Little Bang Theory

Meanwhile, Back On Nantucket… February 2, 2011

…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.