September 28, 2023. Nantucket.

The Martin House Inn was originally built in 1803 for Captain Edward Gardner and later became a bed and breakfast in the 1970s.

We get the impression that people were smaller – and lived in smaller spaces – back in the day when the Martin House Inn was built. Our room is on the top floor and in several places I need to watch my head. Also, the bathroom and shower are cruise ship-sized but we feel fortunate as at least we have them in room as others on the floor share a common bathroom/shower.

Our “cruise ship” bathroom.

But first… coffee! And Nantucket apparently has their own Keurig pod.blend.

The inn provided a basic continental style breakfast and then we got ready to leave today. We decided to rent a couple of e-bikes from Cook’s Cycle Shop, just a couple of blocks away from us.

We first went out to the lighthouse that we’d passed yesterday when we were coming in on the ferry.

Shells were plentiful along the shore.

Our ferry from yesterday passed us returning to Hyannis.

After leaving the lighthouse, we rode along quiet residential streets with large houses in the Cape Cod style (weathered gray shingle siding with white trim).

We used Zillow to determine that many of the mansions in the area on the water side (right side in the above photos) are worth around $15 to $20 million each!

An Osprey was very accommodating to have its picture taken while it gorged on a fish.

Everywhere we looked in this area were very large multi-million dollar homes, many in the process of either being built or extensive remodeling going on. Construction crews were plentiful.

Many of the homes have decks (usually surrounding chimneys) on their roofs locally called “roof walks”. On the mainland they’re often called “widows walks”, They harken back to the seafaring whaling days so that incoming ships might be seen.

The first part of the ride, we covered the northwest part of the island. However, we decided not to go all of the way out to Madaket which is at the far western point, as we wanted to ride all of the way to the eastern point of the island, Siasconset.

Our Northwestern Nantucket ramblings.

The bike shop offered to replace our batteries with fully charged ones if we were ever getting low. Since we were going to be passing back by the bike shop on our way to the eastern section, we popped in and had new fully charged ones. Just some “peace of mind”…

For the most part, the ride out to Siasconset was moderately challenging with several gradual uphill sections, but the e-bikes definitely helped. We did a clockwise loop.

Couldn’t resist this wall of colorful buoys on a wall of a local residence.

On the way to Siasconset is a formidable lighthouse adjacent to a golf course.

Siasconset is an attractive little town with many historical buildings, access to fine beaches and many summer homes for the wealthy. There were some tourists around like us so late in the season but it seemed like most of the homes were now vacant.

We were famished at this point, so we found the only “restaurant” in town that was selling over-priced sandwiches on whole wheat bread.

Some of the homes and gardens in town…

A marker noting the “Public Way”, a trail that wends its way between the yards of various properties that allows visitors access to great views and the beaches below.

Returning to town from Siasconset, we learned that we logged almost 33 miles of riding today so I think we got our money’s worth. We’ve found that e-biking is a great way for older people like us to get out, explore, get some exercise and not worry about the hills!

Once in town, we stopped at Nantucket’s version of San Francisco’s Pier 39 albeit on a smaller schedule. First order of business, a celebratory locally-brewed Nantucket beer!

One thing you see all over Nantucket are all sorts of clothing items for sale just with the letters “ACK” on them – think hats, t-shirts, hoodies, shot glasses and the like. It perplexed us at first but then figured out it’s the call letters for the local Nantucket Memorial Airport. Like this…

Since our surname starts with “ACK”, of course we needed to find something to buy. 😂

A sign in the window of a local store front indicated that September 30 (a Saturday this year) is the unofficial closing of some of Nantucket’s summer tourist businesses. In talking with employees at a local bookstore, Thanksgiving and the time around Christmas are also popular on the island but the first 3 months of the New Year will be quiet with few visitors.

After walking around the downtown area not buying much, we were exhausted from the day, so headed back to the inn to relax a little before dinner.

We liked “The Brotherhood of Thieves” last night so we made the choice to return there again – good food, close by, nice casual pub atmosphere, no fancy dressing required!

I had the fish n chips (actually fish n curly fries) and the hunk of fish was big enough for two. Great fresh fish. Just wish I could’ve taken it home but since we’re leaving tomorrow, it just didn’t make sense.

Lorna had chicken Milanese which she really liked.

When we were leaving the restaurant, I noticed a large photograph on the wall in the dining area where we were. I suspected it was from one of my favorite current photographers – David Yarrow – but asked the hostess to confirm. She said he indeed took the photo in the same room. He specializes in theatrical black and white images of interesting characters in interesting settings.