Today, I’m continuing our wonderful trip to Boston and Nantucket this past summer.  Reliving this trip with you guys has made me so excited all over again!!  And I’ve saved the best for last!  Here we go!!  If you missed the other parts of our trip, here is Part 1 and Part 2.  Plus, our whole Google Doc of the trip is linked below!
We got up early in Gloucester, and headed south towards Plymouth.  We made it there around 9 am.  We had a big day and lots to see!!  Remember that early East Coast sunrise:

It was an absolutely beautiful day!  First, we headed to Plimoth Plantation.  This was really neat to see the way the pilgrims established themselves in the new world.  We walked through and toured the village and headed to our next Plymouth destination.

We went to see Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower II.  

We LOVED the Mayflower II tour!!  It was probably one of the best tours on our whole trip.  The staff on this ship were extremely great at really sharing the experiences of the first pilgrims.  They gave us information that I had never learned before in school.  Just to see the scale of the way these passengers lived and survived for all those months was amazing.  It was definitely worth the money to do the tour!

After that, we headed right down the street to Mamma Mia’s for lunch.  There are a lot of restaurant options in this area.  We were craving a little pizza, and this place was really good!  Our waiter was precious too!

After lunch, we made our last stop in Plymouth at Burial Hill.  There we saw graves of some of the pilgrims including the Mayor William Bradford.  

Next, we headed to our final destination!!  We dropped off the rental car in Hyannis, MA and had a 2:30 ferry ride to Nantucket!!!  Y’all this was a bucket list item for me.  I am a huge Elin Hildebrand reader, so the thought of visiting this picturesque island was HUGE!  I literally had tears stepping off the ferry!

We stayed at the Nantucket Inn.  This was pretty far out of the Main Street and town area, but it was not as expensive as some of the other hotels.  We really liked it, and our reservations came with a wonderful full buffet breakfast.  

Each night our dinner reservations were pretty early.  We headed out to dinner after changing. Our first dining stop on Nantucket was Cru!  It was that perfect right on the wharf amidst all the yachts experience.  

We tried the Burrata which inspired us to make our own when we got home.  I tried another lobster roll, of course.  B.J. tried the Haddock.  The food on this island is really exceptional.  

After dinner, we walked the town a little, did a little shopping, and then ended up at Juice Bar!!  I got the Samoa Girl Scout Cookie.  Y’all, this was amazing!  I’m still working on recreating this ice cream recipe in an easy way for y’all!!

Next, we walked to the Brant Point Lighthouse.  

And then we ended up at the Club Car, which is a restaurant and a little bar made from an old rail car.  It was super cool.  They had a great piano guy, and we stayed for a few hours!  Fun fun first day on Nantucket!

The next morning we woke up early for our first full day on the island.  We had big plans!  First up, we went and ate breakfast at Island Kitchen.  This was so yummy!

From there, we walked a little ways to our bike rental location, Easy Riders.  We rented 2 electric bikes.  Let me just mention right here and right now that I am so thankful I rented electric bikes.  Holy cow, we had big plans for big bike touring on our own, and I would have NEVER MADE IT without an electric bike folks.  Well worth the money!!  

So I had a whole biking itinerary for us.  I was quite proud of myself because it was awesome!  We started by heading to see the beautiful homes and flowers.  We were there in July, so the roses were past their peak, but those hydrangeas were showing off!

Our Nantucket Biking Tour Stops from Mid-Island to the North and West:

• Plumb Street
• Fair Street
• Charter Street
• Darling Street
• Head to the north part of the island to see Steps Beach:  From Fair Street, Cross over Main Street up to Centre St up to Ash Ln and Ash St.  Then head up to Cliff Rd. towards Lincoln Ave and Lincoln Circle to see cobblestone path to Steps Beach.
• Head to Bartlett’s Farm Rd.  to Cisco Brewers
• Check out Bartlett’s Farm.
• Head out to west side towards Madaket.
• Stop at Millie’s Restaurant.

After Steps Beach, we headed to Cisco Brewers.  This was a neat little brewery set up with music and food trucks.  We found a little spot to take a rest and have a drink after all that biking!  

Then we got back on our bikes and headed to stop at Bartlett’s Farm.  I’m such a foodie, and this place was a little grocery store heaven for me!  I found myself wishing we had a kitchen where we were, so I could get some things to cook!  After that stop, apparently I put away my phone because I have zero pictures of us heading to the west side of the island towards Madaket.  This was about a 30 minute bike ride, and it was at this point, I was pretty darn thankful for electric bikes!  We saw some beautiful parts of the island on this ride.  We even saw the neatest turtles everywhere when we crossed over Long Pond.  Once we made it to Madaket, we stopped at Millies for a drink and shared some chips and queso and some shrimp tacos.  It was yummy!!

We headed back to the hotel and went to get ready for dinner.  Easy Riders picked up our bikes from our hotel, which made it so easy!  Dinner was at another Nantucket bucket list item for me…Galley Beach!

This restaurant was the inspiration for Elin Hidebrand’s book, The Blue Bistro.  It’s literally right on the beach.  You can even have a table in the sand if you’d like.  They only take reservations starting 2 weeks before, so I made sure to stay on top of that one.  It has a special menu, and it was really good.  I’m telling y’all…these Louisiana kids ate good in Massachusetts.

After dinner, we walked the beach up to Jettie’s Beach and then headed back into town to catch the shuttle to our Inn. 
The next morning we woke up and headed into town to enjoy our final day of the trip.  This was was my favorite!  We started out walking the Main St. and town area doing a little shopping, and of course, we had to visit book stores!!  And they had the CUTEST toy store, Barnaby’s.

This town is like a Hallmark movie!!  I just loved it!  After shopping, we found the Nantucket Wave bus, which we got on for a ride out to the east to see Sconset!!!  

Sconset is on the eastern side of the island and known for its cute cottages and gorgeous beachfront homes with perfect flowers.  It was hard not to post every single picture I took.  Once we arrived in Sconset, we set out on the Sconset Bluff Walk.

I cannot recommend this walk enough!  It takes you right behind the gorgeous homes as you walk along the huge cliff over the beach.  

We accessed it right from Front St. There are a ton of beautiful spots to take pictures.

We walked all the way up to the Sankaty Lighthouse.  This was quite a walk, but it was so worth it.  Then we headed back down into Sconset to the The Summer House Beachside Bistro.  We had a nice refreshing drink at the bar after all that walking.  We then caught the Wave bus back to our hotel.  It was awesome how the bus makes several stops across the island and one happened to be right by where we were staying.  

Right across from our hotel is a restaurant called The Saltbox Tavern.  We shared some wonderful chips and dip and a few drinks before heading back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Our last dinner was at Brant Point Grill!!  It was my favorite dinner on the island.  It’s on a beautiful lawn at the White Elephant Hotel.  

My drink was an ACK Sunshine, and I am drying my best to figure that one out!  It was soooo good!  I also recreated the Lobster Mac and Cheese with my own Shrimp Version, and I nailed it!!  

We headed back to the hotel and flew out the next morning straight from Nantucket!!  That was way easier than ferrying back and getting a car back to Boston to fly out!
Keep reading to see more places to eat and things to do!  

Tips We Learned for Visiting Nantucket:

• Book dining reservations in advance.  There are a ton of wonderful restaurants on the island.  We loved the ones we went to, but there are so many more we saw when we were there.
• Don’t forget about the on island bus transportation, The Nantucket Wave.  They have several routes.
• See the WHOLE island!  Take each day to focus on different parts of the island.  It’s so fun to see it and explore!
• HERE IS THE GOOGLE DOC OF OUR ENTIRE BOSTON, NANTUCKET TRIP!!

If you missed the other parts of our trip, here is Part 1 and Part 2.

Find more TRAVEL POSTS HERE!

You can find more MAIN DISH RECIPES HERE.
You can find ALL RECIPES HERE.
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I could not take a trip all the way to Boston and not head up north just a few miles to go see Salem and Gloucester!  I’ve been a Hocus Pocus movie fan since the movie came out, and I was always fascinated with the Salem Witch Trials.  So I did my research and found all the filming locations for us to explore!  Plus, we headed up a little further to stay on the Atlantic Coast in Gloucester.  We made a ton of fun memories on these stops, so here we go!  If you’re looking for Part 1 – Boston, go HERE!

Our first stop was breakfast at the Ugly Mug Diner.  It was delicious!  I got the Huevos Fresco, which was a slice of toast, pico, scrambled egg, cheese, avocado, and sour cream and served with potatoes. It was such an easy idea, and it was absolutely delicious!
The Ugly Mug Diner is right in the center of this cute historic town and the perfect place to start your own Salem walking tour.  I did a lot of research on what to see, and felt pretty confident that we could walk and see what we wanted on our own.  Of course, there are walking tours available too!
All addresses for our tour stops and directions are on my google doc I’m sharing at the bottom of the post.

Our first stop was The Witch House, which was the former home of Salem Witch Trials Judge Jonathan Corwin.  We went inside and toured it and learned a lot about the hysteria that existed during the Salem Witch Trials.  Then a few doors down was the Rope’s Mansion….aka Allison’s house in the first Hocus Pocus movie.  We did not go inside, but it has a beautiful garden in the back that is free to see.

It was so beautiful with a ton of different varieties of flowers. 
Next, we walked to see the Old Town Hall and the Salem Witch Trials Memorial.  Then we hopped back in the car, and took a drive to “Max’s House.”  I snapped this photo very quickly.  This is not a public touring site, so I didn’t really want to invade someone’s privacy.  It’s located right on the water…very cool!!

Right near the Salem Witch Trials Memorial is Old Burying Point Cemetery.  It has a grave from a Mayflower passenger.  So cool!!  

We also drove down Chestnut St., which was America’s first planned street.  It had huge gorgeous homes.  

Our last stop was to head over to Marblehead, MA to see another filming location Old Burial Hill.  This was worth the drive because the VIEW was BEAUTIFUL!  It’s an old historic graveyard (also a filming location in Hocus Pocus) set up on a big hill that overlooks the harbor.  

After our time in Salem, we headed further north to Gloucester, MA.  We had hotel reservations at a cute little place called the Atlantis Oceanfront Inn. It was right on the Atlantic Coast, and we were super excited about this stay!

The first thing we did was head out to the water!!  This is so different from where we live.  I’ve always wanted to see the rocky New England coast.  We had a blast out there, and that water was SO COLD!

We got dressed for dinner and headed to the neighboring and cute town of Rockport!  I just loved it!  Our weather wasn’t too great, and it was a little rainy.  But we had one of our favorite meals of the trip here!

This is Bearskin Neck, a beautiful village in the town of Rockport!  I mean!  So cute!  The photo below is at “Motif #1,” a great place to snap a photo in Rockport!

Our meal was sooo delicious.  This was my favorite clam chowder of the whole trip, and I tried my second lobster roll (cold this time).  BJ got the Haddock.  

We headed to the ice cream shop right down the street after dinner and headed back to the hotel for the night.  The next day was BIG and I can’t wait to share it!  We started it off right by watching the sun rise on the beautiful East coast before heading out!

Click here to see Part 1 of our trip- BOSTON!  Stay tuned for Part 3!

Here is the link to my GOOGLE DOC with all the details of what we did for the whole trip!!!!

You can find more TRAVEL POSTS HERE!

You can find MAIN DISH RECIPES HERE.
You can find ALL RECIPES HERE.
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B.J. and I headed out this past July to see some beautiful scenery and wonderful history all over Massachusetts.  Why a Boston and Nantucket Trip for our 20?  Why not?  We love experiencing places neither one of us have traveled to together!  This trip was hands down one of the most exciting trips we’ve ever taken!  I can’t wait to share all the details to help you plan a trip to this destination!  Get ready for picture overload!  Plus, I’ll link a document with all the details to help you plan a trip too!

We kicked off this anniversary trip in style for sure!  We made reservations for drinks and appetizers at the beautiful Lookout Rooftop Bar at the Envoy Hotel.  Words cannot hardly describe how good it felt to finally be there and relax while overlooking Boston Harbor.  I mean look how cool!!

For the rooftop bar, I made reservations a few months before our trip.  You can go up there without reservations, but you are basically standing and hanging out with a whole crowd of people, and it’s not near as relaxing as having your own little couch and server.  Now it is pricey, but this was one of those experiences we wanted for our first night in Boston.  We had reservations for 5:30, which was perfect for pre-dinner cocktails.  Here’s the link to reserve these!From the rooftop bar, we walked over to the Granary Tavern for dinner.  The walk was through a little park along Atlantic Avenue, and it was in that moment that I decided how much I loved Boston!  It was just perfect, and the weather was pure bliss even in the July heat.  The Granary Tavern was cozy and our meal was good, and I tried my first of many lobster dishes.  It was such a great night!  From there we walked back to our hotel for the night.  It was a long travel day, and we were exhausted!

I snapped this next picture on our walk back to the hotel.  It’s Central Burying Ground established in 1754 and located in Boston Common.  Isn’t it spooky?!

Things I loved about Day 1 of Boston:

• We arrived in afternoon in time for a trip down to the seaport area to go to the Lookout Rooftop Bar.  This was the perfect way to kick off our trip!!
• Our walk from the seaport area to the Granary Tavern was perfection.  So glad we chose to walk.  It was only a short distance to the tavern.

Day 2 of Boston:  Our first full day!

The next morning we woke up and went to mass at St. Cecilia Catholic Church, which was right down the road from our hotel, The Colonnade.  I loved this location in the Back Bay area.  It made the perfect walk to start our day after mass.  We headed to our first stop, Levain Bakery, for a coffee and a little treat!

To be fair, I did not eat this cookie for my breakfast.  It was the size of my head and so delicious!  Can’t wait to give a copycat version I found a try!  I did however eat some of their delicious coffee cake 🙂

Our walk was picturesque.  The weather was gorgeous.  The architecture was beautiful.  We walked from Levain up to Commonwealth Ave.  I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this little walk all the way to the Boston Public Gardens!

This is Commonwealth Ave.  I mean…just such a perfect walk on a beautiful Sunday morning leading us to…

The Boston Public Garden was so beautiful!!!  My pictures just do not do it justice!  Boston, you are my new fav!

From here, we explored the Boston Common area, and the Granary Burying Ground, which was the start of the Freedom Trail for us.  This is the burial site of some very important men in history like Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock.  I am a huge history lover, so this was super cool to see!  And it was right next door the the Park Street Church.

We hopped on one of the Old Town Trolley Tours trolleys to head to our next historical destination.  (I pre-purchased tickets online, but we could have bought them at the welcome center location where we loaded at Charles St. and Bolyston.  This was stop #12 on the tour.  We headed to…

The Boston Tea Party Ship and Museum!  This is located right in Boston Harbor, and you can tour the ship and taste the 5 teas thrown into the harbor during the real Boston Tea Party.  We opted not to do the ship tour to save time since we still had lots to see.  From there, we hopped back on the trolley and headed to the historic north end to see Copp’s Hill Burial Ground, Paul Revere’s home, the Old North Church where the lanterns were hung to warn Paul Revere of the British coming…I mean how cool is it to be in these historic places!!

Then we headed to the old historic Bell in Hand Tavern to have a drink while we waited for a seat to eat lunch at the Union Street Oyster House.  Both were great!

The Paul Revere Punch was super refreshing after all of our walking!  After a drink, we headed to the Union Street Oyster House, where I tried my first Lobster Roll and Clam Chowder, and B.J. tried clams.  They were all pretty good.  We definitely loved the old historic vibe sitting inside and upstairs.  This was such a nice stopping point before heading back out to see the city again.

After leaving lunch, we headed to see some more historic sites like the Boston Massacre site, Cheers, and the BEAUTIFUL  Acorn St. in the Beacon Hill area.  The trolley helped us out tremendously for this!  We hopped on right across from the Boston Massacre location and headed to the Beacon Hill/Antique Row stop.

This area pretty much sealed the deal with my love affair with Boston.

The Cheers Bar marked our last stop was our final stop for the trolley tour.  Yes, there was more to see, but we were pooped.  It was time to head back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Dinner was in the Little Italy area at Limoncello.  First, we stopped for a drink at the Green Dragon, another old historic tavern.
The meatballs were so amazing at Limoncello!
After dinner, we went to right down the street to Mike’s Pastry to grab some cannolis.  This place was insane!  I’ve never seen so many beautiful desserts.  The lines were long, but they moved really fast.

Things I loved about Day 2:

• Our walk down Commonwealth into the Boston Public Gardens was amazing!  I will do that every time!!
• Starting the tour at the Bolyston St. stop and heading to the Boston Tea Party site was a great way to start the Freedom Trail.
• Stopping for drinks on this day at two of the oldest bars in Boston was definitely a fun way to experience the city!
• Finishing our day with a cannoli equals perfection!

That wraps up our fun 36 hours in Boston!  Man, we did a lot and can’t wait to go back!
CLICK HERE FOR PART 2 OF OUR TRIP!!

FOR MORE TRAVEL POSTS, CLICK HERE!

Here is the link to my GOOGLE DOC with all the details of what we did for the whole trip!!!!

You can find MAIN DISH RECIPES HERE.
You can find ALL RECIPES HERE.
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