The 19th Annual Nantucket Pirate and Mermaid Parade is taking place on Saturday, June 5, 2010,  from 9-10 a.m.  Children and adults of Nantucket are welcome and encouraged to dress as pirates or mermaids…or both!  Gather at The Toy Boat, located on Straight Wharf, and get ready to parade around the wharf with your fellow sea-faring friends.  Admission is free!

On Saturday, May 29th, 2010, The Artist’s Association of Nantucket is having their first of the 2010 season all day ”sidewalk” art sales in the garden at the Nantucket Atheneum. Don’t miss this chance to see what your favorite artists have been up to over the winter and spring.

Follow this link for more information on the Artist’s Association of Nantucket

Nantucket has events like this year-round!  Let Windwalker help you schedule your Nantucket Vacation around events and places you want to see; Contact Windwalker today to speak with one of our knowledgeable agents!

International Museum Day is today, Tuesday, May 18th.  In celebration, the Nantucket Historical Association is offering free admission to the Nantucket Whaling Museum!  Visit the museum and see a forty-six foot skeleton of a sperm whale that washed ashore on New Year’s Day in 1998, the 1849 Fresnel Lens used in Sankaty Head Lighthouse, a restored 1881 tower clock, and much more!

Open Daily 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

15 Broad Street / 508.228.1894

If you’d like to find a Nantucket Summer Home near the museum, use our Rental Search Tool and check the box next to the ‘Town’ area.

All winter the Nantucket Historical Association has been hosting after-school activities for school-age children. The program will continue through the end of April, so there is still time to take advantage of this wonderful program.

Explore Nantucket history through Nantucket stories, a hands-on look at artifacts from the NHA collection, and educational crafts and games. Groups of children are also welcome, but must be accompanied by adult companions. This program is supported by a grant from the Nantucket Golf Club Foundation.

Tuesday is Nantucket Narratives Day
Nantucket Narratives is an afternoon of stories and activities inspired by Nantucket.  Join us and listen to an NHA educator share a story, or choose a book from our library of Nantucket tales to read on your own in the Discovery Room.

Wednesday is Activities and Artifacts Day
Each week features a different “Artifact of the Week” when children can see and touch authentic artifacts while wearing white curator’s gloves.  The afternoon will also offer hands-on activities inspired by the featured artifact.

Thursday is Island Explorations Day
Explore Nantucket history through a variety of activities in the Discovery Room.  You can try on colonial clothing, learn to tie knots, examine old Nantucket photographs, or read a book about Nantucket history.

All activities are held in the Discovery Room of the Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street. The programs are free for Nantucket’s school-age children and their families. Participants are asked to enter through the Discovery Room door, to the right of the main Museum entrance, 13 Broad Street.

For more information contact the Nantucket Historical Association at 508-228-1894 or visit www.nha.org.

To find a Nantucket Summer Rental close to the Whaling Museum, use our Rental Search Tool and check the box next to the ‘Town’ area.

The Nantucket Lighthouse School will hold its Second Annual Flea Market Festival on Saturday, March 27, 2010.  This wonderful fundraiser features fabulous flea market finds, delicious pizza from the amazing Mystic Pizzetta, children’s activities, local vendors and live music.

This year’s event will also include a raffle for a cash prize of $5,000, a staggered opening, with a fee for early birds and a later closing time to allow for entertainment.

The school is now accepting donated items of all varieties. Last year visitor could purchase everything from sporting goods to furniture to household items. If you would like to contribute any items to the Flea Market, you can contact the school about drop off spots or arranging to have items picked up. For information call 508.228.0427, email cevans@nantucketlighthouseschool.org or visit The Nantucket Lighthouse School website. All donations are tax deductible!!

Nantucket Lighthouse School Flea Market

March 27, 2010
8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
1 Rugged Road
Nantucket, MA 02554

To find a Nantucket rental near the festival grounds, use our Rental Search Tool and check the box next to ‘Mid-Island’.

In 1974, Jean MacAusland enlisted the help of Dave Champoux to plant daffodils up and down the Milestone Road from Monomoy to Sconset.  But has anyone noticed that the daffy’s are multiplying in front of the Nantucket Conservation land in Tom Nevers that we so fondly call “the Serengetti”?

Here is a little known fact…three years ago the fund-raising committee for Hospice Care of Nantucket, now known as Palliative and Supportive Care of Nantucket found a way to fundraise and give back to the community in a unique way.

At their annual fundraiser they asked for donations of $250 and in turn, several Nantucket landscaping companies agreed to donate daffodil bulbs and their labor to plant them- a fundraising win, win!!  The concept was to enhance the daffodils each year along the Milestone Road on the way to Sconset in honor of all the hospice volunteers and staff, the caregivers currently working round-the-clock to care for patients and all the patients who benefit every day of the year from the supportive care that Hospice makes available here on Nantucket.  The idea blossomed and soon the students from the New School joined the planting cause as part of their community service commitment.

Now some thirty years later, Dave Champoux of Champoux Landscaping is at it again and has organized the 2009 planting of Daffodils which will take place on November 21st.  Since 2007, more than 20,000 bulbs have been added and the display in the spring is quite spectacular.

For more information on how you can support this effort, please contact director, Charlene Thurston at Palliative and Supportive Care of Nantucket 508-825-8325 or come and join their “Nantucket Dreamcatcher” fundraising dinner in June at Galley Beach.

Find updated details for the Dreamcatcher dinner and auction here.

To find a Nantucket rental near this daffodil-covered drive, simply use our Rental Search Tool and check the box next to the ‘Sconset area’ to see what’s available!

Nantucket just plain loves Halloween!! This tiny island community comes together every year in a wonderful way to celebrate Halloween as one big, creative and fun loving family. Parents and children alike get in the spirit and get dressed up in costumes for the annual Halloween Parade up Main Street. After the early evening parade, the restaurants and retail shops offer baskets of candy just outside their shops. As dusk casts its shadows on the quaint cobblestone streets of Nantucket Town, devils and hobos can be seen darting up and down Main Street and the side streets that in summer are filled with shoppers and diners. This is homegrown, small town enthusiasm at it finest.

In the mid-island area, you will be sure to see the entire staff at Nantucket Bank dressed for Halloween -nothing like having your check cashed by a leopard! It would be equally hard to find a restaurant in Nantucket that didn’t have servers happily dressed in costume to brighten your fine dining experience on Halloween.

At the firehouse on Sparks Avenue in the mid-island, the fireman stage an open house complete with a haunted house and refreshments for all the kids.

All-in-all the spirit of Halloween is woven into the fabric of Nantucket and its year-round residents. If you are lucky enough to be a fall visitor to this island 30 miles to sea, this is a celebration not to be missed!

You can use our Rental Search Tool, which has an integrated map function, to find a Nantucket rental near the mid-island to catch all the fun!