Its that time of the year. Time to close Many Castles for the winter. Sunday morning, I woke at four am to arrive at PBI at five for a 6:05 am flight to Kennedy Airport. Peter kindly offered to drive me which made that portion of the trip a breeze. Last fall I forgot my "driving glasses" and that made it difficult to find the long term parking lot. I remember sweating it out until I discovered the correct turn for the lot.
Once at Kennedy I had a lovely breakfast at La Vive, a small cafe in the JetBlue terminal.
At last it was time to catch my second flight to Nantucket or as the Island is fondly referred to, ACK, which is the airport call letters for Nantucket.
The job at hand was to close up for the season. I started working Sunday and by this morning, I was foot loose and fancy free! After breakfast, I jumped into the rental car and headed off to Marine home center. I had an oddly damaged doorknob to repair and a mattress cover to replace. That brand new rather pricey cover had magically disappeared over the summer. The cover was easy, the knob a little more involved. The locksmiths quickly educated me about locks and knobs. I realized as I departed, that I needed to hand this problem directly over to Peter.
Next stop, the town dump and recycling center. Since arriving I had filled the car with everything I needed to get rid of and drove to the Dump and unloaded. There is a neat little "take it or leave it house" at the dump and fully half of my stuff ended up there. Next stop, Nantucket Town!
I tend to get sentimental when I'm here and typically walk by or visit all of our favorite family haunts from past visits. The photo above is the Anthenemum. I remember many wonderful rainy afternoons in the kids section with Dan and Lisa, reading and choosing books.
Moving on, I walked by The Seven Seas which, back when the kids were small, was the best junky souvenir/toy shop on Island.
Nantucket Town is charming and you can walk around, up and down and in and out of all the streets and never get bored. My next stop was the Cottage Hospital Thrift, where I found a wonderful Eddie Bauer Sleeveless Oxford shirt and a great pair of shorts. Total cost $26! Trust me, out here, that's a deal!
I walked down to the Harbour and past The Toy Boat. That's where the Mermaids & Pirates Parade always starts.
This is a vintage photo of the Mermaids and Pirates Parade, my Mermaid wore a costume made out of floral window curtains! Alas, we had no advance warning of the event and scrambled to come up with a costume. Lili, is behind the Pirate with the turquoise bandana.
I regress, but had to include a few vintage photos of my Fishermen, Dan above and then, Peter and Dan, below:
Needless to say, we always had fun with the kids on Nantucket.
Getting back on topic, at the warf, I bought lunch at the market and sat on a bench and enjoyed the view.
Soup, sandwich and delicious Macintosh Apples!
This was my lunch spot view! Not too bad for a quick bite! Refreshed, I pressed on and up to Nantucket Natural Oils an old time big favorite of Lisa and me.
Not only are there oils for every fragrance ever created, but there are charming hand made perfume bottles.
Pressing on I visited Nantucket Looms. If you take the extremely steep staircase you will be rewarded with a visit to the workshop!
The following is a view of the less steep, back stair:
In the actual retail portion of the shop I was capitavated with some items made for children:
Really, how adorable are those little hats??
Next stop Nantucket Book Works, an eclectic book shop with fantastic cards, books and toys.
The cat on the Bungalow 360 tag, of course, reminded me of my Lisa's, Mr Moo.
After the book store, I walked past The Jared Coffin House, Inn and Resturant. Then I headed over to Centre Street, then Main Street before turning off to the parking lot across from the Nantucket Harbour Master.
Back at home I was rewarded with a beautiful sunset!
Tomorrow I'm headed back to Kennedy and dinner at La Vive. Then, on to PBI and home to Hobe Sound. I'm looking forward to catching a ride back home. All in all it's been a very good trip.
