Fourth of July in Nantucket – Part 3

Hi friends, welcome back to part three of our Nantucket trip! (If you need to catch up, part one – part two) Jon and I started our second morning in Nantucket back at Handlebar Café and sipping our coffee on our favorite bench. After finishing our coffee, we strolled around town shopping in the cutest little stores. I was determinedly not going to leave Nantucket without a cozy sweatshirt. I’m usually not one to get clothes on vacation, but it’s the thing to do in Nantucket 🙂

We bought some delicious fudge at Aunt Leah’s Fudge Shop – peanut butter m&m, salted caramel, toffee crunch, and a dark chocolate. Surprisingly, the fudge survived the trip without being entirely eaten 😉

I also got this cute whale to add to my Fourth of July collection that I named Willie. He’s an ideal pet for someone that lives on the 40^th floor and likes to travel ha!

For lunch, Jon and I walked down Cliff Road to Something Natural and saw more amazing homes.

Something Natural makes their own bread and takes pride in serving fresh ingredients, making them a go-to spot on the island for a sandwich! Jon and I both ordered sandwiches and they were MASSIVE! We expected a half sandwich to be tiny so we ordered the whole size, but half of a sandwich was the size of a typical lunch box sandwich. We loved these sandwiches and saved the other half for dinner 🙂

Unfortunately the weather took another turn for the worst, so we headed back to our room and reserved tickets for the Whaling Museum. They currently have a timed entry system to keep the flow of traffic moving, but you can stay at the museum as long as you’d like. I’d say between 1-2 hours is the perfect amount of time to spend here.

Nantucket served as the whaling capital of the world in the mid 1700s to 1830s, and became the inspiration for the famous novel Moby Dick. We learned how incredibly dangerous of a job whale hunting was! Men would go out in small boats with spears trying to catch whales for the oil they sold from boiling the smelly whale blubber. Many didn’t make it back from the grueling journey that could last as long as three to five years.

The museum features the whaling history of the island, voting rights, the abolition of slavery, an oil factory, and a massive REAL whale carcass. This poor whale is 46 feet long and washed up to shore in 2007.

The roof of the museum offers great panoramic views of the island and a great spot to check out.

Our Whale Museum tickets included entry to the Hadwen House that has been converted into a museum. Currently they have a basket exhibit, decorative arts, beautiful ceramics, a map collection, and a garden. The house was built for William Hadwen, a wealthy whaling merchant, in a Greek Revival style very different from the other Quaker houses on the island. He also had the house next door commissioned for his relatives to live in. What a guy!

After filling our brain to the brim with knowledge, we finally headed to the cult-classic The Juice Bar for ice cream. This famous ice cream shop proudly makes their own ice cream and waffle cones. You can usually find the start of the line across the street and smell the sweet aroma of waffle cones a few blocks away! Jon and I went around 4:45 and were the third people in line, I think this is their slowest time because it’s relatively close to dinner.

The Juice Bar has so many mouth-watering flavors to choose from, but I got a waffle cone with Brownie A La Mode and Cake Batter. Jon went with the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough and Triple Chocolate Mountain. They also serve yogurt and sorbet if you have an urge to order on the healthier side – but my eyes pretended that part of the menu didn’t exist 😉

It rained most of the night so we hung out, ate our leftover sandwiches, and watched Million Dollar Listing New York. We don’t usually take relaxing vacations, so I was soaking in all the slowness. Despite the crummy weather, we had a great day together!