Nantucket Island

I just spent two nights, and three days in one of my favorite places in the world. Nantucket, Massachusetts. Every summer my family and I make the trip down to visit my brother who works on island and it gets better every year. My aunt, and my mom and I went down this summer for the past couple of days. When we stepped off the ferry onto Main Street and smelled the fresh Nantucket air and felt the warm, rich sun I knew the trip would be spectacular. The familiar sounds of bikes passing, dogs barking, and ice cream cones crunching, brought me right back to summers past. Our first stop was Jettie’s beach. We stayed at The Beachside hotel so the walking distance was perfect to squeeze in our first beach fix. The island sand beneath my toes and the refreshing Atlantic Ocean water was just what I needed. They say that there are very few things salt water can’t cure. Then my brother and his girlfriend joined us for the tail end of the beach day before my brother had to return to his work duties. Then that night we enjoyed a casual dinner at The Tavern restaurant and topped of the day with a trip to the Juice Bar of course. The Juice Bar, an island favorite, is a homemade ice cream and fresh pressed juice shop that will never be seen without a line out the door. Typically when we arrive at the Juice Bar after dinner, the line is wrapped around the corner but the wait is worth it and we keep coming back for their ice cream that is to die for.

The next day we got up early only to find rain clouds covering the sky, a huge disappointment as we were planning on a full beach day. Just as we were joking about going to the Nantucket whaling museum, blue sky started to appear and the sun came out to answer our wishes. After the three us of went on a morning run around the little side streets and admired the beautiful houses, we got our act together and packed up for the beach. My brother picked us up and along the way we stopped at one of my favorite sandwich shops, Something Natural. I tried something new and got the sprouts, vegetables, and avocado sandwich on whole wheat bread and it was everything I thought it would be. Of course sandwiches are always better on the beach, and on Nantucket in general. After our quick pit stop we took the long way to Nobadeer beach, driving through ‘Sconset and by the Sankaty Light House.

Finally we stepped onto Nobadeer beach, as usual full of parked cars to the left and nothing but wide-open ocean and beach to the right. The beach wasn’t busy, and because the bus doesn’t stop there it is more remote and quiet which is perfect. We spent the day there, worked on our tans, enjoyed our sandwiches and relaxed. With good music playing and a gentle breeze, the day and the weather could not have been any better. As an end to the beach day we had the Summer of Lager beer from Cisco Brewers, making the day sweeter.

       

After getting home from the beach, we endured the typical beach vacation regime of washing the salt water off and seeing the results of the sun’s rays. The three of us then got all shined up and ready to meet my brother and go out to dinner. Our original plan was a reservation at Queequeg’s restaurant but after some complications with their power, we decided to try our luck at Cru. We ended up with an outside table right with a spectacular view of the Nantucket harbor. The food at Cru was delicious, we all started off with their tuna tartar toast and then I ordered the lobster roll. Instead of a mayonnaise-based recipe they simply used butter and lemon and it was the best lobster roll I’ve ever had. After licking my fingers, I put that meal on the top of the list for the best of the summer. Everyone else enjoyed their meals and then we walked around a little to see the boats in the harbor. On our way back to The Beachside, we stopped at none other than the Juice Bar and I decided to try something new, the strawberry ice cream and with each bite I fell more in love.

On the last day, we had a 12:30 ferry reservation so we didn’t have enough time to make a day out of it and ended up heading down to Jettie’s for one last look at the beach. Then we packed up, dropped our bags at the ferry and walked around town. We were on the hunt for a gift for the three of us and eventually got three Nantucket tumblers from Best of the Beach on Straight Wharf to remember the trip. And of course we stopped at FRESH sandwich shop and grocery store to get sandwiches for the ferry ride home. It’s hard to say what sandwich shop is my favorite on the island but FRESH and Something Natural are easily in the top five, and I would highly recommend them. All in all it was another short but sweet visit to Nantucket Island. We threw our two pennies out into the water at the lighthouse, promising that we would be back and off we went. So on the ferry ride home we were only left with the memories of mouth-watering food, breath-taking views, and sun kissed skin. Until next year, ACK.

– Sandra