The morning after we arrived, the air was saturated with mist. We went down to Cisco to paint, since the moisture brings out the colors in the rolling meadows near the beach. We all wandered in separate directions. I took this photo of Wendy in the mist. She was enthralled by the richness of the colors, and painted one of her most vibrant paintings that day.

We had a new member of the expedition, Katie Startup. At the age of thirteen she already has the talent and maturity to keep up with us in our paint-a-thon. However, she brought a welcome note of playfulness to the proceedings, and would often wander away from her canvas to cool her feet in the azure waters and observe the marine life.

We went down to Polpis harbor that evening to paint the light on the waters. Katie tackled a painting of a sailboat. It was a real beauty with lovely lines. However, it also happened to be the one boat that would just not keep still! It kept slowly swinging around until she almost gave up in frustration. But in the end, she captured it and felt the satisfaction of success.

The next morning was really threatening, and in fact this was the only day it really rained on us as we were trying to paint. We ended up at Madaget because it was close. How many times have we painted this house on stilts?? Anyway, we felt that it had to be Katie's initiation ritual to paint it too. Wendy got so involved in a painting that she refused to come in out of the rain until we dragged her back to the house. Beer, wine and vodka were had by all (except Katie).

The next day we were all ready for an early start, and the day dawned clear and fresh. The stifling humidity of the previous two days had dissapated, and the dawn clouds were spectacular. The typical Nantucket white-trim-on gray-shingles architecture was at its best in this light. We did a lot more swimming this trip than on others before. Quidnet beach was nice, and the area aound the pond that acts as a kiddie pool provided some good painting opportunities. We worked for awhile and then decided to do some more sightseeing with Katie. We left Wendy painting away and went to take in the sights, including the tiny houses of Sconset (where we ate lunch in some shi-shi beach restaurant where they took forever to serve us and the murals in the ladies room were so confusing it was hard to find the toilets. After picking up a dehydrated Wendy at Quidnet,We decided to take the four-wheel-drive trip out to Great Point. We left Carla's car at Quidnet and took off in Kendall's jeep. To see a movie of part of the road trip where Katie stands up and looks out of the sunroof, click here.

We must have several hundred photos of the Great Point Lighthouse between the four of us! It sits alone at the end of the long spit of sand that curls around Nantucket Bay.There's really nothing to do except swim and take pictures. There were people up in the top of the lighthouse but a woman yelled down that it was a "private party". Very weird. Katie was fascinated by the view of what looked like flapping sheets hung up inside the lighthouse top part, and wondering alound what on earth would be their purpose in the lecture the vocal woman was giving to the "private party". It was very hot and desert-like. click here to see a movie of Katie being abandoned in the sand. We had a great swim and then Kendall and Katie made some very disturbing artwork in the sand.

The light at Quidnet was great when we went back for the car, and I took this photo of the beach at the pond. The next day I woke up with a cold and ended up not painting for several days. I did manage to resurrect myself, with the help of a couple of Excedrins, for an improptu "birthday' dinner for Katie at the snooty restaurant at the Wauwinet Inn. Since her real birthday is in June (of course!) we had to cross our fingers and hope her natural truthfulness would not surface and we would continue to receive preferential "birthday treatment" from the wait staff. Katie was a trooper, and kept a straight face even when presented with a small cake with "Happy Birthday Katie" scrawled across it in chocolate syrup. A good time was had by all, and I think Kendall and Wendy discovered a new vodka drink.

By this time the house we had rented was literally bursting with paintings in all stages of completion, not to mention five sets of easels, palettes, and paints. We had to tread carefully, especially when in the narrow entrance hall which was lined with wet canvasses on both sides, as well as up the staircase! Luckily the population density would shrink by one as I has rented a room at a charming bed-and-breakfast place called the Nesbitt Inn so that Crane and I could have some quality time together when he came up at the end of the week on Friday.

I spent the first afternoon in bed with my flu, while Crane biked all over the island like a maniac. Saturday I felt better so we went sailing with Carla and her boyfriend Greg, who had come up with Crane, and Katie. We rented a small day sailer at a place in the Harbor and went out for a glorious afternoon. Lots of racing boats out, which we avoided thank goodness. To see a video of Katie climbing out to the bow, click here .Later we went on a Haunted House tour of the town. The best story was about a house where the latest "incident" had been reported by a faux finisher artist working late at night barely three weeks before. I hope Katie did not have spooky dreams...

Being in town gave us more of a chance to look at the architecture and the harbor, which would make good painting subjects if I had not done so much painting earlier in the week. I did take quite a few photos, though.

One of the differences this year was that a tropical hurricane down south resulted in huge waves and heavy undertow in the water around Nantucket. The waves were unusually good for surfing.We caught a great sunset at Madaget, but the wind kicked up and it was COLD.

The next couple of days we tried to jam in as much travel to different parts of the island as we could. I was getting some great ideas for studio paintings, and Crane was just having a ball being anywhere but home in South Salem. His greatest accomplishment was finding the nude beach, where he relived his college streaking days in a supportive atmosphere.Unfortunately we learned that the majority of nude beachgoers are either gay men or plus-size older women. At least he satisfied his curiosity!

The last day we decided to rent a tiny compact car- it was actually cheaper than a scooter- and were having fun until we managed to get it stuck in the sand near Cisco. As we looked around for some pieces of wood or rocks to put under the wheels, we noticed a strange phenomenon. There were business cards stapled to driftwood logs, business cards on sticks stuck in the sand, and all of them for tow truck services. Indeed, in about five minutes (he must have a spy in a nearby house) a tow truck pulled up and wanted to charge us a hundred bucks to pull us out. We said no thanks, and he hung around watching us dig. Finally he yelled out his window "Do you want a tow or not??" and we sweetly answered "no thanks". He drove off in a huff and we got the car out after about 20 minutes of digging, using the stick with his business card on it and trashing it in the process. It all was fine with us because it was a cool day, and we needed the exercise before the ferry ride and the long drive home. We were a bit grundgy so we jumped in the water and washed off just fine.Just enough time left for a side trip to Bartlett Farm, a seafood platter at Sayle's, and a great sunset to see us off.

The End