The Islands: Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket

If you have a chance, visit the Vineyard and Nantucket, off the south coast of Cape Cod. They really are lovely, and quite different from one another ecologically. Martha’s Vineyard has lots of forests of deciduous trees—trees that shed their leaves in winter—providing deep shade for some of the roads and paths. Other areas are agricultural, or have green rolling hills and fields. In contrast, much of Nantucket has pine forests and sandy soils, and moors with low scrub. There also were some agricultural areas, but the overall impression is of a sunny, open landscape with intermittent spots of shade. Of course, both islands are surrounded by beautiful water, and have lots of great beaches.

We have been to Martha’s Vineyard before, so we restricted our tromps this time to Vineyard Haven, on the northeast side of the island. If you’ve been there, you know that Black Dog has a tavern (which has very good food but no alcohol, as Vineyard Haven is a dry town), bakery, clothing shops, and schooners. Chris got friendly with a couple of the dogs at Black Dog schooner, and we saw this Black Dog schooner sailing by. The dinghy dock is convenient to town and abuts a pretty park.

We went much farther afield on Nantucket. The first afternoon we walked the town, looking at the dock houses on the waterfront, and visited the Whaling Museum, which was fascinating. After dinner we hiked out to The Chicken Box, a bar with live music nearly every night, recommended by my brother, Frannie. The place was packed, though the show didn’t start until 10:30 pm, and the music was great. The next day we rented bikes and biked around quite a bit of the island. We had a picnic lunch at Sankaty Light, strolled around the settlement of Siasconset (prounounced ‘Sconcet) where there was a cool building with a sundial on the side, and napped on the warm sand at Surfside Beach. Our thighs (OK, Anne’s thighs) were feeling a bit wobbly at this point, so we took advantage of the nice FREE showers provided at the Nantucket Town Pier. A good time was had by all.