Visiting Nantucket

[Jillian Livingston]

 

We stepped out from the tiny prop plane and I stood for a moment on top of the stairs breathing in the salty air of Nantucket, filled with the scent of Lilies and memories of teenage debauchery. The words from Diddy’s song, “Coming Home,” swimming in my head:

“Back where I belong, yeah I never felt so strong
I feel like there’s nothing that I can’t try
And if you with me put your hands high
If you ever lost a light before, this ones for you
And you, the dreams are for you….”

Waiting for my sisters, my mother and the boys’ five cousins to meet us, I wondered what this family vacation would bring and thought about how it used to be just me. Where work was the sidebar to a summer spent exploring my new teenage freedom, chasing and running from beautiful boys, as well as rent-a-cops. Not now. Now anymore.

Every day has been a glorious beach day since we arrived. Packing the coolers with sandwiches made from the freshest bread from one of the best sandwich shops on the island, Something Natural, we load up the car with lunch, beach chairs, surf boards and boogie boards and head off to our favorite surf beach, Cisco.

Devon, our sixteen year old, dubs his mother mum-dog and Grandma G-Dog and plays in the water all day long with his father and the seals while the others stick together like one giant jelly fish, moving from the waves to the sandunes to laying in a circle on their towels in the sand, their heads touching. It’s still all so innocent, and far better than being here alone, as a teenager.

Photo Credit: Michele Cardamone

Photo Credit: Michele Cardamone

In the mornings, we run with Devon, his handsome manly frame serving as a reminder that these times will not last forever.

In the evenings, the children beg for ice cream and we walk the cobblestone streets to the wharf, the moon rising bright orange over magnificent yachts.

But none of this would be so enchanting without Grandma Nicky, and her garden, where the kids play Capture the Flag amongst the Hydreangea, Roses, Impatience and Nasturtium, until they drop into bed.

 

Photo Credit: Michele Cardamone

 

Wade is coming tomorrow and I am excited to go out on the town with he and my sisters and mum. Hopefully, we will fit in a night at my favorite dive bar, The Chicken Box. Stay tuned for that and more beautiful photographs taken by my talented sister, Michele Cardamone.

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