LIGHTHOUSES AND SOUTH BEACH

A foggy, coolish kind of day, we decided to visit the remaining lighthouses. The East Chap Lighthouse, above, is built into a building. Its fenced with a no trespassing sign by order of the Homeland Security Dept. Its possible the lighthouse keeper lives in the building or maybe they have expensive tracking equipment inside. We then drove to the West Chap Lighthouse surrounded by a small park with benches. Much friendlier.

Of course, it doesn't take you long to realize if you've seen one, you've seen them all. They are prefabricated of steel and set on a foundation. No one lives in this lighthouse. It sits next to a residential area. Most property owners built for that view of the ocean, sky and light and the views from this bluff are beautiful.

Back to Edgartown for a closer look at their lighthouse. This one sits on the low waterfront and has a history. On this spot the first lighthouse on the island was build in 1828. Shoddily made of wood, the lighthouse keeper grumbled about having to row to work every morning. He wouldn't live in it because the roof leaked. It had a lantern that could be seen from 14 miles The powers that be built him a wooden causeway. Since then, the sands have filled in the area and no boat is needed to get to the lighthouse.

 Keeper after keeper decried the shoddy structure as unsafe. In 1938,  a hurricane demolished it. The money was appropriated for the new one.

The Children's Memorial Project  was placed here, with the names of children who died to be memorialized in stone bricks inlaid around the "light". While there, emotional visitors sought the name of a child they knew and treated the stone with great reverence, brushing away the sand and placing there a flower.

 Some of the most beautiful old houses in New England stand sentry to this harbor, some with widows walks from the whaling days of two hundred years ago.
We drove around and viewed some of these stately old homes with lovely yards.

We drove to Katama Beach, on the south side of the island. It was chilly but even so, two people were on the beach.

Just as we were leaving, a bi-plane swooped down but before I could get my camera out, it was out of sight. We saw the ads for a ride on this plane, for $199. Worth it, in my opinion. They are noisy, and cold and acrobatic.

We stopped at Ben and Bill's Ice Cream Shop and enjoyed a delicious triple deck ice cream, but decided we preferred regular fare over the Lobster Ice Cream. The only place on the island to serve lobster as a dessert.
And, we walked again among the painted ladies because they are endlessly charming, to me, anyway. This one seemed appropriate for a light house day.

I never seem to capture a bird photo, but this was my lucky day.

CHAPPAQUIDDICK BRIDGE, WASQUE POINT, MY TOI GARDEN

Saturday, we crossed from Edgartown by ferry to Chappaquiddick Island. Its a small place, mostly dirt roads, and hidden homes. Its easy to see how someone famous could live here and never fear invading tourists. Its necessary to get there by boat or expensive ferry, and bring everything in. Chappy Store, has little to offer but snacks and ice cream and a sense of humor.

 Chappy Store is surrounded by broken down cars that people didn't want to pay to haul away. Now, there are laws preventing that. You bring it in, you take it out.

The dirt roads and low traffic make it a great place to bike ride. Our first stop was Wasque Pt. Its an  ecological area under protection for its unique plants and insects that survive in the salt marshes of glacially deposited sands. Fire prevents pitch pine from taking over, something learned from the local indian populations that inhabited the island for thousands of years.

Beaches are very private. You have to park and walk through the low growing salt loving plants to get to them at Wasque Pt.

The tar pines invade where the area is unprotected by controlled burning.

Our next stop was the Chappaquiddick Dike Bridge where Ted Kennedy drove off the side. It is closed to all who don't have "sand" vehicles. We hoped to visit all five lighthouses on Marthas Vineyard. The Cape Poge Lighthouse sits on the point of Chappaquiddick and we weren't able to cross over. The bridge has been rebuilt after that incident and now has heavy duty guard rails. Marthas Vineyard is part of Duke County, which is a dry county. However, drinking isn't against the law. You can bring it in, you just can't buy it here. Being dry may be one of the reasons the island is so relatively crime free.

On the Dike Rd. is My Toi, a Japanese strolling garden. It has public restrooms as well. The garden was built by Hugh Jones and while planting it he referred to it as "my toy." Thus, the metaphoric name. It has ponds, bridges, a dripping bamboo water fall, some rhododendrons in bloom.

The ponds have koi, snapping turtles and painted turtles, plus goldfish. We didn't see any. Its a restful place. Outside of the garden is a place to put air in your tires, heavily used. We talked to a fellow traveler with Washington State license plates filling his tires, (below). He has a place on the island. People let air out of their tires to cross over the bridge, qualifying their vehicle as a "sand" vehicle. Then they refill their tires at this spot.

Across the road from My Toi is a walking trail to visit the the Poucha Pond with vistas of the salt marsh and beaches. If you go, bring your walking shoes.

Sometimes the ferry has to fight the currents to make the crossing. We watched as  two ferries were working to miss each other in the strong wind and current.

EDGARTOWN PEAK AND OFF SEASON

Being on the Island during off peak season has some advantages. Parking regulations are not enforced, even though signs indicate otherwise. We can park without fear of a ticket, the nice man told us as we watched him place a notice on the Bronco. Parking regulations will be back in affect starting next weekend. Hmmm, interesting.  Parking, so far, has been relatively easy. This lovely town of 3,379 population increases to over 100,000 during the peak season. Its nice to be here without a frenetic pace, even if hours are kind of crazy in June.

Our first stop, the visitors center, in this beautiful old building, was still closed. Staffed and run by the Marthas Vineyard Preservation Association Trust, it sits on a beautiful downtown site with the Whaling Church, and Vincent House. All three buildings are part of the trust.

We soon learned the Whaling Church is now a performance arts center. It opens later in the season at 10 a.m. We were unsure if it is by tour or just to look through. The Vincent House, (below) is only open to guided tours from 11 to 2, Mondays through Fridays, all year. It was still closed. There must be a reason that weekenders are not encouraged. Perhaps it is run by volunteers. It was nice to look at them, even so. The Vincent House is the oldest house on the island, built in 1641. Many buildings in the historic main section of town are on the historic register, all indicated by a brass plaque. Its a comfortable walk around the narrow, shaded streets to see them.

 The Marthas Vineyard Museum is here in Edgartown. It features Veterans that came from the Island, and personal stories from folks who settled here. It was interesting to note that blacks, who were treated equally by Islanders, found rampant prejudice when they joined the service. Black soldiers had to gang up to protect themselves from drunken white soldiers on liberty. When caught, whites were shipped out, the blacks went to the brig.

In the days when residents lived far apart, this peddler's wagon brought the "store" to the residents. A period that didn't last long, the wagon too often got stuck on the muddy dirt roads, or mired in deep sand.

This curious artifact is a lightening rod that sits atop all lighthouses. Its been struck, cracked and scarred.

By now, we know for certain, there are no stop lights on this Island. The usual speed limit is 25 miles per hour. People are quite courteous on the road.  
We visited a couple of galleries, shops, rugs, baskets, bags, scarves, clothing, not as expensive as you might think considering that every delivery truck has to pay a premium to ferry onto the island.
The gallery owners are very helpful and easy to talk too. Art here IS expensive. Hours, variable. Sculpin Gallery opened at 12:30, was closed by 3.
Once a working whaling harbor, big ship tie ups, still sprout through the sidewalks.

We took the On Time Ferry over to Chappaquiddick. Named the On Time because it only ran when people lined up and waited. It scooted the two minutes from one side to the other. It still operates that way, and therefore,  always on time.

We watched Ferry On Time-I and On Time II operate for awhile. And then reduce to one ferry when things slowed down. From the Chappaquiddick side we got a great view of the harbor and Edgartown Lighthouse.

Edgartown is one of five working lighthouses that protect boat traffic from the island.

A fish shanty here is a very  different affair from a shanty at Menemsha. I favored the Menemsha fishing village for its character, solitude, earthiness, smells; its real working atmosphere and food. 

 If you have a day, or a weekend, Edgartown has much to offer. Good shopping, original choices, wonderful people, good, diverse art, antiques, restaurants, and architecture. Do it. Don't wait.

WEST ISLAND, A PERFECT DAY

Every once in awhile, you experience a perfect day. The sky couldn't be bluer, the weather more perfect, no stop lights, (none, so far on the island) or traffic jams; gorgeous scenery grabbing your eye at every turn and then you discover Larsen's. I was standing at the refrigerator debating about the lobster rolls or stuffed scallops when a local came in and sort of pushed me aside and grabbed every last lobster roll for she and her friends. Wha!
This must be the place. And, it was!
But I'm ahead of  myself. First, the harbor at Menemsha. Its on the West side of the Island

It has a working fishing fleet and private boats as well.We walked the breakwater, smelled the ocean air, watched the birds, and surf. The sun, after rainy yesterday felt good.

This was one of many uncrowded beaches. I'm sure there will be more bikers and visitors on the weekend. This side of the island gets less visitors and less locals. Probably because the real estate here is divided into no less than 3 acre parcels, very expensive parcels.

We watched as this boater backed into his stall. His young son jumped off and tied off. Then the family disembarked. They were very friendly and nice to we tourist types with or cameras. 

 This gull actually posed for us. We saw it searching for tidbits on a boat that had recently come in.

This fish shanty begged "get out your easel and paint me".

The fish shanties are weathered grey shingles but often have bright orange, red, yellow or blue doors. Jim was set to take my picture and a local woman offered to snap the two of us. Yes! Thank you!

One small harbor and it had five fish markets. At Menemsha, we stopped in and sampled the lobster bisque and clam chowder. The bisque had large chunks of claw meat in it, the best I'd ever tasted. Both were meaty superior tasting. It doesn't get any better than this. Their fish tank held  a giant lobster nicknamed Lobsterzilla at 16 lbs. Estimated age 100 years. Its right claw was as big as my hand, only thicker.

It would be a sin to eat him methinks. We bought chowder and bisque to take home.
Then we poked our head into Larsens. Steamer clams for Jim. I tried a couple of oysters on the half shell, and one cherrystone clam, (I'd never eaten cherrystones before,) plus a stuffed scallop and a stuffed quahog. As we propped on the edge of a weathered box to eat our lunch, locals told us that Larsens has the best lobster in all new England. "Better than Maine. When we get here, we just toss everything and zap over here and get our first lobster. Nothing over a pound or a pound and 1/2, they advised." The lady who took all the lobster rolls must have known. Yup! We were definitely in the right place. The refrigerator was refilled with lobster rolls but we were too full by then.  Hopefully time will allow a return to Larsens Fish Market.

Moving westward to Gay Head, we visited the cliffs and the Gay Head lighthouse. Nearly deserted beaches along the way and in every direction. Beautiful is sort of an inadequate word at times.

The light house light cycles every few seconds and I caught it on the red.

 We left this spot to return home and found the prettiest spot on the island. This little inlet at Clam Cove north of Aquinnah.

 This shallow little cove is perfect for small boats, children at play, kayaks, rafts and small craft. It rests the eyes to look at it. Except for the whiffs of chowder  in the car, reminding us of what we had waiting for us, we hated to return home. A perfect day.
For more pictures, I uploaded an album: http://picasaweb.google.com/1579penn/61110WestIslandMenemsha#

PAINTED LADIES AND DOLL HOUSES

San Francisco's Painted Ladies have nothing on these beauties in miniature. Painted Ladies with all the rick-rack are common everywhere in New England. Marthas Vineyard is studded with them, but here, in the village of Oak Bluffs, these famous cottages resemble doll houses. Roof to roof in a circle surrounding a Methodist Church and outdoor Tabernacle, this Camp was established in 1835. The Tabernacle was built in 1879. The neighborhood expands and continues the theme.

Oak Bluffs on Wikipedia tells all about these cottages and the Methodist Camp.

We weren't the only tourists looking and taking pictures. I guess its expected. There is a cottage museum, which we couldn't find, though we didn't look too hard. It was enough to enjoy them from the outside.

We saw one family unloading their car for a stay in their cottage. Most of them are summer homes. They just smiled and didn't seem to mind us taking pictures.

I found out the homes are on the National Historic Register.

 In some places the roof lines were joined by fret work, or stand a mere two inches apart.

 One fascinating thing about them is that the porch decorations and roof line decorations are all different. We looked over more than a hundred of these cottages and no two were the same. Most had comfortable chairs, benches, often rocking chairs,  on their porches as well, usually painted to match the color of the cottage.

  In town, the buildings are just as interesting. In fact, Jim's Aunt and Uncle, Jim and Rita Oesting owned and operated a business in this building for many years before retiring to Florida.

Another of Jim's cousins, Rebecca Nicol, decided to work the island for the summer at Sandy's Fish Market. Sandy's was voted as having the best fish & chips on the island, so, of course, we indulged.  

This grand old hotel is in the town of Vineyard Haven. We visited and gawked. The day was rainy and gray, but it didn't diminish our enjoyment at all.