Nantucket Newlywed

As regular traveler to Nantucket in the summer you are probably concerned about the news of Island Air shutting down and Hy-Line stopping it’s traditional ferry service, but don’t worry, I can help you navigate the choppy waters. I live on Nantucket year round and am keeping abreast of all the changes in the ferry and air travel options since I travel to the mainland fairly often.

SSA approves New Bedford–Nantucket high-speed passenger ferry service

Last month The MV Times reported that the Steamship Authority approved an expansion of daily high speed ferry service between New Bedford and Nantucket by Seastreak, who already runs ferry service from New York and Oak Bluffs and Nantucket.  This summer ferry service will include two daily round trips during the week and three Friday through Sunday.  Additionally, the Hy-Line will retire its’ traditional ferry and replace it with a new high-speed ferry adding more high-speed service to Nantucket.

Photo by Peter Sutters

Island Airlines Grounded, Filing for Bankruptcy

Recently, and without notice, Island Airlines ceased all flight operations and announced that it was filing for bankruptcy. Island Air had been providing greater than 70 percent of all air service between Nantucket and Hyannis but faced rising fuel costs and airport fees as well as competition from fast ferry service.  Currently Cape Air/Nantucket Airlines is adding flights to help fill the gap and hopes to have more service available in time for the summer season.

With these changes in mind, I’ve got 3 simple suggestions to make sure you aren’t stuck on the mainland this summer.

BOOK EARLY – Once you know your travel dates, book your transportation right away to avoid sell-outs.

PLAN B – Know that sometimes things change, so have a next best idea in mind.

BE FLEXIBLE – The grey lady is fickle, so if wind and fog disrupt your travel just go with the flow.

We had no idea how long we'd stay.  Or what we were getting ourselves into.  Or if we'd even like it here.

On September 15, 2013 we took most of clothes, a few of our books and 2 our cats and officially moved to our rental home.  We had until mid-June 2014 to figure out the next step.

Gray shingles, white trim. The Nantucket way.

We made sure to drive, walk and bike around to see the sights.  There were a lot of sunsets we managed to catch!

We hosted a round of guests which gave us an excuse to see other places on the island, try out new restaurants.  The island stays pretty lively through the fall and the holidays.

Lots of cranberries!

We spent the fall exploring and trying out different things to do.  I joined a book club, looked into joining a board (that didn't seem to be a good fit), kept up our running.

Great Point lighthouse (we rented a Jeep for a day with friends..)

We expected a mild winter.  Everyone told us "it never snows on Nantucket", i thought snow would look like this (this is a dusting of snow on a sand/dirt road)

and Christmas was quaint like this:

but after New Year's it look a lot more like this:

So, in the first 4 months here my husband worked hard at his new job, I tried to be a decent housewife while looking for work.  Thankfully, the stars aligned and I got a job that really fit in with my idea of what I wanted to do.  I happily busied myself with work events and activities.

does not exist.  You realize it's here when all of a sudden you start hearing about restaurants opening up after months of hibernation.  Then everywhere you look daffodils sprout from the ground, but to your horror, it's still 40 degrees out, gray and raw.  It's important to stop and enjoy the daffodils though.  They are everywhere.  And their yellow, white and orange colors are decidedly happy.  

As I sit and watch the weather report, I'm constantly jealous of hearing about 60 and 70 degrees on the mainland. We broke 60 last week finally.  

The beautiful ocean that adds to the magic of the island is responsible for our cool breezes - which are great in the summer - but less desirable in the spring.

I've not blogged in a long time due to being ridiculously busy and having an arm injury.  Both things are still true, but both are improving, so I guess I need to return to normalcy.

After our Christmas break we contacted a realtor and a bank and started to look into buying a home on Nantucket.  We did this for several reasons:

Before we came to Nantucket we were interested in purchasing our next home.

The rental market here is awful.  There are not a lot of year 'round rentals and those who have them do not leave them.  Landlords who rent in the summer season can get anywhere from $2000/week+ (I've seen $20,000/week for some properties).  These people often don't want the hassle of having tenants in the off-season - but even if they do, you gotta move out for the summer unless you can pay summer rental rates.

If we don't want to be on the move constantly, we need to control our own housing. We had to buy.

The fun part about buying a home here is that if you don't like anything on the market you can  not buy and wait and see, or you can compromise.  You can't look in the next town over, and for most people, you can't wait forever unless  you have one of those precious year 'round leases.  

We knew that in order to make sure we were able to move in by mid-June we would want to make an offer by the end of February.  Did I mention we started looking in early January?  I think we looked at homes 3 or 4 Saturdays in a row.  We put together one offer that ended up being too late on one place, and then the next week put an offer on the house we are now buying.  We pretty much looked at EVERY home in our price range - which only totaled about 12.  In the last 4 weeks ZERO homes in our range have come on the market.

When banks compete, you win.  This is true.  We spoke with 4 banks and let them compete.  We very happy that the broker we liked best was able to match the lowest rates so we could work with her.

We ended up buying a house we avoided looking at for a few weeks because it was "out of the way".  Now, it's an island, how far away could it be, right?  But you live here long enough and you feel like 3 miles is a long distance and 6 is forever.  We now work about 1.3 miles from our rental home and most of our activities are within 2 miles of here.  It's amazing how small your world can get.

So, we're moving WAY out to Tom Nevers, known for it's terrible cell phone reception, relative quiet in any season(especially in the off-season), and large lots.  No, the airport is not Tom Nevers field (that was a former military air base in the area) but you can insert your "Wings" comment here. We chose to buy here because we loved the open space, the sound of the ocean and the realization that we wanted a place that looked like it was on Nantucket.  So many places we looked at were just another townhouse on a street that could be anywhere in New England.  We put more value on the size of our outdoor space than the indoor.  For two people who have a lot of stuff, this should be VERY interesting!

While it IS true that Nantucket is normally warmer than the mainland, it does not mean we don't get snow here.  Usually it is less than our friends on the Cape, who get less than much of Massachusetts.  But a good, cold, coastal storm can reverse the situation.  Our friends and family have reported lower snow totals than what we've seen here from this "New Year's Noreaster".

Is it different here in a snow storm?  In my very limited experience, yes, a little.  The streets aren't treated with chemicals (it seems), just sand.  And because we don't live on a main road (or even off a main road) we don't see plows very often.  I didn't see or hear a plow through the whole storm (though there is evidence that one did go by - the street is plowed).  Every time I thought I heard the plow, it was just the wind howling.

This was the condition of a busy intersection near the schools and hospital.  Some blacktop.  I thought it looked pretty decent for a community not used to big snow storms.  My husband thought it looked bad - but was also looking at it with the point of view of someone who drives a rear-wheel car without snow tires on it (not what we were driving at the time the photo was taken).

Just around the corner, as we passed the hospital:

So, if you have an emergency - don't go too fast.  It's not safe.  We are hoping to have a 4WD vehicle for the summer to enjoy the beach driving available - but perhaps climate change will require it for winters here too.

From inside our house, it was hard to tell if there was much snow at all, I took a photo from the end of the driveway looking back at the house today - the way the winds blew, it kept a huge portion of our yard low on snowfall until halfway down the driveway (where you can see we shoveled a path).  Much of the yard has 2-3 inches, and in some corners there's a foot or more.

We took the "warm" 30 degree weather Saturday afternoon as an opportunity to walk around the neighborhood.  It became clear that some of our neighbors are not on island.  Or, perhaps, have not wanted to leave their home for a few days. We suspect these are mostly seasonal homes.  Lots of driveways that look like this:

No one coming or going from there lately.  Though, I do see deer in the yard pretty often.  Lots of tracks in their yard, but the deer don't seem to favor the driveway in the snow. 

Just down the road from us is a pond, so we thought we'd trek down and see how it looked.  

Pretty!  Definitely not strong enough to walk on, which tells you that while we have a bit of snow, it's not been below freezing very long here.  I'm personally hoping that remains true.  There's an ice skating rink if I really want to skate (which I haven't done in 30 years, so I'm thinking I'm ok without it totally).

Hope everyone who reads this weathered the storm safely!  Really glad we kept out electricity throughout!

So, my last home was just west of 495 where lots of snow falls in the winter.  We got feet and feet of the white stuff last year.  This year, we are in a different climate.  We've had a few snow falls already, but they don't last long on the ground.  certainly nothing worth plowing or shoveling at this point, but I'm told that we've gotten more frequent snow than is typical.  

We watch the same news, traffic and weather as the Greater Boston area, so it's sort of weird to sit and watch the school closings tick by and know that there isn't much chance that school will close here for any reason short of lack of electricity.

Today, while you were all getting socked with a poorly timed snowfall, we had a beautiful snow that eventually gave way to rain and 45 degrees.  I happened to have an errand that brought me down a long and winding road that turns to dirt/sand (like so many roads).  

If you ever wondered what snow covered sand looks like:

My car has been having some trouble lately..  the battery, maybe.  This poor car might just need a good long drive.  That's not terribly easy around here.

Today on my lunch hour I decided to see if I could give it some exercise.  I drove out to the farthest side of the island that I can reach without four wheel drive: Sconset.  This little hamlet is on the eastern side of the island where the bluff is quickly vanishing with every storm.  You can read all about it if you google it.

My reason for driving there was because the road to get there is the closest thing we have to a highway.

The speed limit is 45, but you can go over 50 sometimes.  I did today.  woo!  It's a whole 8 miles to the beach in Sconset.  I drove up to the parking lot, but was not wearing appropriate footwear to actually walk around.

Cedar shingles.  white trim.  It's the island home exterior uniform.  No, not EVERY house is gray cedar shingles with white trim.  Some have gray trim. or brick red. or light blue. For the most part though, the houses look similar on the outside.

It's all very quaint usually.  But there is this one house I drive by often that seems to have a suspicious number of "work" trucks parked outside of it. and it's had a carnival-ride like train in the yard in various stages of assembly for a month or so now.  Well, no big surprise, this is the house that goes all out for the holidays.  Here it is in the morning when I drive by:

and in the evening...

and on the other side of the driveway: 

Now, I've been alerted to the fact that families from all over the island to come see the display.  They let kids ride around on the train when they stop by.

I feel like a grinch for being totally off-put about the decorations. I don't have to like them - but I am glad that kids have the house to come and marvel at.  Special thanks to my friend Sarah for putting the house into perspective for me (the perspective of her 4.5 y/o son).  I'll drive the long way home if I don't like it.  :)

PLEASE SEE THIS LINK FOR AN UNOBSTRUCTED PHOTO OF THE HOUSE.  LOOKS MUCH NICER THAN MY DRIVE BY VANTAGE POINT.

AND ANOTHER, HERE. WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE TRAIN, SORT OF.

1.  Nope, no real chinese food here on the island.  However you can order it from Hyannis, have it delivered to the airport, and for $10 they will put it on the next flight.  Really.

2.  $50 bills are common. They come out of the ATM at the supermarket.  No one really thinks anything of paying for a $5 item with a $50.  

3.  After this week, we won't have a funeral home, apparently.  That should be...challenging for people.

4.  There is a place called the 'Sconset Casino.  Gambling does not occur there.  My understanding is that it's a social/tennis club. No one I've spoken to has been able to explain the origin of its' name.

5.  We have our own radio station.  ACK-FM.  I love it - we only have to listen to commercials for local businesses instead of places on the cape that I can't get to.  It plays a true variety of music  - something for everyone on the island.  Sinatra one minute, Beastie Boys a little while later.

When we leave the house, we see people *I* know.  For the first 6 weeks, there really wasn't a chance of that.  I lived in my own little bubble, and sometimes my husband would recognize colleagues at restaurants or events and sometimes we'd have the chance to stop and say hi and get introduced, but not always.

Now the chances of running into people we know seems to have doubled (which is weird cuz he works at a much bigger organization than I do).  I wondered what I would think of losing some of my anonymity.  So far, I welcome it.  It's nice to have a day peppered with people I know - it feels a lot more like we fit in here rather than being extended visitors.  

In the course of doing either of our jobs we also run into each other's colleagues on a regular basis.  With the limited number of grocery stores in town it's shocking we don't see more people we know there.  Maybe if we ever get into a routine.

We're going off-island for the long weekend next week.  It's going to be a mad dash across the state and back.  I'm looking forward to it - good food, family, a few friends and we become godparents (together!) for the second time. In a flash, we'll be back to our island home, which I'm guessing I will be ready for come Sunday.

Next month we will be on the mainland for a little bit longer.  I think it will be busy for the first few days (I won't be back to the mainland until Christmas Eve day due to work).  We joked tonight that we'd both be coming back the Sunday after Christmas (even though he'll have another week off of work)...unless we came home sooner due to over stimulation.  We're getting very used to the quiet of just the two of us.

1.  Target.  I want to go to Target so badly right now.  Probably anything I want from there I can get on Amazon, but just the idea of being able to walk around, touch and see the things you might want to buy....that would be great right about now.  I've also recently learned that there is no Target on Cape Cod.  I guess I can cross that off my "day trip to the mainland" list.

2.  Shopping.  Yes, Target is "shopping" too, but there's a difference between wanting a few things and knowing that Target has them and the realization that window shopping/browsing apparently is a hobby of mine that I underestimated the importance of.  Working a 4 day week I would often spend my "day off" wandering the aisles of TJ Maxx, Kohl's, Old Navy, any shoe store...   I might buy nothing on one of these trips, or i might find a $6 item that I couldn't just leave there in the store.  The point is I could drive to any number of area towns and browse stores.  Each city/town would have it's own array of stores for me to choose from, often including off-price places like Marshall's, TJ Maxx, Saver's or the like.  Nantucket has 2 thrift stores and 1 consignment shop (that I know of...).  One of the thrift stores closes for the off-season. None of these places is satisfying my shopping hobby needs. *sigh*

3.  cheap breakfast.  Somehow we end up spending over $20 for the two of us no matter what we order.  

4.  Good cheap pizza.  Our favorite place to grab a slice is closed for the winter, but it was $3.50/slice.  There are no pizzas for under $15.  And none are great.  Some are good.  We keep looking.

5.  Ice cream shops.  None are open in the off-season.  I don't get it.  ice cream is a major food group in my world, so this is pretty harsh.  But, I can make my own ice cream, and it's damn good, so I guess it's just too bad for everyone else here.

6.  There are a lot of amazing bakeries here. They even seem to be open most of the year - but I've yet to have a really good chocolate chip cookie.  Sometimes you just need a a simple pleasure.  My mom's are still the best.

7.  Chinese food.  There's one place here that has a chinese food menu, but the place is just.... weird.

My husband contributed the following:

Home Depot/Lowes

Dunkin' Donuts (for convenience and price)

I am not a coffee drinker.  I've never had a cup.  Closest thing I've had is the one time I ordered a hot chocolate at Dunks and they gave me some kind of chocolate coffee mix.  I was not happy.

Anyway, the point here is that as I was googling this morning looking for things to do this weekend, places to go, etc, I found that there is a store here that advertises that they brew Starbucks coffee.  It is not a Starbucks franchise or anything, just an independent shop that serves coffee.  Interestingly (to me) is that this place is nowhere near the center of town and sells an eclectic variety of things.  

This weekend I'm pretty sure we are going to find our way to the Nantucket Trading Post to see whatever there is to see there!  We will probably not buy coffee.