Weekend Trip to Cape Cod and Nantucket-- Day 2

We woke up bright and early on Sunday and got ready to check out of the hotel (you can read about day 1 of our weekend trip here).  I could not wait to get to the ferry for our trip over to Nantucket.  We had tickets booked on the 8:30 fast ferry but had to be there 45 minutes prior for parking and checking in.

We had booked tickets home on an afternoon ferry but weren't really sure how long we wanted to spend on the island.  We were assured we could exchange them for another time the same day as long as there was availability on the ferry.

We grabbed a quick breakfast of bagels and got ready to board.  Our ferry was pretty empty and since it was already scorching hot we decided to ride inside in the air conditioning.

We had some pretty views pulling out..

In less than an hour we could already see the island off in the distance... it was so much larger in person than I expected!  It is a fairly small island of just 105 square miles but that's still pretty big.

Once we got off the ferry we decided to just walk around the old town and see what was nearby.  We debated about renting bikes but, again, it was a very HOT weekend and I wasn't sure I was up to biking all around in the heat and sun.

I fell in love pretty quickly! We've been to Martha's Vineyard and Block Island and while I like both of those islands they reminded me much of any other small seaside town in New England.

Nantucket was a but more quaint and charming. I just loved the brick sidewalks, cobblestone streets, and feel of the place.  Everywhere I looked there were beautiful flower boxes, gardens, and gates.

We came across the Whaling Museum and decided to go through it--  we ended up spending 2 1/2 hours inside!! It was fascinating (and I'll do a full post on just the museum soon!).  

It was lunchtime when we finally finished at the museum and we walked around for a bit before settling on where to eat lunch.

One of my favorite thing to do on these islands is check out the windows in the real estate offices... for just under $16 million you too could have a "summer home" on Nantucket.  Only about 10,000 residents live on Nantucket year round and the average single family home sells for between 2 & 3 million dollars.

We finally settled on lunch at the Brotherhood of Thieves.  Established in 1972 it has a very old world feel inside.  (I didn't take any photos because it is quite dark in the basement area where we were seated).  They have a lovely patio area with outdoor seating but we were looking to cool off in the a/c.  The food was fantastic!  We each got a cup of quahog chowder and split the fisherman's platter.

After lunch we decided we didn't have time to tour the homes we had purchased tickets for (thankfully it was only $5 to tour all three homes so we didn't waste much money) and just walked around the town.

We did a bit of shopping and got some ice cream/ gelato.

 My husband convinced me to buy a Nantucket Red sweatshirt.  Nantucket red stands for the feel of the island.. reds that have lovingly faded over time to an almost pink hue from all the washing.  Something the island has become quite famous for.

(taken at home several days after our trip when it cooled off)

Before we knew it our time was up!  Thankfully we headed up to the ferry dock early (or at least we thought we were early!  All day we thought our ferry home was at 2:30 but it was at 2:15!).   The boat home was much more crowded and we finally settled on sitting outside.

I snapped a few final photos and we said farewell to Nantucket.