Nantucket

To celebrate our two year wedding anniversary, William took me to Nantucket. I have always wanted to visit the island, yet had never done so. I had visited Martha's Vineyard and loved it and so I was expecting something very similar. Nantucket has a completely different feel to it. It is smaller island and was the primary whaling center for several years.

We stayed in Hyannis since is was much less expensive and we could also leave our car in the hotel parking lot. Since we were fairly short on time, we opted to spend the extra money and take the fast ferry to and from the island, making it a hour hour boat ride each way instead of a two hour one. We arrived and for most of the morning and the whole sky was cloudy and overcast. But, after a few hours, the clouds literally parted and we had clear blue skies for the rest of the day. We were shocked about how it literally made a straight line dividing the light and blue sky.

I've always had an afinity for libraries and I love the stately look of the Nantucket Atheneum.

All of the main roads in the heart of downtown are cobblestone roads.

And all of the buildings are so quaint and charming, and many have a nautical theme to them.

We stumbled upon this shop called "Cheryl Fudge" but the sad thing is that they don't sell any fudge! Just clothing and other miscellaneous items. But don't worry- we were able to find another fudge shop to satisfy the craving brought on by the sign.

We also went to the Whaling Museum. They have a huge skeleton of a 46 foot sperm whale and can you believe that they caught these things using the small boat pictured below!

They had lots of other artifacts including some of the candles that they made using the oil from the whale. We also head a ranger talk about the Essex, a ship that had been attacked by a whale twice and eventually sunk the ship. But, the few that were on the life boat ended up resorting to cannibalism to survive. This real life account was the basis for Herman Melville's Moby Dick.

the view of the town from the observation deck atop the Whaling Museum.

Since it was such a beautiful day so that we walked for several miles around the island. Even their graveyards have a nautical theme with masts.

We also saw the oldest house on the island, the Jethro Coffin House, built in 1686, on Sunset Hill.

But our favorite part was walking along the beautiful beach.

I've never seen so many shells in my entire life. We found perfectly intact clams and bay scallops along with mussels, whelks, and slipper shells. Imagine miles of beach lined with this huge amount of shells- so incredible.

William along the rock jetty

One of the small sand bars along the coast

I absolutely loved the Brant Point Lighthouse. We couldn't go inside, but had great photo opportunities outside.

William took this incredible photo where the seagull dropped a crab onto the rock to break it open. I had no idea that seagulls were so ingenious.

Overall, it was a perfect way to celebrate two years with my perfect husband.