Ma_tha's Vineyard

This is totally a travel log with many pictures so go ahead and fall asleep. We had the opportunity to join the Cape Cod district on a trip to the "islands". Sounds exotic, yes??? Not so much.....So Sunday morn we drove to the Dartmouth Ward to visit them. Surprising that they have one couple senior missionaries, one senior sister couple and one set of Elders---one of whom lives just a few blocks away from us in West Valley!! The senior couple goes home in May and they understand they are not being replaced. It's a smaller ward with a number of young families. Then we drove over to Cape Cod and just browsed around...hoping, of course, to see some of the Kennedy Clan on their Hyannis Port compound. But alas, it's still winter and they were not to be found and neither could we find the compound. Being East Sunday everything was closed up. But it was a nice day for driving around.





Sorry, had to get the progress of the tug boat along the canal!!
I guess you could stop along the way and have a Mashpee Sandwich!! Crazy names for towns.




This is the little shopping area across the street from our hotel in Falmouth. It's a cute little town! Then there's our hotel..our room was on the right corner of the ground floor.




All these next pictures are of the ferry trip across the the Vineyard. The sun was out but the wind chill at 8 am in the morn was about 20 degrees as the wind was whipping like crazy!! It did warm up a little through the day if you could get shelter from the wind.

We left from the Woods Hole port, thus the last pictures are of the Woods Hole lighthouse. And you'll notice on the sign, the "r" is missing from Martha. That's cuz no one from here pronounces the "r" anyway so someone made off with it!!










These next photos are arriving at Vineyard Haven, showing some of the real estate on the shore of the island and the nice little boats that are moored there. In a few more weeks, the port will be full of boats and the islands even fuller with people. It was nice to be there without the crowds. And I've decided seagulls are about the laziest of birds. They love catching the drafts and wind and just sail along wherever the wind takes them!By the way, save your dollars if you ever want to buy on the island. Real Estate is soooooo expensive. Most of the places are handed down from old family but if you try to buy,wellll, forget it!!!













Here is where the Higginsons (from American Fork) live. It's a nice little rental home with two other families in the complex. Our apartment would about fit into their front room. But, everyone makes due with what they have. Everyone else claims to be missionaries (well, after all, we claim it's P day).




You'll notice the tan drape on the far end wall. Those are french doors behind the drape and on the other side is another apartment!! Unfortunately, you can hear thru those doors as if in the same room. The Higginson's turn up the TV when the swearing gets too loud next door!

Now this next section of pictures are strictly for ME. I love the colors used on houses!!! This is the Gingerbread area of the island. Lots of people live in the houses year round but a lot are closed up for the season. It's an area that has a "tabernacle" in the center of town where all kinds of activities happen, including high school graduation, town meetings, concerts, etc.It's actually a humongous tent that can seat the whole town!! These homes were all built in the early to mid 1800's and to this day many do not have indoor plumbing. The ocean and beach is just a short walk so they told us most people use the showers on the beach and then have an outhouse. It's very expensive to upgrade these homes and also to keep them in good shape. The people that live on the island year round just buy a heater and live in one room and hardly ever go out. The place is dead during off season. But just now they are beginning tospruce up the town to get ready for the tourists. There's not much to do but go to the beach and whatever stuff the towns put on for tourists. But the town requires you to keep them up as it is a major tourist attraction. You can rent on of these places for about $5000 a week.......































One of the laws on the island forbids any chain stores. So there's no McDonalds or any other fast food places, no Walmart. They have 1 pharmacy, two grocery stores, tourist stores and that's about it. Everything has to be shipped to the island so everything is much more expensive!! Whenever the Higginson came inland for district conference or Senior Day theywould always make a trip to Walmart and get what they could carry back. It's about $172 round trip to take your car to the island and back so that's not an option. Some people who travel back and forth a lot keep a car parked at Woods Hole as it is cheaper to do that than pay the fees. During the summer you have to make an appointment to take your car across since there are so many tourists.

It makes us realize how old we are when the missionary sister didn't know about "Jaws" Of course that was filmed on Martha's Vineyard---Edgartown. We drove over the bridge and that's where the "pond" was that was used when Jaws got some of the people and the boats. And the one hardware store in town still has the "Amity Hardware" sign used during the filming. And of course we had to have the Edgartown Lighthouse. Also you'll note a small island with a ferry docking. Thyat's Chappaquidick Island where Ted Kennedy and his "friend" were and she ended up dead....
And it seems that in England when there is a finger of land that juts out into the sea it is called a "chop".. So you see us at the East Chop Lighthouse.













So that was our trip to the island!!! Lots of pretty beaches and nice sand...definately a quiet getaway place, for a price. We might not have a chance to get back there altho I think it would be fun to go over for the day during the summer just to see everything open and moving. It's a whole different world over there!! Someone needs to open a Cafe Rio!!!!

Now just a few pictures of the port leaving the island. And you see the West Chop Lighthouse!