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Old 15 Sep 18, 03:54 PM  
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Libby
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New England Road Trip – Day 4 –Martha’s Vineyard

New England Road Trip – Day 4 –Martha’s Vineyard

Knowing that we had an early start today my body decided it would be a good idea to wake up every couple of hours throughout the night. (Probably because it was a new hotel; this is a problem when doing a road trip.)

Eventually the alarm went off at 6.45 am and we started getting ready for our day trip to Martha's Vineyard.

Breakfast was included in the hotel rate and being a bigger hotel there was a better choice of items. I liked the relaxed atmosphere in the breakfast room and although it was busy we managed to find somewhere to sit.

We left the hotel just before 8 for the 25 minute walk to the ferry terminal (the hotel did offer a shuttle service but we preferred to walk.) The weather was warm but showers were forecast for later on in the day.

We had booked our ferry tickets and a bus tour before we left home using the HyLine Ferries website.

When we arrived there was a small queue already forming for the 9am ferry. The man collecting the tickets was very chatty and asked where we had visited. We told him we had enjoyed Plymouth but it had been very wet. He said there hadn’t been any rain in Hyannis for weeks (sadly it didn’t stay that way!)



The ferry over took just under an hour and was very pleasant watching the other boats and the coast line. The ferry had a small snack bar on board which was doing a good service in breakfast sandwiches.



Once docked it was a very short walk to the tour bus.



Martha’s Vineyard is rather too big to explore on foot in one day so there were places to rent bicycles and mopeds. There is also a regular bus service but we were booked on a 2˝ hour guided tour of the island (including a 30 minute comfort break.)

Our driver and tour guide was a Jamaican exchange student called Anthony who was working his 4th summer on the island. He seemed to know the island well and his guided tour was very informative as well as punctuated with amusing personal anecdotes of his time on the island. I really enjoyed it.

After an hour we stopped for 30 minutes at the Gay Head Lighthouse. There was a small row of shops and cafes as well as a toilet here. As we’d brought snacks with us we used the time to walk up to the lighthouse and enjoy the views.


As we reboarded the coach it began to rain.

Anthony told us stories about the Kennedys, Bill Cinton and Barak Obama. We saw lots of the beautiful island before returning to Oak Bluffs. Oak Bluffs was rather tacky after the natural beauty of the rest of the island.



But just behind the shops we found the Gingerbread Cottages. I knew these existed but had imaged there were a couple of dozen of them rather than the over 300 that there really are. Dodging the rain we found that one of the cottages was open to visitors as a museum. I’m really glad we went inside as it was fascinating. The man selling the tickets was passionate about these houses and told us some of the history. They had started life as tents for a summer camp for Methodist families. Over time these were replaced with more permanent and elaborate structures. There is still a huge open sided hall for worship meetings there.

We were amused to see the local police patrolling on Segways.



The rain was coming down quite heavily now and we were pleased we had booked the early ferry back to the mainland. (In view of the weather we saw quite a few passengers exchanging their tickets for earlier sailings.)

The journey back was just as quick but rather choppy and I felt quite queasy by the time we docked.

Fortunately the rain had eased and our walk back was very pleasant (except when I didn’t notice a sprinkler and got a bit wet.)

After a bit of a rest we decided on another fast food tea and drove to a nearby Wendy’s.

Back at the hotel we did a little laundry (after emptying every case for my quarter collection we found it in the wash bag in the bathroom ? ) While it was washing we helped ourselves to the complimentary coffee and cookies and played Connect 4 in the breakfast/lounge area. A nice calm end to a busy day.

Pleased that we’d managed to stay awake until 10pm we headed off to bed.

Edited at 03:55 PM.
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Old 16 Sep 18, 06:47 AM  
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Melbatb
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That was an early start! The gingerbread houses look amazing!

We hardly had any rain when we were there - we must have been lucky! Just a half day in Maine and in Plymouth if memory setves me right - oh and an early morning and late afternoon in Vermont! So more than I think
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Index of my trip reports
2016 Quebec - Kuala Lumpar - New York City 2017 Dubai - Eurocamps France - Ontario and Quebec - So-Cal 2018 Montreal - Bangkok - New England 2019 Argentina - Quebec City - Hong Kong - 2020 Switzerland 2022 Arizona - Costa Med Cruise - Oslo 2023 Hong Kong - Gothenburg
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Old 16 Sep 18, 07:02 AM  
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Moleymole
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It looks amazing, I’d love to visit here one day.
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Old 20 Jan 19, 08:27 PM  
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disney owl
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looks lovely
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Old 24 Jan 19, 09:03 PM  
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Buzz242
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We loved Martha's Vineyard and would definitely like to go back one day. We used the local bus service to get around and pretty much were the only people on it at times. The drivers were all very friendly and told us lots of interesting information and stories about the island.
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