Nantucket: Daffodils and Daytrips
Yesterday I took advantage of a special FAM trip to Nantucket sponsored by the Steamship Authority, which offers fast ferry service to the island. The day dawned bright and sunny, but unseasonably cool for spring on Cape Cod and with the threat of afternoon showers. Undaunted, I grabbed my windbreaker and headed down Route 6A, the Old King’s Highway, to pick up my friends Helen and Mary for our date with the 11:00AM ferry.
Nantucket, many say, is a state of mind, and having lived there briefly between college graduation and my first teaching position many years ago, I must concur. There is something about the light, the rustle of leaves against the cobblestones, and the wind that whips the sails in the boat basin that envelopes your soul in a dreamlike reverie. It haunts you when you leave and embraces you when you return, as you undoubtedly will after your first visit.
It was smooth sailing across the Atlantic to Nantucket Town, where we were greeted by Chester Barrett, a native islander with a gift for gab. Chester is a septuagenarian character with a New England twang and a fondness for his ancestral home that is infectious. He took us around the island in his comfortable 30-passenger tour bus and regaled us with humorous anecdotes about windmills, cranberry bogs, and whaling captains in a delightful 90-minute circumnavigation of the “Gray Lady”, Nantucket’s nickname.
After our tour, we walked the cobbled streets of downtown Nantucket, admiring the storefronts and serene nature of this fabled island situated just 30 miles offshore. A few hardy local proprietors were readying their shops in anticipation of the hustle bustle that the upcoming Nantucket Daffodil Festival will bring this weekend.
From early-April to mid-May, over three million daffodils of every color, shape and size will bloom on Nantucket. This blossoming, and the advent of spring itself, is the focal point of the Annual Daffodil Festival, a full-scale celebration of winter’s thaw, joyous for both islanders and visitors alike. Daffodils adorn the island’s roadsides, gardens and shop windows with blossoms of yellow, orange, white and even pale pink. The Daffodil Festival’s grand event is the Annual Antique Car Parade, featuring over 100 daffodil-bedecked antique cars. After winding through town and across the island to the charming village of Siasconset, participants join residents and visitors for the Annual Daffodil Tailgate Picnic. Other highlights include the Nantucket Garden Club’s Annual Daffodil Show, Daffy Dog Parade, Children’s Daffodil Parade and The Daffy Hat Pageant. It is an event everyone should witness at least once in their lifetime.
Sadly, our day came to an end much as it began, with a trip aboard the MV Iyanough. But, I am hopeful as the ferry rounds Brant Point on the return to “America”, as Chester referred to the land across the sound. Hopeful that the daffodils waving their lovely heads signal the advent of spring; that the contentment I feel from a day well spent will endure; and that Nantucket will be waiting for me whenever I am able to return.
Nantucket hosts a number of other festivals annually that make a daytrip worth considering. For more information and the schedule for 2009 click here.
April 24-26 Nantucket Daffodil Festival
May 13-17 Nantucket Wine Festival
May 23-24 Annual Figawi Race Weekend
June 1-7 Nantucket Restaurant Week
June 18-22 Nantucket Film Festival
August 15 Sandcastle and Sculpture Day