dream trip: nantucket!

Hi y’all!

Every time I come onto the blog now (usually after a few weeks), I get so excited because it feels so good to write, reflect, and share! So much has happened since we last chatted around the 4th of July: I went to Texas for internship training, successfully completed my internship and got a full-time offer (!!), had a lyme disease scare (all good, it was a false alarm), and went to Nantucket with my best friend last week, which is what I’m sharing with y’all today!

Currently, I’m back at my parents’ house and pretty sunburned (more on that later). At the start of 2019, I put on my bucket list “go to Nantucket”. If you’re not familiar, Nantucket is an island off the coast of Massachusetts, along Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard (which I went to four years ago and loved!). It’s a pretty remote vacation destination especially if you’re not on the east coast and don’t already have a house there, but Nantucket looked so beautiful and I mostly wanted to visit because of famous bloggers’ trips like Carly, Mackenzie, and Julia. (Although one thing that most of them failed to mention are the ticks in beach grass! Bring mosquito/tick spray, people!)

My best friend Hannah and I left from Seattle early Monday morning and flew to Newark, and promptly took a layover to Nantucket. Prior to departing on this trip, we had heard that the flights to Nantucket are infamous for getting delayed but we had no issues with weather, luckily! We arrived in Nantucket in the late afternoon, took a shuttle to the town center, and checked into the Roberts Collection.

We booked the Roberts Collection on Booking.com and I highly recommend it! The concierge were kind and the room was so cozy. It’s located right in the town center, which was so convenient for the entirety of the trip. We were pretty hungry so we stopped by Brotherhood of Thieves and beat the dinner rush. After, we strolled around town and everything was seriously so darling: the flower bushes, the gray-shingled houses, the little boutique shops, all of it. We decided to stop by Children’s Beach and relax for the rest of the evening after a long day of traveling.

The next day was projected to rain in the afternoon, and, knowing that east coast rains get pretty unpredictable and intense, we brought an umbrella with us from the get-go. In the morning, we ate the continental breakfast (not the best, we didn’t go back again after) and set foot to explore some of the shops around town. I love Vineyard Vines, Lilly Pulitzer, and Black Dog, so we definitely hit those. We grabbed Handlebar Coffee (which turned out to be our favorite, we went everyday!). After, we headed to Naushop, a neighborhood that had a floral arch we saw on Instagram and wanted to find. Sadly, we didn’t find it but did enjoy strolling through the neighborhood and reading the puns on each house.

For lunch, we headed back in town and had Or, the Whale. We both got lobster rolls (they were amazing!), which is also when the rain started coming down. We continued to duck into the boutique shops, now on the lookout for the perfect Nantucket sweatshirt.

For dinner, we trekked to the west side of the island to get Millie’s. I got the tuna tacos and they were truly divine. Every item on the menu is so thoughtfully put together! Millie’s is very casual and overall had good vibes. We bussed back into town after and grabbed ice cream in the pouring rain at The Juice Bar. There’s always a long line for this ice cream place, but for good reason!

The next day, we headed to Black Eyed Susans, which we could see from our room’s window! Y’all, this place is poppin’: there’s usually a line out the door by 7:45am, so get there early. This place is cash-only (frankly, a lot of places are on this island), but so so worth it. I got the vegetable scramble and haven’t looked back! I feel like a changed woman because of this scramble and couldn’t stop thinking about it all day 😂

We finally went to go buy our Nantucket sweatshirts after breakfast. I ended up getting both of my sweatshirts from University of Nantucket and Hannah got hers at Annie and the Tees as well as Three Girls and a Dog. After, we stopped by The Corner Table to grab coffee. It’s good, but not as good as Handlebar. Then we headed to Siasconset (Sconset)! We took the bus there as well (honestly, no need to Uber, the bus is great). The town itself is extremely small. It’s right on the beach and Hannah and I decided to start off with lunch at Claudette’s, which serves sandwiches! I got the roast beef one and it felt really healthy, which is always good. Then we headed off to the Sconset Bluff Walk. It was a long walk, and so so gorgeous. We headed up to the Sankaty Lighthouse on the way (which! Doesn’t have a restroom!) and walked back to town. The sun really came out after that, and then we headed back to the town center to grab more ice cream at The Juice Bar.

We ended up both taking a nap back in our room and then heading back to Millie’s for a later dinner. I got their lobster roll this time (the rice that comes with it is FIRE), and we each got our own frosé and y’all, I have never tasted such strong frosé. It was a fun night after, to say the least.

The next morning, we decided to try Lemon Press for breakfast. I ordered the Shakshuka which was delicious but ended up being very strong and rich, I couldn’t finish it ☹️ We headed back to Sconset Beach for the remainder of the morning since it was so much sunnier and grabbed Claudette’s again for lunch. We had the most relaxing time reading and tanning on the beach! Pure bliss. Even though it was somewhat cloudy, we both got really sunburned at UV index 4. Don’t be fooled, people!

We headed back to town mid-afternoon to Cru since we had a reservation! It’s a beautiful boat-themed restaurant on the water, and I got fish tacos that were delicious. We wrapped up any other stores we wanted to explore and went back to Or, the Whale for dinner.

Our last day on Friday was breakfast at Black Eyed Susans where I could order my last veggie scramble. We did some reading at Handlebar Coffee for a few hours before leaving for our flight in the afternoon. We didn’t get as lucky with our flights this time around: both flights to Newark and Seattle were delayed so we didn’t get back to Seattle until midnight. We were exhausted by then, to say the least!

Overall, I’m so so happy that I made it to Nantucket this year with Hannah! It was humid, relaxing, very low-key, and also very expensive. All completely worth it – I’m already looking forward to the next time I can visit this lovely island! I would love to go sailing next time and rent a bike to ride around the island.

That’s it for now, whew! A five-day recap makes it a long one but hopefully y’all enjoyed my travel diary of Nantucket. Talk soon!

Jen