Thursday, August 12, 2010

Martha's Vineyard

We've just spent a week in Martha's Vineyard, our easternmost destination for this summer. Now we turn back, heading for New York to go up the Hudson River.

Martha's Vineyard was fun. We took a tour of the island, a land of famous driveways. Many well-known folks have places there, but they are all on big multi-acre estates tucked back behind the trees, so the tour bus driver points out "that is Ted Danson's driveway" or "over those trees is where Jackie O lived." But the views make the trip worth it. There are still members of the Wampanog tribe living on the far western end of the island, which is the high point. This picture was taken there.

The day after we took the tour, we used the island's bus system to go back to two of the towns, Oak Bluffs and Edgartown. Oak Bluffs claims to be where vacations were invented. The first houses were built there in the 1850s and 1860s. Methodists started holding a religious camp meeting there in the 1870s. Folks wanted to come early or stay longer to enjoy the beach, so some enterprising entrepreneurs built a beach front hotel and more houses. Voila! A vacation destination for the newly developing middle class. Also a vacation destination for wealthy African-Americans, many of whom are now the fourth generation to own their family's "gingerbread" cottage. As you can see from the pictures, these places are quite pretty and very well preserved.




This big green Victorian is the answer to the question "what does Peter Norton do with all the money he makes from anit-virus software?" Apparently this place was in need of serious re-habbing when he bought it. He spent four years fixing it up, then the next year, it burned down. So he had it re-built.




Our final day in Vineyard Haven we took the ferry over to Woods Hole to visit the Oceanographic Institute. They have a life-size mock-up of the Allvyn deep-water research submarine. You'd have to be really excited by your science to tolerate 6-8 hours diving in that thing. It is smaller than the early space capsules. But the discoveries they've made and the films they have taken are breath-taking.
So now we are headed west. Last night we went to Cuttyhunk Island. Everyone we talked to said to be sure to visit Cuttyhunk. I must admit the attraction escaped me. It is a quiet little island (year-round population of 40) where golf carts are the preferred mode of transportation. The most interesting thing was the local raw bar. On the dock you order clams, oysters, or lobsters during the day, and the raw bar folks deliver your order to your boat around 5:30 PM, just in time to cook dinner. It doesn't get any fresher than that. They harvest the clams and oysters, to order, from their own shellfish farm.


Tonight we are anchored in Watch Hill, RI and tomorrow we are on to Old Saybrook, CT, lifelong home of Katherine Hepburn.



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