Best of: Nantucket & Salem

Like most people, I was a big fan of Wings when I was little.  So since that time, I've been wanting to go to Nantucket.  Of course, the only thing I really knew of on the little island was Tom Nevers field i.e. the airport : )  Since then I learned a bit more but not much.  I knew the island was incredibly expensive to get to and was full of beautiful houses. After finding the ferry, I learned it wasn't too expensive, but the houses are exactly as I'd hoped.  They're all the grey washed siding and are covered in flowers galore.  (The gardeners must be quite well paid - and deserve every penny!)

What I learned on the island, is that it's most definitely just like the small little towns you read about.  There's a main street and some great restaurants.  And all sorts of cottages. They even have a small trolley system that stands as their public transport system. In other words, it's perfect!  So, I suppose I'm saying, the island itself is the best of Nantucket. Everything there from the beautiful beach, to the grey-washed cottages, to ice cream shop at the dock to the hundreds of dogs enjoying the summer with their owners. It was everything I had hoped.  The only thing that could have made it better was landing at Nevers field via small plane.

 For those who care, about 10 seconds after this photo was taken, I caught a rogue wave and was drenched...and quite chilly

Then there was Salem.  Unlike Nantucket, it's very much a working town.  People live there and work there. But boy do they talk up the witches.  Even the town paper has a witch logo. Like Nantucket, I knew a lot of Salem from watching Hocus Pocus and reading The Scarlet Letter.  

If you're into the witch thing, basically all you have to do is walk around the town to see all sorts of monuments to the trials.  But you can also check out the witch museum.  Museums aren't really my thing but sitting in the park was quite nice.  While it's a great little town, all you really need is a day to look around.  We got there about 10:30 then left about 4.  It was perfect. 

 Now I know I talk a lot about the food and I feel terrible saying "my favorite part was the food!" so much, but in this case it was absolutely true.  We had a delicious lunch at Turner's Seafood.  I had the shrimp tacos which were probably the best I've ever had.  A little spicy, but to die for!  And they were even one of only 2 places that had normal iced tea.  Then off to dessert at the Salem Screamery (get it?  witches, scream?)  Nothing like Dark Chocolate Ice Cream to make me all giddy!