Martha's Vineyard 2009

Well, we made it back from Martha's Vineyard late last night. This was our third year that we've been down there and while the trip was lots of fun it definitely wasn't as great as the last few years thanks to the weather. New England, for some reason, has decided not to celebrate summer and has been cold, rainy, and windy for the past week or so with not much hope of anything different for at least another few days.

Thursday morning we packed up the car and headed down to catch the ferry in Woods Hole, MA. The car was fully packed to the brim and despite my husband briefly questioning my car packing abilities I was able to get everything in the car. The trip was fairly uneventful and both kids actually fell asleep on the drive down. The trip down only takes about an hour and a half and we made it down in plenty of time to let the kids get out and walk around before getting onto the ferry. For the first time ever we were put on one of the freight ferries. I'm always amazed because the "big" ferry is actually about 1/4 of the size of one of the Washington State Ferries but the freight ferry was even much smaller. It only had 4 short lanes for cars and you actually drove down the far left one to turn around and drive back to the right in order to drive back off the ferry in the direction that you came from. Basically you do a big U-turn on a boat. There is a small area at the top where you can go inside but it's nothing like the usual ferry that serves food and drinks and has a few games.

The freight ferry:

We got to Oak Bluffs on the Vineyard around noon and quickly unloaded our car. Once we got everything unloaded, and received a brief visit from the Oak Bluffs police about a vagrant discovered to be camping in the bushes at the bottom of the property we were renting, we headed into town for lunch. Oak Bluffs is a great little town and we ate lunch at Sharkey's before the guys headed back to the house with the kids and Tracy and I went shopping at the famous Black Dog store. After that we obviously had to stop at the Sand Bar because, you know, shopping is thirsty work. After that we headed back to the house to meet up with another couple, Jim and Laurie, who had arrived at the house. Mike had also ridden over with them and would be joined by his wife and son, Grace and Mikey, the next day. Usually Denise and Brian and their two kids come with us too but this year they weren't able to make it. It's a 6-bedroom house and while it's tight quarters it's a lot of fun with all those people. Thursday night we ordered pizza and hung out on the deck. Despite the clouds it wasn't really raining much that night so the kids ran around and the grown-ups played Baggo and Washer Toss in the front yard.

Friday morning Jim, Tracy, and Mike decided they were going to go out on a chartered fishing boat but due to the massive downpour, and the small craft advisory, that trip was cancelled. When the rain stopped we headed over to Chappy to play on the beach despite the cloudy, dreary day but by the time we drove over to Edgartown and caught the Chappy Ferry it was raining pretty hard again. Basically we paid to ride the ferry across and be told by the ferry operator that we had an almost flat tire. Obviously we were not "Happy on Chappy" this year.

After coming back and resting during the afternoon we had Mexican Night out on the big front porch. By evening the weather was actually very pleasant and we even had some blue skies. We played some more lawn games and everyone just sat around socializing and having a few drinks. After dinner we walked down to the carousel (the oldest one in the country) and then the arcade.
Saturday was actually a fairly nice day. While it was fairly cool and mostly cloudy there was sun every now and then. We decided that we wouldn't chance heading over to Chappy again and instead went down to a small beach within walking distance of the house. The kids had a great time and even went in the water although I'm sure it was pretty cold.

Hanging at the beach:




Afterwards we headed back and tossed the kids in quick showers and put Jake down for a nap. Tracy and I then headed down to a small street festival along the water while Cliff kept an eye on the kids and Lincoln ran to the grocery store. Conveniently the street festival ended at the Sand Bar again so we stopped for a few drinks before heading back to meet the guys, along with the kids, at a traveling rock wall. Hannah discovered this the first year we were there and she loved it. She is quite the little monkey and climbed up all three levels of easy, medium, and hard. Jake decided to give it a try too but didn't make it too far up the easy level. Lincoln climbed with him and did the "hard" level right next to Jake. Even having Lincoln next to him didn't encourage him to go up very far but we were both very proud that he gave it a try.

Hannah on the rock wall:

Hannah on the rock wall (video):




Lincoln and Jake at (and on) the rock wall:

Lincoln and Jake on the rock wall (video):




Saturday night we headed back to the house and the Jim and Mike grilled up a wonderful BBQ dinner. This was probably my favorite night of the weekend as we all just hung out and had a blast on the porch. The kids road their bikes up and down the street and Mikey taught Jake how to "butt board" on his skateboard. Mikey is Mike and Grace's 16 year old son and he was FANTASTIC with the kids. We will definitely be taking him up on future babysitting services.

Jake and Mikey:




Sunday morning we got up, packed up the luggage and Lincoln cooked a great Father's Day breakfast for everyone. Yes, I know that I should be cooking for Lincoln on Father's Day but breakfast is his thing. He loves cooking breakfast and even took his griddle and bacon press down with us. After breakfast we finished packing up the house, washing the sheets, and cleaning up the bedroom before heading out for lunch. Wow....that make it seem like all we did was eat but I'm sure we must have done something else in between. I just can't think of what it was. Probably just sat on the porch and vegged out. Sunday was a very cold, misty day and even though it required a good warm blanket we spent a lot of time sitting out on the porch and looking at the water and mourning that our "beach" vacation was coming to an end.

After lunch Jim, Laurie, Grace, Mike, and Mikey headed back on a mid-day ferry while the rest of us headed back to the arcade. I have to say, the arcade is not that big of a money suck. For $20 you get 96 tokens and most of the games are fairly generous in giving out tickets. You usually end up with about 400-500 tickets and yet the prizes are not too "expensive" when you cash out your tickets. On the upside the kids love it because they can get tons of stuff. On the downside your kids come home with an obscene amount of junk. The first night they got a few plastic swords, some candy, a whoopie cushion, some super balls, and one or two other things. Sunday afternoon they went for the bigger prizes and Hannah got a magnetic sculpture and Jake got a basketball hoop and ball.

Once we got back to the house we loaded up the car and then vegged out on the porch looking out into the drizzle for awhile. I'm not sure where Cliff went off to but the kids played around inside the house while Tracy, Lincoln, and I played Phase 10 which is a wonderful card game. And I'm not just saying it's a wonderful card game because I won although I do love beating Tracy. She is wicked competitive so whenever I can take her down I love it.

Before heading for our ferry we went out for a Father's Day dinner at Offshore Ale Co. This is a great little brewpub in Oak Bluffs that we've never come across in the past few years. The food was phenomenal and the beer was great. If you're ever in Oak Bluffs I highly recommend giving it a try.

After dinner we hopped in the car and headed towards Vineyard Haven to catch our ferry. At this point it was getting very windy and there were a number of whitecaps on the water. When we drove through Tisbury we saw a sailboat that must have slipped its mooring and washed up on shore. I'm sure that will be an unpleasant surprise for the owner. We got on the ferry and headed home and it was pretty rough. I have to say, I don't usually get seasick but it was a pretty rough crossing. The drive from Woods Hole to Upton took a little longer than on the way down because it was raining pretty heavily and super windy. Lincoln got us home safely and after getting the kids into the house and into their beds we unloaded the car in a drizzly rain. At least by that point it wasn't a outright downpour.

Beached sailboat:

All in all it was a very good weekend but it definitely wasn't the fun, summery, heavenly delightful Martha's Vineyard vacations of the past few years. Hopefully our upcoming trip to go camping in Maine with Lincoln's brother and sister-in-law will have a little more sun.