Nantucket with toddlers
 

We are taking a 1 1/2, 2, and 4 year old to the Cape in May and were hoping to take a day trip to Nantucket. Any suggestions of things we could do there? Is there a cute town right where the ferry comes in? I don't think we'll have our car so not even sure if this would be worth the effort. Would you do it?

Yes, there is a cute town where the ferry comes in. You could walk around town, look at the yachts, go to the Whaling Museum

http://www.nantucket.net/
http://www.nantucketchamber.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nantucket,_Massachusetts

Well, I answered your Vineyard question, but since I live in Nantucket, this answer will be even better.

Yes, there is a cute town where the ferry comes in, and if you take the Hy Line ferry, it drops you right in the middle of it. If you take the Steamship ferry, it drops you about three blocks from the town center, but it has another advantage -- to get to town, you pass Pinwheels, a high end children's shop with beautiful things.

You can walk up Main Street on the left side, window shopping as you go. Mitchell's Book Store has a good selection of Nantucket children's books that make nice souvenirs. At the top of Main, just beyond Murray's and the Pacific Bank, is a pocket park with good stone walls to crawl over and a nice place to sit and rest. Walk at least another block or two up through the mansions on Main before turning right and coming down Liberty Street, which reaches the top of Main on the other side of the Bank!

You can now turn left and walk down Centre Street to the Jared Coffin House on the corner of Broad, a good idea if it is getting to be lunch time. Half a block downhill on Broad on your left is the Brotherhood of Thieves, a good place for lunch with kids. If the garden seating is open, great. If not, it is worth waiting to eat in the basement. They have all kinds of things kids like to eat, and most of the adult stuff is good, too. I will recommend the burgers, the minipizza. I do not recommend the fish tacos, but my wife likes the grilled tuna salad a lot. Nantucket Bookworks next door also has great children's books and a lot of fun, silly, inexpensive toys in the back.

At the foot of Broad, across from the Whaling Museum (some great stuff kids actually like, like boats and a whale skeleton) is the Juice Bar. They have a wonderful selection of homemade ice creams, and you can get a chocolate chubby or two for the boat ride home.

After the Juice Bar, you can turn right to go back to Main and shop your way up the other side, or you can turn left next to the Museum Shop and walk about two blocks past the Yacht Club and LoLa41 to the first street to the right, which will take you to Children's Beach. It is too cold to go in the water in May, but there is a good playground and lots of space to run.

You could skip all this and do a bus tour for an hour or so, but on foot, this is about all my granddaughters could manage.

I will repeat my statement about the difficulty of side-by-side strollers from the MV post, and I wouldn't go to either of these place with kids if it is going to rain.

Since most northern schools don't get out until June, you will have a relatively uncrowded place to visit. I hope you enjoy it, and let me know if there are other questions I can answer.