Nantucket — Interesting!

What a surprise Nantucket has been.  First of all, the ferry ride from Hyannis could not have been easier.  We drove from Provincetown and realized we did not want to stop for lunch on the way; breakfast had been huge and not so long past.

(By the way, if you ever get to P-town, go to Yolkeria and order the Challah Cinnamon French Toast for breakfast — John and I both discovered it the day before we left….and ordered it again the next morning!!!). I WILL learn to make this :))

So, anyway, we arrived in time to take a ferry two hours earlier to Nantucket — no waiting at all; we checked our bags, John parked the car to stay there while we were away and then we boarded for about an hour ride.

We were picked up at the harbor by the driver for our hotel — The Wauwinet — and whisked to the other side of the island.  We walked into the resort and I faced a huge staircase to the upper floors.  NO, they did NOT have us down for a ground floor room and NO, there were none available.  Now John made the reservations for this trip, so I could not say from firsthand, but he did book a handicap accessible room in Provincetown and he did book handicap rooms at the next two stops.  What do you think the odds are that he didn’t in Nantucket????

After about 45 minutes of waiting nearby to the front desk, we were told that they were able to move us to a sister hotel in Nantucket town close to the ferry…..an historic hotel.  So we had to get loaded back into a car and driven back into town (another half hour).  I had to take a picture of John from the car before we left our wonderful Wauwinet experience!!!

When we arrived, our driver didn’t even drive us past the front of the hotel — lots of steps.  He drove us into the back of the hotel (read service entrance) and we entered from the back, through a bar, a side dining room and a sitting room to get to the front desk — not one’s preferred entrance.  (But that is being picky!). We checked in, were told we were in the annex (not even the main house) and ended up in a queen bedded room far from the “action” of the hotel.  John hated this place and wanted to leave the next morning but there were no ferries then — cancelled because of “gale winds”.  Oh, yes, and a hurricane is on the way to the east coast!

So we had to stay for two nights!  Here’s the good news:  it was so cold and rainy that a resort at the beach would have been totally boring.  We could walk around and shop in town.

The highlight of our stay was a visit to the Whaling Museum.  We learned so much about life in the 1800’s on Nantucket and aboard whaling ships.  It was very interesting.  One of the most amazing sights is the 46 foot long young sperm male skeleton; it showed up on the shores of Nantucket, obviously in distress — then was found further down the beach the next morning, having died during the night.  The residents of Nantucket worked hard to make sure the remains stayed on Nantucket.  These same residents dismantled the remains, then worked out what to do with the bones to get them clean (dumped them in the harbor for the fish to clean), then hired an expert to reassemble them).  The size is awesome!

Another fascinating exhibit is the Scrimshaw Room. When whaling ships in the 1800’s were on their way back from the seas of the South Pacific, the captains would allow the crew time to make their own souvenirs from the whale bones or teeth.  It is difficult to believe that these objects were carved by whalers — they are truly beautiful!  I included the corset because they were originally shaped by whale bone. The tools after the corset are pie crimpers.

The rain continued; but the day was saved by that fabulous experience!  A few more photos from that stop.  The boat is an example of the early sailboats here…..as the industry changed from whaling to tourism; this was due to the sand bar in the harbor that would not go away.  Eventually the ships moved to other deeper water harbors.  The blue container below is what we put our luggage into during the trip on the ferry.  And the view is from the roof of the Whaling Museum and the light is from the original lighthouse; it’s huge!!!

Before we left we did pose for a few silly pictures in front of their green screen.

After dinner, we had to go try out the island’s best ice cream place — The Juice Bar.  It was fun watching the cones being made.

We did need to add some pictures of the Jared Coffin House.  It does have some history of its own.  He was one of the most successful shipowners in 1845 and built a three-story home in the center of Nantucket town; it was the first such mansion ever built on the island.  The sun came out on our last morning — a good time to take a picture of the front of the house and the front desk room.  John took these pictures while he went to get morning coffee.

On our last day our ferry was not until 2:30 p.m. so we hired a driver to take us around the island for awhile.  She was a hoot; her name is Sally O’Malley.  I did take lots of flowers, two light houses and two shots of John Kerry’s home.  There was a VERY old cemetery and a gate with an anchor that we liked!

 

And then we were off to the Vineyard!

See you there!

Beth