, the substantial role women occupied. We concluded at the old Quaker Meeting House and then continued on our own walk with a stop to see the Tiffany glass in the wonderful Episcopal Church.
This island can be a bit Disneyesque, and if they could eliminate the cars and trucks it would be close to a perfect village. As it was, I felt the vehicles got in the way of some really good pictures, and this is after many visitors have left, and things have slowed down considerably.
Lunched at Cru before getting organized to take the Hy-Line back to Martha’s Vineyard (1hr 10 minutes), and catch our connecting ferry to Quonset, Rhode Island (90 minutes) so we can get to Newport and visit our friends!
Passenger Ferry Notes:
A final commentary about the ferries: These were not auto ferries, and are specifically for passengers. All-in-all, they are pretty good – on time and comfortable, with snack bars, plugs for computers and phones, Wi-Fi (most of the time), and TVs with CNN on the Rhode Island line. The Hy-Line takes your bag(s) on and off the ferry on a luggage cart (RI- you carry-on to a luggage storage area). Be prepared for the fact there are no shelters. Nantucket has a small waiting area, the others have none. All lines to board are out in the open. Take an umbrella and dress accordingly! Schedules vary depending on the time of year and can change at any time (one of ours changed and they did call us to let us know). Bikes and fishing gear are allowed. There are a lot of options, a number of ferry operators and several departure points to get to the islands from Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, or Massachusetts; it can be confusing.
Is our Jeep still in our garage back home? MV and Nantucket are Jeep-central.
Jeeps are everywhere you look, in every color and design.
Brant Point Lighthouse.
Steps Beach.
What a beautiful, chamber-of-commerce day; warm, but not too hot and a bright blue sky. A perfect day for a bike tour.
Since we are here for a limited amount of time, we decided to take an escorted bike tour to make sure we actually understood what we were seeing. Jason’s Nantucket Bike Tour’s 2-hour town trip proved to be a great choice. You can save a few bucks and take a self guided tour with some of the local bike shops, but we felt being with Jason and Carl was worth every penny. They were a great team, keeping us protected from traffic, pointing out where well-know figures (like John Kerry) live, joking, and giving us a local perspective, all while giving us an interesting history lesson. They made sure my camera was safe, carried my jacket, and even had sunscreen when I realized I didn’t.
We covered a number of key sites including the Brant Point Lighthouse, the picturesque Jetties and Steps Beaches, Cobblestone Hill, neighborhoods filled with waterfront mansions, and tree-lined streets of homes with lush, blooming gardens. For history’s sake, we visited the Oldest House, Windmill and the Old Gaol (jail), literally tucked away in someone’s backyard.
We, of course, had worked up an appetite and headed over to the Straight Wharf area for a bite, then back to the Whaling Museum to snap some photos from the rooftop and catch the 3 PM presentation about Whale Hunting. The Museum has a wonderful series of programs, and the volunteer docents are really terrific. This museum is a perfect place to start any visit to Nantucket, and will make everything you see more meaningful.
Back at The White Elephant, we skipped the afternoon port & cheese, and got ready to head to dinner on the 50-minute water taxi ride to Topper’s by Water – a sister property at The Wauwinet. It’s an open boat that holds about 28, and you travel all the way to the head of the harbor enjoying the scenery (with more beautiful waterfront mansions). Cheerful staff is on board to serve wine and cocktails along the way. I imagine many days would be ether too hot, cold, windy or foggy – but like I said, this was a perfect day.
Dinner was a gourmet affair, three- course tasting menu; very continental, some foam, interesting combinations, very rich; my husband survived, and I got to try duck egg for the first time. I must report, the egg was good, very large and rich; it was part of my appetizer and pretty much would have been enough for dinner.
We were tired and very full.
Oldest operating windmill in the country; dating from 1746.
A mansion in 1686, when it was given as a wedding gift by two feuding families to their children who had fallen in love and married.
The lovely White Elephant.
After a leisurely made-to-order breakfast with our Saturday Night Live buddies, we strolled around the lovely Edgartown Cemetery. The cemetery is an expansive full block in size and is the final resting place of many sea captains, their families and descendents from the mid-1800s until today. We also discovered the newly completed firehouse museum, with early engines and memorabilia on display. We had a nice chat with the retired firefighter who first launched the historic project years ago.
Then, on to the HyLine Ferry for a 70 minute ride to Nantucket.
Fog and the threat of rain dominated our trip across the sound, but once in Nantucket we managed to escape most of the inclement weather. We were met at the ferry landing by a driver from The White Elephant Hotel, where we reserved one of the cute, luxurious cottages. The White Elephant is a wonderful property; who wouldn’t be happy when greeted with a box of incredible chocolates? Once settled, we headed out to explore and started in the center of town with an interesting Gallery Tour at the Whaling Museum. I loved the intricate pie crust tools carved by the whalers – they were amazing and something I had never seen of, or heard about, before.
Throughout the center of town, we continued our explorations, eventually ending up at the Nantucket Lobster Trap for some PEI oysters, lobsters and calamari. It was a fun setting (we sat on the patio), and were surprised to hear some very entertaining live blue grass/country music performed by some moonlighting local school teachers. We left in a growing mist and made a pit shop at the Juice Bar, a local ice cream hot spot, to share some chocolate chip and Almond Joy ice cream.
Back at the White Elephant, we had a yummy cupcake (3!) treat waiting in our cottage (in delayed honor of my husband’s birthday). Why are we still eating ????????
About half of the Sperm Whale skeleton at the Whaling Museum.
I think we’ve paid for a portion of security-software mogul Peter Norton’s Oak Bluffs home. The Queen Anne style distinguishes it from neighboring cottage homes. Inscriptions in various languages make tongue-in-check statements such as “Peter’s Summer House” in Russian, and “If you can read this you speak Greek, in, you guessed it, Greek.
We arrived without controversy in Providence, Rhode Island in time to check into a nearby hotel and have dinner. We selected the waterfront Chelo’s in Warwick and had what we’re sure will only be our first of many lobster rolls.
We were up at dawn the next morning to drive over to Quonset, park our rental car and take the 90-minute high-speed, Rhode Island Fast Ferry to Martha’s Vineyard.
We checked into our small, luxury B&B – appropriately named the Hob Knob Inn. I say appropriate because at least eight of the cast members from Saturday Night Live were also at the Inn, having come in for Seth Meyer’s wedding the night prior. Foggy conditions closed the airport, so they were still around. We saw Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Kenan Thompson. Never did see Amy Poehler or Andy Samberg.
The first thing we did was head out for a walk around charming Edgartown. The weather forecast called for a 90% chance of rain, and it had been pouring when we woke up in Warwick, but we were lucky and the rain stayed away. We walked along streets with beautiful, restored homes of sea captains from the 1800s, loved the colorful flowers and took a break to sit and observe the historic Edgartown Lighthouse and picturesque harbor views. Down by the wharf we managed to nab a prime seat along the rail, upstairs at the Seafood Shanty, for a good salad and haddock lunch. Then back to the Inn to meet our driver for a private island tour.
It takes about three hours to get around and see the key sites. I particularly enjoyed the colorful, gingerbread-inspired Carpenter Gothic Campground homes, and expansive, inviting park near Oak Bluffs and seeing spots made famous by the movie Jaws (I know, so touristy). There were several notable locations along the water and in town used in the movie; and on the beach at Menemsha you can clearly see the skeletal remains of the vessel that inspired the famous line “I think we need a bigger boat”. At the Menemsha Fish Market, we saw some HUGE lobsters and enjoyed sampling the bisques and sharing a delicious warm lobster cake.
We went up-island (more western with higher longitudes and elevations), and down-island; saw the artistic communities of Tisbury and Chilmark (where Obama recently stayed), farms and beaches. The Gay Head Lighthouse and Cliffs have recently (as in a landslide this past week), seen even greater erosion, but it is still a beautiful, windswept vista. The area has re-taken its Native American name – Aquinnah. We skipped Chappaquiddick – seeing it across the water was enough; it did not seem worth the effort to take the two-minute ferry. By the way, this ferry may be the only ferry that has never had a late departure since it has no schedule.
Of course, we had to see the red gates of Caroline Kennedy’s Red Gate Farm, homes of famous people like Emily Post and Patricia Neal, shops belonging to Carly Simon and her family, the infamous Edgartown Inn where Ted Kennedy hid after Chappaquiddick and John Belushi’s grave. This island is really big with the Saturday Night Live crowd, even after death.
Gay Head Cliffs, a National Natural Monument, and Lighthouse.
Gay Head Lighthouse.
