My End of Summer Nantucket Vacation

I’m back in Boston from Nantucket and the Cape but only until 5pm today because I’m leaving again for work! I’m heading down south with my Oakley Women for a visit to the Porsche driving school. So for the next two days, I get to sorta continue my summer by pretending I’m Danica Patrick.

On vacation last week, I definitely indulged a little more than I usually do, but I’m ready for a serious alcohol detox!

Before I left, I brought all my warm clothes because the forecast looked sunny but the highs were only in the low 70’s. I still am not sure how this all fit in my suitcase.

I drove across my Jeep on the car ferry by myself while everyone else flew JetBlue. You kinda need a car for a week on Nantucket with a big group but it is expensive to bring one over and reservations are required months in advance. I booked mine in March! However, it’s even more expensive to rent one. Most of my friends rent bikes to ride around town but for beach chairs and coolers, a car is handy to have.

The first day I arrived, the sun was out! I had about 3 hours before the rest of my housemates arrived so I went for my long run of the week which was 8 miles in preparation for a half marathon the first weekend of October.

The first night we went out to our favorite bars on the island. We met up with Boston friends Rebecca and Cate at the Gazebo where we were able to celebrate Rebecca’s engagement that came as a surprise earlier in the day!

We got nice beach days on Saturday and Sunday. Little did we know they would be our only sunny days on the island. Thanks, Weather Channel for getting our hopes up. I decided to join in on the hot dogs or legs craze. I think mine look like hot dogs, no?

On Sunday, we went out to dinner at CRU, one of my favorite restaurants on the island. We saw Drew Barrymore sitting directly behind us. She was much smaller in person, very pretty and seemed really kind to the staff at the restaurant, giving the hostess a tip on her way out. Reservations are challenging to come by at CRU and I think they blocked off the table next to hers for a little privacy.

The next morning, Brooke and I got up for a much needed sweat session at Nantucket Cycling and Fitness. It was one of the hardest spin classes I have done. I loved that the instructor gave us the breakdown of class beforehand so we knew what to expect and when to really push our hardest.

I burned about 500 calories in the 45 minute class. The studio was super cute with funny posters on the wall. Our class was at 9:45 am, perfect timing for vacation workouts in my opinion.

We had lunch at ACK staple, Something Natural. I got a half sandwich as seen below with hummus, veggies and avocado. It was enormous for a half sandwich. It was good but I have to admit, I wasn’t blown away. I wish they offered good mustard, honey or even stone ground dijon.

Being the third year of going to Nantucket for a week, I finally made it to Millie’s and am sorry it took me so long. We drove the car in thick fog with about 7 of us packed inside. Millie’s is a famous taco restaurant on ACK in Madaket that has a beautiful view on the beach. Since our weather was cloudy and foggy, we weren’t able to enjoy it, but the food was delicious. Our wait was short and our food came out within 10 minutes of placing our order. This place knows how to pump them out. It was very family friendly versus CRU which was a much more fancy.

We only went out to dinner twice. The rest of the nights, each couple took turns cooking dinner. This saves us all money, and allows us to be a little healthier. We started this the first year and have continued to do it.

On the cloudy day agenda, we biked to ‘Sconset to grab a drink at The Summer House. I highly recommend the Summer House cocktail which was a vodka soda with watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe juice.

We also went to the beach despite the cloudy weather for some relaxation. It was peaceful and we were not the only ones at the beach, shockingly.

For our last hurrah, we went to the Brewery, my happy place as I call it. The Cisco Brewery is probably my favorite place on Nantucket and was a great cloudy day activity complete with raw bar, food trucks and live music this year!

All in all, I’m very excited for fall to start. Sure I gained a few pounds, but they were worth it. I’m most excited to avoid alcohol for the next month. The late August vacation was not the best idea on Nantucket as the weather was not great. We will probably stick with an earlier week in the future.

I hope you all had an amazing end to your summer and are looking forward to the new school year too!