Have you been to Nantucket?
The girls and I spent a wonderful late summer weekend in Nantucket. Here are a few notes from our trip.
If you haven't been, it's definitely worth the effort; getting there from Michigan is a little tricky. We researched our options, you can of course drive, but that's wasn't practical for a long weekend. You can fly to Boston and then take an Uber/bus and a ferry. This works if you want the "fun" of the ferry ride and don't mind a long not fun Uber ride. We opted to fly. It was easy and convenient. There's a direct flight from DC, from Detroit we had to change planes in Boston.
Once on island (as they say here) you don't need a car. The WAVE bus service is great. We used it a couple of times.
First impressions, the shaker box houses with the gray shingles are very cute. Many of the houses have decks on the roofs. The gray shingles make the perfect backdrop for the flower gardens that surround every home. The town of Nantucket was beautiful. We enjoyed walking around exploring the shops and restaurants. It's a short walk from town to the Brant Point Lighthouse and beach. Travel note, bring good walking shoes, the sidewalks and roads are cobble stone and brick pavers and very uneven.
One afternoon, we rented bikes and road to Cisco beach. It was a great ride. At eight miles round trip, it was long enough to feel like we went someplace , but not too long. Cisco beach was beautiful and the prettiest beach we visited.
The 'Sconset Bluff Walk in Siasconset was great and well worth the $3 a piece (each way) WAVE bus fare. The walk follows a the bluff over the beach past more spectacular gardens and cute shingled cottages. It ends at the very pretty red and white Sankaty Head Lighthouse. We picked up picnic supplies and had lunch on the beach. One bold seagull tried to join us, but we chased him away. Sorry seagull, no pb&j or smoked cheddar for you.
One evening we joined Bill, the local ghost tour guide for a spooky walk around the old streets of Nantucket. Bill did a great job telling us about the ghosts the haunt 5 of Nantucket's older homes, including one house, later an inn, that was built in 1709. For perspective, Benjamin Franklin was a toddler and George Washington wasn't born yet when the house was built. The mix of history and haunt was well done. It was one of the better ghost tours I've done. The scariest part was walking on the cobblestones in the dark.
For our last day on island, we checked out the famous Nantucket Disc Golf course. It's about 2 miles from town, so walkable with sidewalks and paved path the entire way. The course was very pretty with lots of trees. The type that jump in front of your disc. We didn't have time to play the entire course, but it was fun nonetheless. And free! (Everything else on Nantucket is quite pricey)
We stayed at the Martin House Inn. The location was great and we enjoyed the included breakfast and the large side porch. However, the hotel has pasted from historic charm to rather rundown and needs a refresh. The rug in the room was noticeably dirty, the bathroom was teeny tiny and just a little musty. While non of this hampered our enjoyment of the trip, we would recommend staying elsewhere.
***Flying is east and convenient, only when things are on time. We are stuck on island and probably not going to make our connection back to Detroit.