jump to navigation

Meanwhile, Back On Nantucket… February 2, 2011

Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Love and Death.
Tags: , , , , , , ,
3 comments

…Our weekend, continued.

The village of Nantucket is a beautiful bit of Old New England:

…gone kinda commercial.  The cobblestone streets and brick sidewalks and buildings are quaint, but geared toward raking in the tourist bucks.

This time of year we were spared the crowds:

In fact, we were spared the burden of having anything be open.

So we sprung for a rental car and hit the road.

We headed East to ‘Sconset (it’s actually Siasconset,  but The Locals don’t call it that) across the island “highlands.”  This is an interesting bit of terrain which makes a passable Serengeti:

Our innkeeper told us that, last year, someone had placed life-size cut-outs of big game out there, to the assumed delight of us tourists.

I think that’s pretty funny.

But onward we went, stopping at Sankaty Light just north of ‘Sconset:

This big boy was moved in 2007, back from the edge of an impressive but eroding sand dune cliff.  Here Susan gives it a bit of scale:

The sand cliffs here dwarf the Cape cliffs at Marconi Beach.  Susan considered the dive:

…but in the end, thought better of it:

We settled for a nice long walk on the beach:

…amidst the driftwood…

…and occasional messages in the sand, this one obliterated by a wave a second after I captured it:

Here the shifting sands swallow anything which sits still long enough to succumb to the work of wind and water:

…while spitting out the unpalatable cast-offs of a struggling coastal population:

As the afternoon waned, we headed back to Nantucket Village in time to catch another low tide, my personal favorite time to be on the beach:

Tiny tableaus told of battles fought and lost,

and of past glories now bleaching in the surf and sun:

What a tale was told there, of life and death, beauty and dissolution.

There were lessons to be learned by wiser minds, but then, we had a ferry to catch.

So, off to the Lady Martha:

…away from the dock:

…and back across the Sound, this time chuttering against the wind, so ‘scuse the shaky shots -with the sun setting over Nantucket Sound:

…and off to the southeast, a trail of warm memories:

…albeit grainy as all get-out.

Anyway, that’s it from Nantucket.  I hope you enjoyed it a fraction as much as we did.

G’Night now.

A Crossing. January 31, 2011

Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Love and Death.
Tags: , ,
3 comments

This past weekend marked my Susan’s birthday, and to celebrate the occasion I booked us an overnight at a Bed & Breakfast on Nantucket Island.  Neither of us had ever been there before, and we were both excited to check it out.

Winter is the “off-season” at the coast, so we (correctly) assumed we’d have a quiet time away, which was just what we wanted.

Getting to Nantucket is a bit of a chore, involving a three and a half hour drive and an hour-long ferry ride out of Hyannis.  The usual commuter ferry wasn’t running, so we had to take a slightly more expensive private boat over.

Hy-Line Cruises did a nice job, though – the boat was clean and fast and steady, a relief to the two of us, who are inveterate land-lubbers.

Here’s our ride, the Lady Martha:

I planned to snag a window seat to take a few photographs, but the windows were caked with salt spray on the outside so that was out.  Instead, we spent a fair part of the ride on the upper rear deck, where the views were exciting for this hill town boy.

We picked up speed as soon as we’d cleared the Hyannisport jetties:

The mainland receded quickly, leaving me scanning the horizon for our destination.  Here’s a view out the bow windows:

,,,nope, nothin’ but water and sky.

It was chilly out in the wind:

…so we ducked inside for a while.

Most of an hour passed before Nantucket reared its low, gentle “heads,” as coastal highlands are called in these parts, and I annoyed my fellow passengers by shouting, “Land, Ho!” in my best Mr. Krabs voice:

We rounded Brant Point:

…and docked.

Next, “On The Island Of Nantucket!”