Nantucket In Nine Miles On Foot

  
When I am on vacation I try and cut my diet some slack and enjoy myself. Yesterday I followed that rule in earnest and enjoyed a lobster roll, a fig and prosciutto flat bread and multiple bites of many shared desserts. Consequently I had a horrible night’s sleep, paying in many ways for veering so far off my diet course.
As Russ got up at his early puritanical time of six in the morning and started working I finally fell asleep and stayed asleep until 9:30 this morning. I knew I needed to adjust my vacation ways and get back on a track closer to a monks life, yet still have some fun.  
I decided that the best course of action was to make sure I got my nine miles of walking in like I do on a good day at home. Thankfully the weather here in Nantucket was an absolutely perfect 75 degrees and sunny today. It is actually warmer than I had packed for this trip.
While Russ and his business partners were busy slaving away the morning strategizing the future of their business I walked downtown where I met up with two other CMG wives, Candi Chin and Ann Schweitzer. We did a little shopping, which was actually no spending for me and then Ann and I peeled off to concentrate on really getting a good walk in. Ann is a new addition to the partner spouses since her husband Mark recently joined the firm, but Ann and Mark are old friends to us. I grew up two doors away from Mark and both Ann and Mark worked with my father which is how they met and married.

  
As we were attempting to leave the shopping distractions Ann had me side step into a most beautiful store called Paris Style where every item of clothing was truly a work of art. A row of blazers hung on one wall with a thirty percent off sign but no price tags at all. A striking woman approached me as I was fingering the fine fabric of a navy jacket with a bright pink silk lining. She asked if I would like to try one on, as she got one in what she thought was my size.  
I slipped into the garment as she described how each piece was hand made in France to my measurements. Good thing since this jacket was made for a woman who never did any manual labor with her arms, or who did not know the flapping feeling that comes from waving my arm wildly. Ann asked how much the blazers were and amazingly neither of us showed any visible flinching when the proprietor unapologetically said, “$2,400.” The 30% off group were not for a custom one and of course I would need custom with my arms. It was clearly time to walk.
Ann and I got about two miles in before it was time to meet up with the workers for lunch. I had a kale salad feeling like the Presbyterian I am. After lunch Russ and I did a little more looking at stores and then spent two hours getting a big walk in. As we neared our house we just caught a beautiful bride heading into her wedding at the Congregational Church across the street. I spent the next forty five minutes talking to James, the driver of the Wauwinet Inn’s old woodie station wagon who had driven the bride to the wedding and was awaiting the bride and her new husband to take them back to the Inn for the reception. James is from Jamaica and has worked at the Wauwinet for 23 years. I have to say he is the nicest person I have met on the island this visit. Sadly I finally had to cut short our talk since I needed to shower before dinner. I was still short a mile of steps.

  
Our whole group walked to straight wharf for a fabulous dinner where I felt less guilty splitting things with Ann since I was almost up to nine miles and I had only eaten a salad for lunch. Once home from dinner as Russ and came up to bed I realized I was two tenth of a mile short of my goal. I paced the length of our room for a few minutes until my watch buzzed that I had done it. I think that tomorrow I need to get up early and get more walking in before breakfast since Ann and Mark have gotten a boat for an afternoon ride. There is just no exercise riding in a boat, but boy it does make for a fun vacation.