Just to give you an idea of HOW much I love the pool on a beautiful day, 8 of those 30 hours (over 2 days) were spent at the pool! I finished one book, started another, talked to some friends, ate lunch and swam my last two times in an outdoor pool for the season.
Ahhh- peace and quiet. A true treasure.
Nantucket is an amazingly beautiful place. It has a special place in my heart. But, as I think about it, I wanted to come up with a top ten list of what I'll miss... and what I won't miss!
Let's start with what I won't miss!... in no particular order
1. The Stop & Shop parking lot, deli counter, checkout lines and basically every square inch of that place - It's a nightmare in the busy season. People and cars everywhere. Unless you go at 4 AM... you're never sure what's going to be in-stock and plan on waiting in line forever even if you just need a few items.
2. Crowds - People, poeple, people... bikes, bikes, bikes... cars, cars, cars Everywhere!
3. Cobblestone streets - Pretty to look at... but terrible to drive on, impossible to ride a bike on, and treacherous to walk on!
4. Mosquitos - enough said
5. Sharing a bathroom with a 7 & 10 year old boy - No one should have to do that! Ewwww
6. Doing more loads of laundry than I care to think about - It's incredible the about of wash 6 active people can generate.
7. Nothing ever dries out - It seems like nothing ever dries because of the humidity. Although I did remember the trick my mom has taught me when I was younger to put newspaper in my sneakers and that dries them out!
8. Having to get up earlier than I would like on the weekends - You can hear EVERYTHING in the house... so once the kids are up (which is early), I am up!
9. Just having my own space....
And, this is probably the thing I won't miss at ALL
10. Not having any friends to hang out with!! I truly missed that this summer. Thank goodness for cell phone to text and computers to email with!
On a different note... there are some things I WILL miss! (Again in no particular order)
1. Sunsets. So beautiful
2. Island time - Life's speed slows down on an island
3. The food! - Yes, I did cook a bit... I had a nice rotation of roast chicken, tacos, hamburgers, pasta and microwave chicken nuggets :) BUT, we also ate out a lot and the food there is like none other! So yummy and I LOVED it!
4. Nature - I loved our trips to the State Forrest, the Cranberry Bogs, the Bamboo Forrest and any of the dozen beaches. Nantucket does a great job of preserving its lands and keeping them beautiful!
5. The Nantucket Airport - Kind of an odd thing to make the list, but I LOVE this airport. Free, easy, accessible parking, free wi-fi, clean bathrooms... clean everything, it's only minutes from their house... and most of all... the TSA didn't give me a HUGE hassle when I realized my license was lost and needed to board my flight!
6. Anywhere you need to go - You can Bike! - Definitely nice to know you can avoid some of the crowds (as well as get more exercise) by biking to do your errands!
7. GHYC - a.k.a... my swimming pool and basically where I spent every afternoon with the kids! Honestly, I fell in love with this place. The GHYC has two locations. One is downtown and has the main yacht club, fitness center, and sailing club (didn't spend too much time there except for a few dinners including my birthday dinner)... The 2nd location is very near our house and has tennis courts, two swimming pools and a snack/lunch bar. I fell in love with the 2nd location! The kids love the tennis clinics, I love sitting by the family pool and watching them swim... while also getting to thoroughly enjoy sitting by the adult pool when the kids weren't there! I swam laps on an almost daily basis. The adult pool area was almost never crowded and just peaceful :) The food was great... the lifeguards were a lot of fun... there is simply nothing to complain about here! The pool/tennis club provided constant entertainment for the kids and its where all their friends gathered as well... so I got to know many of the other moms and nannies. It was our 2nd home and I couldn't have made it through the summer without this place!
The adult swimming pool... just me, the pool and the lifeguard!
8. The TWIG - This is what the LDS members on the island call themselves. They're not their own branch, but are part of a ward located on the main island. However, it's too expensive and difficult to get to the ward for church every Sunday... so we meet in a member's home. (It's actually a single male dentist who lives year-round on the island. During the year there are 6 people who attend weekly, but during the summer this numbers can skyrocket up to 10 or 11 (with nannies like me, other visitors, and extended family coming to visit, etc!) Even though I missed attending my ward, I grew to really value and appreciate these members. I am grateful for their friendship but also admired their dedication and persistence in still holding weekly "meetings" despite have so few members. Especially the one teenage boy who is still living at home. Admirable. Very admirable.
9. My chair - I like to call it "mine" but obviously they own it!! You can kind of see it in this picture. The yellowish couch in the back is a couch with three seats, but the third seat is sofa chaise (?). Is that the right word to describe it. Anyway, you can just lie on it and sink right in. The perfect spot for reading and then napping... which I did quite frequently this summer! So comfy!!
10. Summer - This might seem kind of silly, but since I've spent the past two summers on Nantucket all summer, and the summer before that I was there for a few weeks... I've come to associate summer with Nantucket. And, while living on the island presents its challenges and frustrations for me, it really is a very pretty, relaxing and wonderful place to live... during the summer! (I don't think I'd want to live there from November to April!... but I'd like to visit one weekend just to see what it's like!) Leaving Nantucket means that summer is coming to an end. And, while that is exciting, it also means the lazy days of summer are over... and the schedules, stress and what-not of the school year begin!! Who knows what this year will bring... but I am just hoping for my birthday wish to come true!!! Please - oh PLEASE!!
Pictures as I leave the island:
2 comments:
I'm very jealous of all that nature and pool and beautiful-ness. I wish we would have been able to come for a visit - maybe next summer!
What a gorgeous place! You are so blessed to have such a lovely place to vacation.
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