Scattered amongst many internet activities throughout the day, I sometimes enjoy MSN.com's lists such as the top restaurants in every state or the top 25 toys for Christmas. Recently MSN had a list of the top placed to bring in the Christmas cheer. Listed included places like London and Rockefeller Plaza in NYC. What caught my eye was the Nantucket Stroll. I had never heard of such a thing which led me to investigate further. The Nantucket Stroll began 49 years ago as a means to keep holiday shoppers on the island to patronize local shops. It has now morphed into a 3 day weekends (the 1st weekend in December) filled with numerous Christmas sights, an ugly sweater contest, cookie decorating, and plenty of restaurants and shopping. If you want to go, you better plan early. There was not a single hotel room available. Airbnb and vbro were nearly full. I was not about to pay over $2000 for a room. We lucked out and found a guest room at an Airbnb for one night and therefore headed to Nantucket for a novel experience. If you are a people watcher, this is a place to be!
Everywhere you turned there was something going on outside. No one seemed to noticed that is was a bit chilly. I'm pretty sure many were "warmed up" by some adult beverages. John absolutely loved finding a soda fountain still with a working pharmacy. That was truly a blast from the past to walk into.
This was one of my favorites... the ugly sweater contest. John and I almost thought about entering when we saw it on the list of activities. I'm glad we didn't because we didn't get the memo that this was much more than just an ugly sweater. These people came up with songs and actions to their group theme.
All throughout Nantucket were dressed up trees. We even discovered there were prized for these tress and found 1st (see the ribbon on the one with the Nantucket Stroll sign) and 3rd places. Here were a few of my favorites.
A most wonderful educational experience was the Whaling Museum. There were times I had to swallow a sallow feeling when learning about what we did to these creates in the 1800s and first half of the 1900s. Nantucket was the whaling capitol of the world at one point. This was our third Fresnel lens we have seen this past year. They aren't common anymore but still beautiful every time we've gazed at them.
The museum is attached to the restored 1847 spermaceti candle factory which includes the two-story lever press—the only original whale-oil lever press still in place in the world.
That evening we headed to the theatre to watch A Nantucket Christmas Carol. Five actors played all the characters - impressive and done with humor throughout. This was John's favorite experience on Nantucket.
One last stop before heading home was to Nantuckets Cisco brewery where we sipped beer flights and listened to a pretty decent cover band.
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