Nantucket & Martha's Vineyard

Since leaving Boston we have spent 2 days in Nantucket and 3 days in Martha’s Vineyard.  This is our last day.  We leave here in the morning travel to Boston then home through Dallas and Los Angeles. Nantucket is a beautiful little historic island originally based on the whaling industry.  It is very well controlled with all houses conforming to standards where they can only be clad with shingles and no paint, no shutters, no fences higher than 3 feet,  and has a beautiful harbour and numerous little boutique shops. 

They have a number of beaches but to get to the best one we hired bikes and rode the 20k across the island and back.

Martha’s Vineyard is a much larger island which also had a whaling industry.  It has uniquely different 6 towns and we stayed in the main area of Edgartown.  To get around this island we did a 2 ½ hour bus tour where we had a narrated tour with all the beauty of the cliffs and lighthouses and homes of the rich and famous who spend their summers here.

We had a great 4^th of July.  We sat on our white rocker chairs and watched the parade go by.  The streets were crowded with people all supporting the red, white and blue. 

After dinner we walked to the harbor to watch the spectacular fire works.

We had an exciting end to the night when the fire alarm went off about 11.00pm.  Apparently there was a problem with the hot water systems which caused an electrical fire.  After standing in the street for about ½ hour we were let back into our rooms.

Today we started with a trip to Oak Bluffs to do some last minute shopping abd ride one of the oldest carousels in America and to try to grab the brass ring.  Suzanne has showed us everything and as usual has been an excellent tour guide.  She has really made this part of the trip something we will remember for a long time.

 This will be our last blog and we will be home on Sunday We have had a really enjoyable trip, seen so many great sights, met so many wonderful people, learnt so much and had a great time catching up with our cousin Suzanne and her friends but we can really say we are loking forward to coming home.