Family Adventures Around Nantucket

by Sarah Teach

It’s not every day that you find activities your entire family can enjoy together.  This fall, from Saturday, September 17 through the end of October, there will be a variety of choices.  Nantucket Family Adventure is organized each year by a variety of island conservation, science, and education organizations who join forces to provide opportunities for families to explore Nantucket together.  Starting with the kickoff event on September 17 at the UMass Boston Field Station at 180 Polpis Road, there will be six straight weeks of a different Family Adventure every weekend, with several events offered mid-week.  Participation in every adventure is free.

Want to learn to catch the species that old time Nantucketers thrived upon?  Go on a fishing adventure with the Trustees of Reservations to catch bluefish and striped bass!  All equipment is provided.  If you’re less of a fisher-family and more fond of feathered friends, you’ll enjoy the bird walk with the Linda Loring Nature Foundation.

Maria Mitchell Association will offer a marine walk with the UMass Field Station.  You’ll also want to take advantage of the open observatory night, when Dr. Vladimir Strelnitski, MMA’s Director of Astronomy, will help you and your family look at the Nantucket sky in ways you never have before!
You can also go on an invasive plant expedition with MA Audubon and The Nantucket Conservation Foundation. 

Don’t you wish you could make it down to Mexico every year?  Live vicariously through some of Nantucket’s prettiest residents.  Every year, monarch butterflies migrate all the way to central Mexico.  The unusual part is that they’re all newly out of their cocoons; none of them has ever been there before!  The Nantucket Family Adventure offers a chance to be a part of a nationwide monarch-tagging project.  Kids and parents help catch the butterflies and place a tiny identification device on each creature.  (Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt them; they don’t even know it’s there!)  Through collecting this information, scientists can learn the migration patterns of the butterflies (and maybe some tips on how to manage an annual tropical vacation).  Emily MacKinnon, Resource Ecologist at Nantucket Land Council, calls the Family Adventure’s involvement in the monarch-tagging project “a way to introduce kids to conservation principles.”

In years previous, the Nantucket Family Adventures have been held in the spring and summer.  This year, however, organizers decided to change the dates because island families tend to be more available during the fall season.  Participating families will be provided with a journal to log their adventures by writing about them, snapping a photo, painting or sketching a picture—whatever can express the experiences of the day.  At the program’s wrap-up party on October 29, participants will get the chance to share these with other adventuring families.  To be a part of the adventures, visit www.MMO.org to register or call 508-228-5268 for more information.