Since the day my husband introduced me to Nantucket, it has been my favorite escape. In the beginning we spent most of our time downtown, wandering up and down the cobblestone streets, in and out of shops. These days, I find myself being drawn away from the excitement and instead pulled towards the simpler pleasures of the island. The walking trails and bike paths, early morning coffee overlooking the harbor, the beach at sunset, a quiet spot to read.
Of course, we still love going out to restaurants because the food is amazing.. this year even felt a little extra special since we lost this privilege for so long due to covid.. but year by year our trips become more and more low key and I love it. I finally convinced hubby that take out or a picnic on the beach is far superior to anything a restaurant view can offer us. Our mornings start earlier and evenings end just after sunset, curled up with a book. Bike rides have gotten longer and beach days sweeter. Alcohol less frequent and Something Natural iced tea more often. It’s a great evolution.
This year we arrived on Sunday afternoon and started vacation the best way possible.. we dropped our stuff off and headed straight to the beach. We were even lucky enough to get a dinner reservation at our favorite restaurant on the island, The Nautilus.
Monday morning we woke up early for a workout before heading to Island Kitchen for breakfast, the beach, followed by Cru for lunch and Cisco Brewery for a few afternoon cocktails. It was a busy day so we decided a low key takeout dinner from Oath Pizza was perfect. We wore comfy clothes and ate overlooking the glowing lights of town from the docks.
Tuesday we jumped on our bikes and headed to my favorite part of Nantucket, ‘Sconset. When we arrived, we grabbed some coffee and a blueberry muffin at the market before heading to the bluff walk and then the beach. Before the 8 mile bike ride back to town, we grabbed sandwiches at Claudette’s and headed to our room for a glorious nap! We tried a new restaurant, Pi Pizzeria, for dinner. The mozzarella sticks were out of this world, the pizza and chicken parm were good, not great. After dinner, we jumped back on the bikes and road as fast as we could to the beach.. literally chasing the sunset. But, if you don’t know, Nantucket is known for its fog and therefore beautiful sunsets are not frequent. But Tuesday night.. Tuesday night was mesmerizing.
Wednesday started with breakfast on the beach, followed by seashell searching and reading. For lunch we met up with a friend at the Sandbar at Jetties Beach for buck-a-shuck oysters and then biked to Madaket for Millie’s takeout dinner on the beach. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and there was no sunset to be seen but we still had so much fun.. we even biked home in the dark (with our new fancy bike headlights) and nearly hit a deer and some bunnies that darted across the path.
Thursday afternoon we visited the Whaling Museum which is definitely something worth checking out and ate dinner at Ventuno.. good food but over priced! After dinner, we biked down to the beach to watch another amazing sunset.. the perfect way to complete our last night on the island.
We left Friday, but not before squeezing in a little more beach time!
Although I’m always sad to leave the ocean and end vacation, I’m also ready to eat normal again, get back into my usual workout routine, sleep in my own bed and, mostly, get home to our girls.
Love, Jessica 