Biking, Relaxing, and Ghost Walking: Day 2 on Nantucket

 On our first full day on Nantucket, we had a nice little al fresco breakfast at the hotel. There was a pretty whale-tail shaped vase on the table with fresh hydrangeas in it.

I had a delicious veggie omelet! 😋

We walked downtown for an excursion I had planned, which I'll get to in a minute, but first here are some pictures of The Nantucket that I took as we embarked upon our walk. 

I'd scheduled us to go on a two-hour bike ride tour in the morning with a guide. I thought it would be a fun way to see the sights, and it was. The guide was a really nice guy who knows Nantucket very well and serves in the local government there. It was nice to talk to him and get a local's perspective of what living on Nantucket is like, and it was fun to ride a bike again too, although a little scary at times on some of those narrow cobblestone streets, especially in the part of town where there was a lot of traffic! Thankfully there were no crashes or other embarrassing incidents that took place. 😄

We rode over to see the view at Steps Beach, which is one of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen, and that includes the Caribbean.

 

Does this helmet make me look like a dork? Answer: yes.

We stopped at the Oldest House on the island (dating to the 1680s!) and once again the fact that I'd read Away Off Shore the week before proved very helpful in making the places and people from history much more familiar and significant. The guide was impressed with how smart I was. Ha ha, just kidding (kind of!).

We stopped at other places along the way but we rode a lot too so I didn't take very many pictures. I'm so glad we did this bike ride! Even though it was pretty warm out. 

We got smoothies for lunch in town and walked back to The Nantucket, stopping at a few places along the way.

Where we got our smoothies. 

For the afternoon I had booked a poolside cabana, and it was the perfect thing to do after a long morning bike ride. The cabana was cozy and comfortable and it came with a huge platter of sliced fresh fruit. The pool was great too; it was salt water and it was nice and warm. I swam and read and relaxed for the afternoon.

Delicious, healthy, and refreshing!

We ate dinner at Breeze, the hotel's restaurant, where I had to try their lavender honey roasted salmon. It didn't disappoint! After dinner we walked downtown again for a ghost walk! We got there early and I meandered around for a little while my mom talked to a friendly old man who I later talked to as well. He was a direct descendant of one of the island's prominent families that I'd read about in the book! He even had their last name, Gardner. That was so cool! It was like history brought to life, literally! Meeting that kind old man was a highlight of the trip for me. And once again, I'm so glad I read Away Off Shore before we went away off shore to Nantucket.

How Macy's began!

This is the shop where Macy got his start. I bought a belt here nine years ago and it's still the belt I wear almost all of the time when I need to wear a belt.

The ghost walk was fun. It was the same guy who did the one that Peter and I went on in 2011. He didn't remember me (I have no idea why 😜) but I remembered him!

This hotel is haunted! I'd thought about staying here when I was looking at places to stay but wanted something a little fancier. But I bet this would have been nice! Maybe next time! 

It was a fun day and we slept pretty well that night!

Off to Nantucket

 My mom and I went to Nantucket for three days at the end of July for my 40th birthday. We were there for three days and three nights and we went home on my birthday eve. The original plan for my birthday was to take my dream trip to England in August--finally!--but COVID put an end to that. Hopefully only a temporary end, but time will tell. Nantucket was literally as close as I could get to England this summer! It would have to do, and it did. It was a very nice treat. I'd been to Nantucket once before--Peter and I went for a couple of days in the summer of 2011 for my 31st birthday--but my mom had never been, so it was fun to go with her this time.

I wanted to stay at a nice place, and ended up choosing The Nantucket. It was nice, and it was pretty expensive, and the prices were extremely high for two beds or two rooms, so my mom and I shared a king-sized bed.😔 It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I guess. Ha ha, just kidding Mom!

The whale pillow turned out to be a great divider between us, which almost made it feel like we were in our own beds. Almost.

The hotel had this fun old fire truck for transports to and from the nearest beach.

After we got there in the afternoon we walked downtown, and in doing so discovered that our hotel was right around the corner from the B&B that Peter and I had stayed at nine years before. How funny! He took my picture next to this same tree; you'll see it if you look at blog post from that trip that I linked above. Now there I was again, nine years older and better than ever! 😁

We went to a few shops. I thought this little crab purse was so cute.

Nantucket has two good bookstores and we went to both. 

A pretty cover for Anne.

A shrine to Herman Melville and Moby-Dick.

We ate dinner at a barbecue place near the docks. It was delicious! 

We stopped at a few more shops after dinner. My mom pointed out this magnet to me. Was she trying to tell me something!? 😂

This little desk was so pretty.

Cute whale stools.

I had just read Nathaniel Philbrick's excellent book about the history of Nantucket the week before (Away Off Shore) and I'm so glad that I did because names like these meant something to me since I'd read about these people from the history of the island. 

This is the same Macy family that started Macy's department stores.

We went to Nantucket Bookworks which I had fond memories of from my 2011 trip, but I have to say that this time the shop felt quite somber because of COVID rules and a kind of unfriendly-seeming shop worker and also because of the decidedly liberal display of books and paraphernalia throughout the store. It was hard to find any conservative books to balance things out. The far-left force was strong there. 😵 So the only picture I took was of the cute children's area, which felt fun and happy. 

On the walk back to the hotel I spotted this amazing wooden owl on a house. I want one!

For our stay I had pre-ordered this treat of a white-chocolate whale and chocolate-covered strawberries (my favorites!). It was delivered on the wrong day and they ended up delivering another one on the correct day. Two for the price of one, woo-hoo!

That evening we walked down the street to Brant Point Lighthouse. It was a beautiful evening and it was a beautiful, picturesque spot.

It was a popular place for fishing. 

A nice picture of Mom.

A cool boat that sailed by.

The sky was still blue looking east...

...but the western sky was coming for it.

It was a lovely way to wrap up our first day there. Tomorrow, I'll write about our second day, which involved a fun bike ride through town, a fancy poolside cabana, and a ghost walk. 👻