Days start early on Nantucket, so I rose and broke out my bike map, cycling back to town to get the lay of the land. The pristine beauty of the many shorelines and the conservation protected lands are a site for city eyes. Plus, its’ moors, beaches, and sand plain grasslands make it a one-of-a-kind eco-destination.  The island has a mixed demographic. The latest influx brought Brazilian and Eastern Bloc inhabitants joining the long-standing Irish population which had already melded with the mix of wealthy property owners and summer-homers, some holding down the fort past the end of season.   There is also a well-rooted Caribbean undercurrent with Jamaican overtones adding to the culturally rich landscape.

Nantucket is an island, a town, and a county, unto itself.  Rich in history, it has a strong sense of pride borne of its maritime greatness.  The grandness of the centrally-located Whaling Museum is juxtaposed with the simplicity of the Nantucket Shipwreck and Lifesaving Museum, both commemorating the myth and magic of its whaling industry. A visit to each takes the visitor back in time to when whale blubber provided lamp oil that shined light on a simpler time and both herald the era of whale ships and courageous sea voyages. Quaint New England charm is further defined by the town’s clapboard houses and the classic colonial steeple of the Unitarian Universalist Church, a prominent landmark figuring largely in the harbor vista.  Add to these a bevy of upscale shops and restaurants and you have the mainstays of the town’s tourist trade.  But the thing that sets Nantucket apart from any other vacation town is its respect for the land. The moors, salt marshes, pine barrens, and cranberry bogs remain safe from development thanks in part to the foresight of the very active Nantucket Conservation Foundation and the Land Bank, sparing 2,500 acres of open space for public enjoyment.

The arts are very much alive here and writers can find tranquility and community with like minded souls, absorbing and interpreting the natural beauty of the unique landscape in their work. The low floating grey fog which gives the island its nickname, The Grey Lady, gives way to shafts of late summer light, then full out magenta sunsets.  These provide painters and visual artists a blank canvas to capture an endless sky over sea. In the last week of August, the Nantucket Arts Council hosts its annual Arts Festival offering a week of free concerts, open galleries, and special programs that often culminate in a wonderful Saturday evening closer. These offer a weekend visitor a seamlessly curated cultural evening.

Ten public beaches circle Nantucket, each well-loved for its location or crowd charm.  But the crystal-fine white sand of Miacomet Beach is in a league of its own. Find the bike path and follow it to Surfside Avenue, taking Miacomet Road all the way down to the grassy dunes, and behold the empty splendor of the Atlantic Ocean, breaking 8 waves deep.  This is a favorite of the locals and is clothing optional. Innocent enough, a family or two in the buff breaks up the staid New England image.  The beach is wide and deep, the late August heat encouraging end of season romps in the strong tide.  Siasconset, or “Sconset” is wide and open and lovely in its own right.  After a sunset ride to Madaket Beach, its fun to head to the family friendly Jetties Restaurant, ending the day with a few Cisco beers and a great thin crust pizza, in full view of all the local color.

Nantucket is the home of culinary genius, and private chefs abound, each with their favorite restaurant pick.  Rope Walk is the see and be seen spot for ladies who lunch and a popular harborside rendezvous.  Chef Gillian’s fave is Black Eyed Susan, where chef Jeff Worster creates world cuisine, accenting his travels and celebrating the local seafood bounty.  Locals hang at Cy’s Bar, formerly known as The Atlantic. Simple and satisfying, Cy’s is cozy and old with great burgers and exceptional clam chowder.  All kinds of colorful characters stop by, and it’s a great precursor to late night live acoustic music at Cambridge Street Pub, at the end of Swains’ Wharf.  It seems everyone in town closes the evening singing en masse at the crowd pleasing Club Car, a piano bar with heart.

72 hours is not nearly enough time to immerse oneself in Nantucket’s Wampanoag Tribe origins, or take in the stories of the great fire of 1846, or visit the home of America’s first woman astronomer, Maria Mitchell, but it does offer enough time to whet the appetite with the winds of change and nature, on an island worlds away from the sea of people we swim in. Indebted to my friend for her invitation, I posed the big question, asking why she stayed ‘on island’, and why she was content to do so.  She thought only for one moment. “Because it’s peaceful. Because it allows me to look into my own mirror, instead of dealing with everyone else’s daily dramas. Because there are a lot of cultures in one place. And every single day, I see something beautifully different everywhere I go.”