Nantucket Island

Since it was raining the entire time we were in Nantucket, we decided to visit the Whaling Museum. The museum houses a large collection of whaling artifacts and memorabilia, including longboats used for whale hunting, harpoons, and scrimshaw (artistic objects made from whale bone and teeth), but the centerpiece is the skeleton of a 46-foot Sperm whale suspended from the ceiling. While we were there, one of the museum employees presented a fascinating lecture on the whaling industry. Young teenagers, around the age of 14, were mostly employed on the whaling boats for 3-4 years! It was extremely gruesome work to hunt and kill a whale. Six men in a longboat would get right next to the whale and thrust a harpoon into it, which would connect the boat to the whale. The whale would swim with the boat for one to three hours! Once the whale was finally tired, the men would be able to row next to it in order to thrust a spear into the whale's lung region. This would finally kill the whale :( Afterwards, it would take days to cut it apart and get it onboard the ship. The whole process was extremely violent, and the whalers were in a constant state of danger. I couldn't help feeling sorry for the whales! However, it was interesting to hear about the whaling history.

The Nantucket Lightship Baskets are seen in the gift shops throughout Nantucket. In the 1800’s, one of the most famous Nantucket Lightships was anchored off the shores of the island to warn approaching ships that there were dangerous shoals nearby. While on board, the crew that manned the ship began to make baskets to keep themselves busy and to sell on Nantucket. Unfortunately, after 1900 the baskets were no longer made on board the ship. However, the tradition of making these baskets was continued on the island itself and has become an unique part of Nantucket. They are extremely expensive to purchase, a small basket costing over $100.

Many of the houses on Nantucket are similar in shape and color. Here are some of these houses that are located in the harbor:

While we were visiting Nantucket, we searched for the Jared Coffin House because Jared was named after him. He was a famous sea captain that once lived on the island, and his family was a large part of the whaling industry.

We also indulged in Nantucket Rum Cake :)

Martha's Vineyard

We woke up early on Monday morning in order to sail to Martha's Vineyard. When we were sailing along the coast, just outside the town where Jaws was filmed, we noticed a large dark object in the water....yes, it was indeed a shark! It swam to the surface with it's fins above water. I honestly couldn't believe the size of it, and the fact that it was right next to our boat. Needless to say, I did not go swimming! We arrived in Oak Bluffs Harbor in the late afternoon. Here is a picture of some of the adorable houses on the water:

Since we had sunshine, we decided to spend the rest of the day at the beach. Morgan was really excited. She runs up and down the shoreline on "beach patrol." Even though she tends to spray us with sand, we love taking her to the beach :)

The next day, we headed into the town of Oaks Bluff. This was definitely my favorite place of the trip so far. There were about 300 cottages of all different colors (I have more pictures on facebook) constructed in the 1830s. During this time period, Methodists began using the area to pitch their tents during their summer revival meetings. The tents gradually gave way to a town of colorful gingerbread cottages, and it was given the name Cottage City. The town was renamed to Oak Bluffs in 1907. In the center of the town is an open-air church. The houses are in wonderful condition, and the gardens are immaculate. Some of the cottages had specific themes, such as the Wizard of Oz cottage. This was one of my favorites:

Next, we took a bus to Edgartown, which was founded in 1642 and was once the center of the island's whaling industry in the early 1800s. This town was also made famous by Edward Kennedy when his car drove off a bridge in 1969, killing a young woman passenger. It was also the town were Jaws was filmed. Scary. We walked through town and some of the neighborhoods in order to visit the Edgartown Light House. The "stately white Greek Revival" houses all have picture book white picket fences and beautiful gardens. It seemed like we were visiting a movie set instead of a real neighborhood!

The last town we visited was Vineyard Haven, and of course we had to eat at the famous Black Dog Tavern. This tavern started in 1979 and turned into a clothing line that is popular especially in New England. We had delicious clam chowder and mussels. The seafood has been excellent, and we are looking forward to the lobsters in Maine :)

Newport, Rhode Island

The first day in Newport was rainy, so I didn't take any pictures (imagine that haha). We experienced a 15-minute dingy ride in a torrential downpour. We tried to keep dry underneath two umbrellas, but it didn't help with four people, one dog, and numerous bags. I'm not exaggerating when I say that we were soaking wet when we arrived at the boat. Luckily, we woke up to sunny weather the next morning :) We decided to take advantage of the weather before Sophie and Simon had to go to the train station to catch a ride back to NYC for their flight back to London. Therefore, we hiked the famous 3.5-mile Cliff Walk along Newport's cliffs. The Cliff Walk goes through the front yards of many of the famous mansions. The start of it that leads to the ocean has forty steps, each step named for someone lost at sea.

The Breakers is the most famous mansion (see below), previously owned by the Vanderbilts. When the 70-room mansion was completed in 1895, it cost more than $10 million to build! It is now owned by the Rhode Island Preservation Society. Another famous mansion previously owned by the Astors was recently sold to the winner of the America's Cup Sailing Race.

Morgan came along, and she did a great job jumping across all the huge rocks.

After Simon and Sophie left, we had a full day of laundry and grocery shopping. However, we managed to find time to go to the White Horse Tavern, which is the nation's oldest continuously operating tavern . It was granted its liquor license in 1673.

We ate dinner in the "haunted room." When the tavern also served as a boarding room, a man died in that room. Everything he owned was stolen, so his identity was never discovered. It is rumored that he still haunts the tavern. The room definitely looked haunted!

Block Island, Rhode Island

Block Island is 13 miles off the coast of mainland Rhode Island, and 25 percent of it is under wildlife protection. Therefore, it has numerous nature trails and pristine beaches. The first thing we did was go to the beach :)

This is a group shot (I was taking it of course) on the harbor side of the island:

We woke up the next day ready for our moped rental.

One of our first stops was the Mohegan Bluffs. The name of the bluffs goes back to 1590, when local Indians tossed 50 invaders off these cliffs into the water below. Lucky for us, it now has a staircase that descends to the beach.

We also visited the Southeast Lighthouse, which was built in 1875.

We spent the rest of the day riding mopeds around the island and stopping at various beaches and landmarks. We visited Rodman's Hollow (nature trails in a glacial depression) , Settlers Rock (a plaque honoring the 16 Englishmen who landed here in 1661), and Old Harbor (the main village). We finished the night by getting steamers (steamed clams) and beer at a local seafood restaurant.

Mystic, Connecticut

When we sailed into Mystic, the first thing we did was go to Abbott's, which is a famous lobster shack on the water. We were able to dock the boat at the restaurant.

This was our first time experiencing lobster rolls (except for Jared). They were delicious!

In order to anchor in Mystic, we had to have the railroad bridge opened. You can see it in the background here:

We anchored right outside of the Mystic Seaport, which is currently the world's largest maritime museum. This seaport is a working replica of a 19th-century port with more than 40 buildings, including a bank, chapel, tavern, rope-making shops, and a one-room schoolhouse from the 19th-century. Most of the exhibits focus on the whaling industry, and the last remaining whaling ship, built in 1841, is currently being restored here. Volunteers were stationed in each building to tell us about its history, and we learned about the evolution of 19th- century medicines, how to make wooden barrels, the history of sailors' tattoos, etc.

Here is Sophie inside the 19th-century town grocery store:

We also walked around the small town of Mystic, which had gorgeous restored homes from the 19th-century. Each home displayed a plaque indicating the construction date as well as the original homeowner's occupation.

We couldn't go to Mystic without eating at Mystic Pizza, the origin of the 1988 movie starring Julia Roberts. I'm being honest when I say they had the best pizza!

Here's a nice family photo in front of one of the restored oyster ships:

We couldn't leave the Mystic Seaport without posing as whalers ;)

English Sailing

Simon & Sophie flew all the way from London, England to join us for a week of sailing (we met while we were all living in Moscow, Russia). They definitely brought the UK weather with them because it rained for about 3 days straight! At least they are used to it ;)

We were suppose to sail from New York City to Oyster Bay, NY, but the weather was horrible. We ended up anchoring in Port Washington instead. Lucky for us, one of our favorite friends from Houston, Emily Gardner, was visiting her parents who live in the area. Therefore, she picked all of us up (including the dog) to attend a party at her parents' house. Since all of our clothes and linens were soaking wet, they even let us their dryer :) Liz (Emily's sister) and Todd were also visiting from Houston, so we got to spend some time with them as well. We even found out that Liz is pregnant :) Congrats to them!

Jared insisted that we buy a Royal Navy flag to fly while our English friends were onboard. We gave it to them when they left.

Morgan LOVES dingy rides, and she sometimes jumps in it without us knowing. Here she is waiting for a ride:

Simon caught his FIRST fish while we were sailing in a heavy storm. It was quite hectic trying to get the sails in, but this was the final result:

Sailing into NYC

Sailing into New York City was an amazing experience for my family because they have never been to NYC. We slowly saw the Statue of Liberty in the distance, similar to what our ancestors experience many years ago when they immigrated to the United States.

We arrived in NYC on Friday, June 10th in the late afternoon. We were a little behind schedule due to the lack of wind and strong currents. Once we docked at the 79th Street Boat Basin, all of us bolted to the showers to find out that there was only ONE shower in the entire marina for everyone to share. This put a damper on our plans, but we managed to get ready. My parents, Jessica, and Ryan went into the city while Jared and I stayed at the marina in order to do laundry and go grocery shopping for the next part of our trip up the coast. After putting every piece of clothing we owned (as well as the linens for all 6 people) into the washing machine, I soon discovered that the dryer did not work. Therefore, we were left with about 3 loads of wet laundry. Not fun. I tried to hang it around the boat to dry, but it was quite difficult when it began to rain outside :(

The good news is that our friend, Simon, arrived from England (he and his girlfriend will be spending the next week on the boat with us). He came to the marina just in time to help with the grocery shopping. We didn't realize how long everything would take without having a car, and it turned into a 3-hour shopping experience. At least we got everything done! We didn't end up going into the city to go site-seeing until 7pm.

Here are a few pictures that I took when we finally made it into the city:

Barnegate Inlet, New Jersey

This small town in New Jersey had a Dairy Queen attached to the Kelly's Restaurant, which was perfect except that the restaurant name was missing an "e."

After buying ice cream, we walked through the national park in order to see the lighthouse:

Photo opportunities galore :)

More fishing the next day on our way to New York:

Siblings relaxing:

More Sailing Fun with the Family

Since we had no wind for about two days, we were able to relax on deck. We were actually trying to find the place on the boat with the most breeze in order to avoid the attack of the vicious flies. We were even able to spot a few dolphins.

In order to cool off, the boys decided to jump off the boat using the hall yard. Here goes my dad:

Next up, Ry-Ry:

Here's a picture of the sailboat taken from the dingy:

The fishing was one of the highlights of the trip for the guys. We caught 3 striped bass while motoring along the coast. This one fed all six of us, and we still had leftovers!

Mini Vegas...aka Atlantic City, NJ

We sailed all day....well, we actually motored all day because there was absolutely no wind! The flies were awful. Jared, Jessica, and I took turns going below deck to kill them. After the fly massacre, we counted a total of 138 dead flies. It was an eventful day. After an unanimous vote, we decided to stay at the Trump Marina in order to have actual showers instead of the daily sun showers (for those of you who don't know, this consists of a 5 gallon bag of hot water with a shower hose that is attached to the mast. It's basically a camping shower). Everyone was in a great mood after using the showers and getting ready. Next stop, the boardwalk. This obviously means everyone has to pose for a fun family photo :)

Once we hit the boardwalk, our mission was to find a restaurant agreeable to everyone. This can be quite complicated at times. Of course I used this time to take more photos. As we were wandering around the casinos, the boys decided to randomly put dollar bills into the slot machines. Ryan and my dad actually came out ahead! Thus, the addiction begins.

The boys decided to find a bar while the girls went shopping. Here is a picture of Jessica and I in the salt water taffy store:

We met up at the Tah Mahal Casino owned by Donald Trump (basically EVERYTHING in Atlantic City is owned by him). Maybe he should be president. It's a classy place.

Nobody can leave the Jersey Shore without eating one of these fabulous funnel cakes. We split this one with 4 people! Apparently, you can't leave the boardwalk without a massage, fortune reading, tattoo, or belly dancing costume either.