We were up bright and early and out the door by 8.30am for the short walk down to the dock for our cruise out to Nantucket island. More than 25 miles off the coast of Massachusetts and only 14 miles long, today it’s a very popular summer holiday resort ( an expensive one!) but from the mid-1700s to the late 1830s, Nantucket was the whaling capital of the world. I’d purchased the tickets online but we had to collect our “boarding passes” for the ferry at least 30 minutes before the ferry was due to leave. We lined up with a modest sized crowd and after not long the ferry ( a high speed catamaran) arrived.
The day was perfect and the water in the sound was almost like glass so we had a very smooth trip of about an hour to get to Nantucket.
When we docked at Nantucket wharf Neil and I made a beeline for the Whaling Museum. It was excellent! The museum is home to a 46-foot sperm whale skeleton, a massive Fresnel lens, a restored 1847 sperm oil candle factory and a rooftop deck with a good view over the town. There were excellent displays about the residents of nantucket during the whaling era and the rise and fall of the industry on the island.
From the museum we strolled out to the point to see the little lighthouse ( of course, another day another lighthouse!) The streets along the waterfront were lined with gorgeous homes all cladded with cedar shingles and most with white trims. There were some seriously expensive looking properties along here. ( Later in the day Neil and I looked in the window of a couple of real estate agents in the town, most properties were well above US$5 Million and some went up to $20 Million – this is a seriously expensive place to live!)
Walking back into the town we stopped in at a little pub with seating out the back overlooking the harbour. We both had burgers , but interesting ones- Neil’s was a crab cake BLT and mine was a Buffalo Chicken with Blue cheese aioli.
After lunch we wandered through the streets that rise up the hill from the central part of town. this area was totally different to the waterfront, the streets were heavily cobbled and the footpaths a rustic mix of old bricks and huge flagstones. There were leafy trees in front of beautiful old colonial timber and brick buildings. It was just so pretty!
We browsed through some of the shops, if there wasn’t the drama of getting things home I could have let my head go with some of the decor items. Before long it was time to head back to the shoreline for our trip back to the mainland. There were more cute little shops along the wharf.
We loved Nantucket, in some ways it was similar to Mackinac island the quaint little island we visited on Lake Michigan in 1919, but in many ways it was totally different. Certainly unlike anywhere else we’ve visited in the USA – the country is still surprising us!
For dinner tonight we abandoned the waterfront and walked back up onto the main street of Hyannis to have dinner at the British Beer Company Pub. However we didn’t abandon seafood, we both had a delicious Thai red curry jumbo shrimp. Gosh it was nice to have a curry after 6 weeks!
So that’s a wrap on Massachusetts, tomorrow we head on to visit Rhode island and to our last night of the trip in Connecticut.