Boston & Cape Cod Road Trip - October 2016 - Day 7 - Martha's Vineyard

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Boston & Cape Cod Road Trip
27th October 2016
Day 7 - Martha's Vineyard

Previous: Provincetown & Cape Cod

Today we were doing a day trip to Martha’s Vineyard.

We’d spent a long time deliberating which boat to catch. Option 1 was a boat that went from practically next door to the hotel. It did allow us to take our car with us but it was very expensive and there were only two boats per day meaning that we’d but stuck at Martha’s Vineyard all day regardless of the weather or what we wanted to do. Option 2 was a boat that went from Falmouth (a good hour drive away). This was only a foot passenger ferry, so no car but it did have a ferry departing hourly and was quite cheap. We discussed our options with the receptionist at the hotel and she recommended option 2 as she said there was a good bus service once we were on the island and so getting around wouldn’t be a problem. We took her advice and decided to go with option 2 as it also have us the ability to see more of the Southern Cape on the way to Falmouth.

I still couldn’t tire of this view even when it was cloudy!

Jeff was driving today!

We arrived at the terminal and were sent to the Park & Ride car park about 10 minutes away. The girls were totally fascinated that the seats on the buses went sideways! It’s the little things in life!

As we got on the ferry I received a phone call from the bank back in the UK to discuss our mortgage application for the apartment we’d put the offer in on the day we left. I had to apologise to her for the noisy background and said we were on a ferry. ‘Oh, are you going to France?’ she asked. Erm, nope! I think she thought I was a bit nuts when she realised where I actually was! She also speeded up the conversation when she realised she was phoning America!

As the ferry pulled into Vineyard Haven I really had to try very hard not to do the ‘der der der der’ from Jaws! It was filmed in Martha’s Vineyard. I doubt it would have made me very popular with the locals!

It was lunch time by the time we docked and so we had a little look around Vineyard Haven before settling on a little café for lunch. Just like Provincetown yesterday a lot of the cafes were closed for the season and so we had quite a limited choice. Regardless, a mixture of paninis, fries and pizza slices between was enough to keep us going.

After lunch, we decided to catch a bus over to Oaks Bluff as the one thing I wanted to do was to go and see the Gingerbread Houses.

I loved that the buses strapped the bikes to the front of the bus!

The Gingerbread Houses didn’t disappoint. This area of Oaks Bluff is known as the Martha’s Vineyard Campmeeting Association and was the first summer religious camp in America. It consists of over 300 brightly decorated little cottages and the area is all pedestrianised. We spent ages just wandering around taking photos. The photos really don’t do the brightness of the cottages justice.

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I could have spent hours here but as per normal one of the kids decided they needed a wee! So we headed back in to the main shopping area with hope of finding some public toilets or a café that might have a toilet. As Abi was getting more and more desperate we nipped into a sweet shop to ask where the nearest toilet was. As with everyone we’d met and chatted to so far, he was incredibly kind and let Abi use his toilet. We were very grateful and so bought some sweets as a thank you as I suspect he didn’t sell too many at that time of year.

We continued along the main shopping area and it was just so pretty. Again I’d love to go back in the summer but I’m sure it would be so crowded that I wouldn’t be able to get as many photos.

Further along the main shopping area we did eventually find the public toilets. They absolutely reeked and we were even more grateful that the man in the sweet shop had let Abi use their toilets.

By now it was starting to get a bit cold and drizzly and so we decided to start making a move back to the ferry. Oaks Bluff is a lovely location and I’d recommend it as a day out for anyone in the area.

I have to say, though, with the grey clouds and drizzle this bit could have been any English seaside town!

It’s only when you take a closer look that you realise it has much more of a New England charm to it.

Whilst we were waiting for the bus back to Vineyard Haven we were freaked out by a bit of a psycho seagull. He clearly had a broken wing and just stood staring at us making us feel rather nervous and looked like he was about to attack at any moment. He then decided he was going to cross the road and all of the traffic stopped to let him cross. We got the impression he was a bit of a local celebrity.

We were soon back at Vineyard Haven and boarding the ferry home. By now it was 4pm and it became evident that this was a commuter ferry. Nearly everyone on the ferry was on their way home from work. There really weren’t many tourist at all.

Our drive back to Hyannis was in the pouring rain. We were quite lucky though as despite some grey clouds yesterday this was actually the first rain we’d seen since our first day back in Boston. We reckon in October this was pretty good going.

Back in Hyannis we stopped at Jo-anns as I wanted to stock up on ribbon for my bows but as always, I came out with lots of other crafty bits and bobs too!

For dinner, we decided to try 99s as we’d not done the one in Greenfield we’d intended to do. It was clearly a very popular restaurant with the locals and was packed with even more people waiting for take-aways. It was quite run down and your shoes stuck to the floor as you walked through the bar but we have to say that it was probably one of the best meals we had throughout the holiday. The service was attentive and efficient. It was also incredibly cheap! We put it on a par with the Hungry Horse chain here in the UK.

After dinner we made our way back to the hotel to pack our cases as tomorrow it was time to go home.

Tomorrow: Plymouth & Home

Thanks for reading.
Claire
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[disney owl]

Looks lovely