Five small islands make up the town of Cranberry Isles. Only two have year round populations (Little Cranberry and Great Cranberry). Another island, Sutton, has only a summer population. The other two islands do not have residents.
Great Cranberry has the smaller population of around 40 year round residents (43 now, thank you Gaither family!) and Little Cranberry (aka Islesford) has about triple that. All the islands are accessible only by boat and it's about a 20 minute ferry ride to Great Cranberry from the mainland. There is a year round ferry (people only, no cars) but the winter offers a very limited traveling schedule.
Although there is a small population that lives here year round, in the summer it triples as summer residents return to their seasonal homes. The weather is gorgeous here in the summer. Very low humidity and very mild temps. Inside air conditioning is almost non existent here. You may even get a chill at night, sleeping with the windows open (I love that!)
Great Cranberry is rather small, only 1 mile by 2 miles. Most people get around by bike, golf cart, or on foot in the summer. There is a small general store (one of my jobs, actually) which stocks most of what you need. But I'm a Walmart and coupon kinda gal so I go off island once a week to get groceries. There are other businesses here. A couple of boatyards, a small gift shop, but no real shopping here. Everyone goes off island for that. If you want to eat at a restaurant you have to go off island for that too. But these are exactly the kinds of things that make island living so unique. So interesting and fun. If it were like living on the mainland, then it wouldn't be a real island.
