Day 7 – Thursday June 25th – The best laid plans... Double feature

Apple fritters for breakfast!  But Amy can’t have sugar on an empty stomach, it doesn’t agree with her – so she actually eats her leftover lobster and salad for breakfast.. and then has her fritter as her breakfast dessert.   Dana and I just have our fritters on the paper bags that they came in – smoosh it down and instant plate.. but Patti has hers on a “hard plate” – she’s staying in. Making a statement, taking a stand..

Patt's fritter on a hard plate... and her "really?" face... 

We’re trying to arrange our days by geographic regions – even though the island is only 25 miles wide at the widest point and 9 miles across at the widest point… we can easily travel back and forth across the island, and we have – but we’re trying to be economical in our plans.  Today’s plan is to head to the tip of the island to Aquinnah (also called Gay Head – which.. hmmm.. really?).

You can see us north, Vineyard Haven - Aquinnah and Menemsha far west and Edgartown and Chappy far east... the length of the island only 25 miles

  It’s a nice clear day today and that’s what you want to head up to the Aquinnah cliffs and light house.   Also in the area is Chilmark, and we want to do the chocolate place, and go by the Chilmark library to see the Deaf history archives (but we’re not expecting much).  Menemsha is also in that area, and we love going there because that’s where the fishing and lobster boats come in – they pull up with their crates full of lobster, drop them off – and then we can buy them, literally right off the boat. 

I’ve looked up the library hours – and island life has interesting hours. Thursday they’re open 2:30-6:30; Friday 10:30-1:30;  Saturday 10:30-5:30… I have a feeling that it’s like just one guy and he gets to make his own hours.  We called down to the ice cream shop to see when they closed… “around 10”.. oh yah, island life. 

We’re heading to Aquinnah fairly early, and with the library not open until 2:30… and we realize that Aquinnah isn’t going to take that long and we’re not going to be ready for lunch while we’re near Menemsha.. AND we’re not going right back to the house after Chilmark, so getting chocolate is probably not the best idea either.  So much for our day on this side of the island.  But we do make it to Aquinnah – and it’s one hour parking (it’s one hour parking in many places on the island) – Patti makes us chuckle.. they think everything here only takes an hour.. I know that I can’t make it funny for you dear reader.  But trust me, it was a big hit with everyone in the car.   Aquinnah is just one little trail up to the top of a hill that overlooks cliffs and the lighthouse – and the trail is lined with about 3 shops and a few places to get some food.  So really, it only takes us 30 minutes – Sandy wants to sit in the car and get our full hour in.  We earned it (and there is an officer marking tires who reminded us when we parked that we only had an hour). 

The view of the Gay Head cliffs at Aquinnah

The strip of cute shops - proof that I was there too. 

With 25 minutes still left in our hour, we decide to head to the other side of the island and check out the shops and restaurants in Edgartown.  I can’t stop saying it like “Eggar suit” from Men in Black – he was wearin and Egger suit.. we’re heading to Eggertown.  Edgartown is the ritzy rich part of the island (and that’s saying something).  They also have the ferry over to Chappaquiddick – or “Chappy” if you’re hip.

Amy has a rule that she follows when shopping, you don’t cross the street – you go up one side of the street and then back down the other side.  But it’s tempting sometimes when we’re done with a shop early, we go out and wait.. and if others are taking a little more time in there, that shop that you really want to check out across the street is calling to you.  But that’s against the rules.  A lot of the T-shirts and souvenir stuff is the same as in other parts of the island, but they have this cute little book shop, and we love the painted stairs there.  Sandy and Patti get into it and talk to the shop owner about some reading suggestions – Patti actually ends up with some socks that look like the old library cards instead of a book.

We want these stairs... 

There is a jewelry store on the island named CB Stark – my middle name is Stark – so when we see one, it’s a little cool.  Amy thinks we need to go in, even though I have no interest in jewelry and especially pricey snobby jewelry..  the nice boy behind the counter asks if he can help us find something, and I explain that we’re just here because my middle name is Stark, so we thought this was a little cool.  He chats us up and asks if we’re staying for the weekend, and we say that we’re here for the week – and that we’re mooching a house from Amy’s family.  OH!  He completely knows how that is… like oh my god… his family has a 5 bedroom here in Edgartown, and they ALWAYS have family coming in to stay and mooch at their house..  I told him that’s what he gets for having a 5 bedroom on the island.  J

The water front is really beautiful here – this is where we rented the boat at the last time we were here and it overlooks the marina.  The shops here have some pretty unique things – stuff that really isn’t MV related and that we could find in other places or online, but fun to look at.  Like in one shop I find a 5 year diary – it’s a line a day for 5 years.  They list the day once, with 5 lines below it, so you go through the book 5 times and each year you get to reflect on what you were doing last year at this time. It’s like an old school TimeHop app.   I got one that is called “Jane a day” – the same set up, but it has a quote from Jane Austin each day.  

Taking a break at the Chappy ferry

It’s lunch time – our bellies are grumbling..  there is a place we went last time, the Seafood Shanty, and it was good – but we just saw The Net Result make a fish delivery to the Shanty and we joke that shrimp we just got for $5 will be $12.99 at this place, and so we feel weird about going there and having the same fish we could have much cheaper somewhere else..  but after we walk around a 2 block area checking out each menu – we end up back at the Shanty.  And I’m REALLY happy that we did. 

We order the mussels – big mess of them for only $13 and they’re cooked in garlic and white wine.  YUMMY!  I’d never really craved a mussel, the ones I’d had were always in another dish or stew, not stand alone and really not impressive next to the other seafood, but they’re Sandy’s favorite and since she can’t eat them anymore, I give them another chance so she can eat vicariously.  They are really good!   Amy gets their massive lobster roll, Patti gets their lobster CAKE (like a crab cake except lobster) and I get the lobster quesadilla.   All of it, SO good. 

Massive lobster roll

Mussels with garlic and white wine

Lobster cake

Lobster quessadilla

But the best part of the lunch was the drink!  A friend (John Ferrari shout out) had just posted on his facebook that he’d tried Not Your Father’s Root Beer – an actual beer that tastes just like root beer, and we had been talking about it.  Well, it’s on the menu!  I have to try it out – when it comes, it’s more than just the bottle.  It’s over ice, with whip cream on top, the glass is full, but the bottle is still like 3 quarters of the way full!  I thought I had just ordered the beer – but this looks amazing – I look through the drink menu and what I actually have is the Not your Father’s Root Beer FLOAT!  It’s mixed with Stolli vanilla vodka and then of course the whipped cream on top (when have you ever had whipped cream on your beer) – it was SO good.  But the amount of beer left in the bottle was an indication of how much vodka was in the glass.  I kept drinking and refilling with the bottle – that was one of the great parts of the drink, the glass kept getting full again!  

YUMMY!  I will be recreating this... 

We walked back to the car, going to the shops on the other side of the street – with one exception.  The art gallery hadn’t been open when we passed by it on the way down and they had some art with sea glass (which Dana loves).  It was really cool, it’s the shape of the island made out of sea glass.  Dana got a magnet with the design on it.  It's really cool... 

Came home and chilled for a couple of hours again – kind of our routine at this point, our siesta time, and then about 6:00 we walk down for our double feature – it will be Inside Out at 6:30 and Spy at 9:00.  They rotate movies on the island, instead of something playing for a week, it may play for Mon and Wed in Vineyard Haven and Tues and Thurs in Oak Bluffs – that’s because people often stay for a week at a time, or even if they’re here longer, it lets the kids have something to do through the week without seeing the same movie repeatedly.  It’s the cutest little movie theater, you buy your tickets outside, and that’s where the concessions are as well.  The guy waves at all of us before he takes our orders – it’s a little odd, but friendly.  We think that it was his first night or something because he seemed nervous.  The man who appears to be the owner or at least the managers the guy wants to take care of us for the second movie – but I’m not sure what that entails.  We had asked if we could go ahead and buy tickets for the second movie, and he said yes, but the ticket girl said no.  It’s not that big of a deal, we just walk back outside and get tickets again, it’s like 5 feet from the door, but after the first show we learned that he was looking for us and already had our tickets ready for “the four ladies”.   Sandy didn’t think she could sit for two movies straight so she just came for Spy and had planned on shopping while we watched Inside Out –but all the shops closed at 6.  Vineyard Haven is kind of the “old folks” part of the island – it’s not the hip and happening place for the kids to hang out, so things close a little earlier in these parts.

You can see the ticket and concessions window outside - inside is just the theatre

Ready for the movie!

Second movie - Sandy has joined us!

We loved Inside Out – I cried happy and sad tears.. Threatened to use Patti’s jacket as a Kleenex, so she took it “to keep warm” (so she says… but it is chilly).  Between shows we find Sandy, and we had about 30 minutes so we sat outside on the benches and chatted, some got some ice cream (even though it was chilly) – some great people watching on the island, and tons of cute puppies that make us miss our girls at home.

After Spy (also very funny) we walk back and discover just how very DARK it is on these tiny island streets at night.  We’re all using our flashlight apps to get home.  Another great day on the Vineyard. 

Day 6 – Wednesday June 24th – Jaws bridge, gingerbread houses and Backdoor Donuts!

I was late to get up, I’m kind of on a different schedule than everyone else, I go to bed about 3am and then wake up about 6, see everyone still sleeping, roll back over and then wake up again at like 9am and by then everyone else us up and hoppin… much the same today.  We start out with breakfast and coffee, by the time I get up Amy and Dana have already gone for a walk down to Lake Tashmoo – about a 2 mile trek – Sandy hangs out on the front porch as part of her morning ritual, and Patti and I hang out on the back deck and enjoy the morning air.

Walk down to the lake

It’s going to be a beautiful day for the beach, nice and warm with the sun shining bright – we were going to go to Aquinnah and Chilmark today, but Amy wants to take us to the Chocolatier in Chilmark and it isn’t open until Thursday, so we adjust our plans and head to State beach, where they filmed parts of Jaws.  There are lots of T-Shirts in all the stores that say “I jumped off the Jaws bridge at State Park”. 

Amy getting her sunscreen on for the beach... she joked, "See what hanging out with you white folk has done to me?" - Amy in white face.  Not right. 

State beach isn’t crowded at all – we’re early in the season and there are fewer people here on the island than there will be in July and August – the “season” really starts July 4^th weekend.  A young mother and her two boys show up at the beach, they’re maybe 3 and 5, and she leaves a bag behind to carry the younger of the boys.. but then she leaves the boys alone to go back for the bag.  We thought she was going back to the car, and the younger boy, still not really steady on his feet, starts heading full speed toward the water, Amy goes into mamma bear adrenaline mode and RUNS down to water’s edge just as he’s also getting there, and he had a head start and was half the distance to the water, and she has a bad knee AND is running on sharp rocks.  The mother yells down that he’ll be ok – it’s ok, he won’t go in the water, he’s her runner, but he won’t go in the water – Amy says later that her heart was racing so fast and that she’s heard of people doing things on adrenaline, but she’s never felt it like this.  She felt no knee pain, noticed no rocks…  We watch this family like TV through the day, get to know them on some level.  Max, the runner, is BUSY – big brother Angus is quiet and withdrawn, dad isn’t around  - but grandma and grandpa are with the family and so is her brother and his wife, and their kids.  There are two girls and another boy, and one of the little girls, Hannah, needs an attitude adjustment.  She’s a snot all day, and when it’s time to go back she’s the last one out on the beach with grandma and grandpa, she take forever getting shoes and socks on, and then her socks are too wet, so it’s just a mess to get shoes on over them (all stall tactics) – as they walk, she’s carrying only her small chair and she tells them, I’ll just meet you at the car.  Um no, grandma says, we’re all going to the car together, and we need to fold up these chairs.  Well, I don’t know HOW to fold up the chairs – so she just stands there while they pack up, and then her chair isn’t folded either, she doesn’t know how to fold it either, so grandma is going to fold that and Hannah starts to walk off once Grandma has it.  Oh no, I’m going to fold it and you’re going to carry it, grandma is already loaded down with bags and towels and other chairs – Hannah stands about 5 feet from her and says, well you’re going to walk the chair to me.   Who talks to their grandparents like that?  This girl is maybe 7 years old. ATTITUDE.  Throughout the day as we tease each other, someone is whining or something, we say, “Ok Hannah!”…

Water is pretty cold again – but it’s “refreshing” – today we packed our lunches so we can stay a little longer than the day before. It really is the perfect beach day, you need to get into that refreshing water to cool off. 

We pack up at about 3:00 and drive further down the beach to see the bridge that everyone is jumping off of.  There are signs clearly saying that jumping off the bridge is not permitted – but there are people stacked on that bridge, jumping off one after another.  And it’s enough of a thing that there are T shirts saying that you jumped off the bridge… so obbussly it’s not enforced.   I don’t think we have anyone in our pics jumping, but I found the video of the bridge from Jaws. It’s a famous scene, it’s used when Jaws gets into “the pond”.. here’s a clip: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ku0idWkeo0

Approaching the bridge - you can see the rock bar in the distance that the mother runs down in the movie clip

Climbing over to jump... 

Amy wants to show us the famous gingerbread houses in Oak Bluffs which is on our way back – we parked and walked around the Martha’s Vineyard Campground association – I’ve seen some gingerbread work on houses before, but this is beyond. Some of the houses look like doll houses.  There is obviously a lot of upkeep needed on these houses, and we see several people out painting on this beautiful day.  I’m posting some of our pictures, but I encourage to look at more houses online – I’ve posted on article about the houses below.   There are a lot them, and it’s a maze of them back in the “campground” (just what they call it, there is no actual camping happening there) – we’re there for quite a while, and I know we didn’t see them all.  There are a few for sale.. and they all have names.  One of them up for sale is “Two Bad Cats” – we think we should get it and re-christen it “Five Bingo Bitches”..   Amy checks in to see if “the sisters” are home so she can stop in for a visit – the sisters are elite African American women that have a house on the island.  But they’re not on their porch.  And that’s a big thing!  Half the houses have people sitting out on these great porches and they all wave and greet you as you walk around their neighborhood.

http://www.aroundtheworldl.com/2014/04/28/marthas-vineyard-gingerbread/

We’re getting hungry again and once we get back to the car we looked for place to eat in Oak bluffs in the same area where we had the lobster potato skins before, but it’s a nice day today and there is zero parking near the marina – it’s about 5, and we decide to go back to the Net Results.  That’s the fresh fish market with super cheap seafood – today’s special is $5 peel and eat shrimp (for 15 of them) – we all get 2, one to eat there and one to take home for later, and the oysters say that they’re only a DOLLAR each.  I order 2 dozen for me and Amy.. but they hand me a bag of unshucked oysters.  Ummm… oops.  After, I see that there is a small hand written sign below it that says half shell order are $1.75 each (still a huge bargain).  The fish counter is busy and the others are already eating… so I head out to the tables with my bag of 24 oysters.  We have a bit of a laugh about it – but I feel dumb going back up there and saying.. um yah, I’m an idiot… can we get these shucked?  Amy thinks that we should just do it on our own, take them home and figure out how to shuck them from Youtube.  No – that can’t happen, we’ve watched enough of people shucking oysters on cooking shows to know that this is hard, and there are special oyster shuckers and big thick protective gloves.. this is not for us to try and do. So I eat my shrimp and I adult up.. and I go back in and try to laugh about it – they’re super nice about it, and they don’t laugh openly at me, I just owe them $.75 more per oyster.  J

Properly shucked... 

In the mix of all this, Sandy went to get a slice of pizza from shop just next door – she orders a beer and a slice and wants to bring it back to eat at the tables outside with us, but they won’t let her.  The law here doesn’t let the alcohol leave, but she can’t even just drink her beer and get her pizza to go – because she ordered food with her beer, she “has to” eat it there too.  The server explains that “I have to serve you on a HARD plate” – never called it that before.  But Sandy is a rebel.. she drinks her beer – she has no problem with that, that’s a common law – she just wanted to take her pizza out, and she does.  She wraps it up in napkins, rolls it up and sneaks it out.  REBEL!

We come back to the house for a little – we have about an hour before Back Door Donuts opens up.  It’s this place that we saw featured on one of the food shows.  There is a bakery that does cakes and really a lot of specialty cakes and wedding cakes by day, and then they close the front door, and they sell donuts out of their back door.  They’re famous for their apple fritters, so we plan to get them and heat them up for breakfast tomorrow.  We relax for a couple of hours, read, nap, play on fb, and then we head out to get donuts about 8pm.  We find the shop and we go in, but they direct us to the back – it’s literally out of the back door.  So we walk around to the alley – and they sell them out of a dutch door.   We try the butter crunch and a cinnamon and sugar, Amy got an lemon cream filled – and we got the fritters. They are bigger than our hands. 

Apple fritter

Butter crunch

mmmmmm

The only thing that’s missing is the coffee – I try to get some at another shop out on the circuit, but their specialty is iced coffee…. And it’s pretty room temperature.  I should have listened to Dana and gone two shops done where they claim to have the best coffee.  I just thought coffee would be coffee.  Silly.   Patti gets a lime slush – and Amy and Sandy shop a bit before we head back. 

Amy is considering going back out (not really, but she’s having fun with it) – while we were in line for donuts she was invited to a club by a guy that looked about 25 years old.  He was actually the crowd control guy there, making sure we were all orderly – he’s using his position of power to seduce mature women and get them to the club down the street.  I’m afraid that he might have been left hanging by Amy.  Poor child.

We dropped Sandy and Amy off in town – they want to get a walk in and it’s a nice night.  They run into the most talkative little boy, and this is coming from Amy – he keeps asking, have you been to Mad Martha’s you need to go there…. Do you know Zues (his dog)..

When we get back I had everyone help me remember everything for the blog and add their little flavor stories from the day.  I had to catch up so worked on about five days in one night -  and…  the power goes out.  Well oiled machine…it's become a nightly ritual.  Amy goes down and flips the right switch and we’re back on. 

About 9:40 we start Selma… I know the time because we last about 20 minutes, and Patti and Amy are done… we decide to hold it until Friday, because tmw we have plans to go out to the movies.  Tmw we head to Aquinnah, Chilmark, and Menemsha for fresh lobster just pulled from the boats… we think.  Plans change around here... and that's ok.  

Day 4 and 5 - June 22nd and 23rd - First full days on the Vineyard... house drama, beaches and impending storms

Day 4 – Monday, June 22nd – Our first full day in the Vineyard!

We woke up to no hot water – actually I woke to Amy yelling that the hot water would soon be working… they think the outages tripped a special breaker for the water heater – but by mid-day we still don’t have hot water.  There is a weird switch in the kitchen that we hit when we were testing lights – we weren’t supposed to touch that, it’s the gas line, and without it on, no hot water.  Also, the toilet just off the kitchen has been running all night, overflowing and the water has run down into the basement where it drips right onto the electrical box.  Oh goody!   So it’s going to be a beach day, we’ll get wet in the ocean and hopefully have hot water by the time we get back. 

We head out to Oak Bluffs, the beach there is formerly known as “The Inkwell”.  Back when the beaches were segregated, this was the blacks only beach – Hallie Berry made a movie called “The Inkwell”.. but it wasn’t actually filmed there.  For shame.  The water is cold – it’s early in the season – we head out for limited runs to cool off, but it’s refreshingly cold.  And these are rocky beaches, at least – the rocks hurt your feet as you get in and out, and we all regret forgetting our beach shoes at home.  Basically we chill, reading, chatting, sunning and people watching. 

Big rocks! 

The Inkwell!

First beach day!

Amy working on the umbrella

Amy runs into the family from the ferry again (the one with the well behaved kids) and finds some sorority sisters - they have a special call they make to each other – so at first we just thought she was making bird noises. J   But she chats with them for quite a while, always making friends wherever she goes.   We haven’t made it to the “real” grocery store yet so we didn’t have anything to pack for lunch, and by about 2:00 we’re getting hungry and we head out to find food.

There is a big shopping center with restaurants just down the road in Oak Bluffs – we take the car and head to the city center.  We scope out some restaurants, and Patti and I have our eye on some lobster potato skins and lobster mac and cheese… the other three have been talking to a guy one restaurant down who is selling his place well.  They have award winning chicken wings and a lobster roll special for just $15.  All the restaurants have an open patio area with bar style seating that faces the view on the marina.  It’s a great atmosphere – while we’re deciding, we see a loon out on the water diving for fish.  They really go deep and then he comes back up with a fish in his mouth..  Patti treats us to some On Golden Pond moments with the loons…

We decide to split up for lunch – Patti and I get our lobster potato skins, lobster mac and cheese and fried clams and split them all – and Dana, Amy and Sandy all get the wings.  Amy had some nice oysters…  we tell our waiter that we’re racing another party that is eating at the next restaurant over.  I don’t even know why I said that, we’re in no hurry – it was just one of those awkward things that comes out of my mouth sometimes.  He was asking us if we wanted the bill and being chatty, and I just said something to sound interesting and get the bill to us quicker.  

Good beer... nice view... 

Lobster mac and cheese

Lobster potato skins

Proof that great minds think alike... Dana's pic of her view and her drink (which was really good!)

We head over to the other place and chat a bit, we look into some shops that are right there – there are Black Dog shops everywhere and each claim to be a little different with the specialties (beach gear, kids, etc).. and this one is an outlet/sale shop.  We’ve been looking for our 2015 Black Dog shirts – they have just the black dog on the front, and the year and Martha’s Vineyard on the back – but this place is an outlet, so they have the 2013 and 2014 shirts, but no 2015.  We get some ice cream – yummy… and then walk up to Circuit street.  It’s street that is just lined with cute little shops that you love to look at but really rarely get anything from.   We left the beach at 2:00 and it’s now about 5:00 by the time we get through the shops and get back to the car, and we still have to get to liquor store and the grocery store before it closes at 7. 

The Oak Bluffs Marian

We make a brief detour to the liquor store -- Dana finds those mango Mike's lemonades... mmm... and I get some too.  Patti and I also get some Summer Shanty, and Amy and Sandy find a nice red wine.   On to the food store!! 

Cronig’s Market is the larger store in the area, and last time we were here I wanted to keep one of their paper bags just because I like the look of their design, and I was sad that they didn’t have a cloth grocery bag because I would like it as a souvenir.  Patti made fun of me for that – it’s ok, we have fun kind of laughing at the silly things that we do, I get my laughs in on her too, and it’s actually rare that she’ll be the one poking fun.  Which is what makes this even more fun, because a couple of years after that, Cronig DID make a cloth bag and Amy brought one back for me.  When Patti saw it.. she wanted one.  I’m sorry, what?  Oh you WANT one?  The thing that it was silly to get as a souvenir, now you want one?  Ahhhh… ok… So Patti is eager to check out their bags.  They do have them, but they’re not the same at all – these are black and made of thin cloth (mine is “oatmeal” colored and made of a strong canvas) – and mine was like $2 and now they’re $6.99 – Patti is sad and she doesn’t get a bag.  And actually we’re pretty disappointed with Cronig’s in general.  The Stop and Shop that is half the size had better selection and better prices – the watermelon is a full dollar more at Cronig’s. We are all over the place in this store, getting things, and then deciding not to get things because the other place is better – and 3 out of 5 of us have carts… it’s just a mess really – and then we also see the family from the ferry again and Amy goes up to talk to them again..  they really must think that we’re stalking them. 

We get a few things, some stuff to make spaghetti for dinner - but we want to go back to the other store to get sandwich stuff and some other things. It’s open until 11, so we could go later tonight, but for now we just want to get back to the house, it’s past 7 now and we’re beach tired, shopping tired, and hungry. 

No movie tonight, we just watched TV – the Island – hung out… and Amy made us a nice spaghetti dinner with a good loaf of bread.   By the time we finish eating we realize we’re not making it to the grocery store tonight – what’s one more day…

Spaghetti dinner selfies! 

  

Day 5 – June 23 Tuesday  - Soon it's gonna rain... I can feel it... 

Once again we take our time in the morning and just hang out -  we sit on the back deck and have our coffee and bagels… and we feel that storm wind pick up. You can feel that a storm is brewing.  We know that there is supposed to be rain today because we watched the new last night – but there is a conflict, some say we’re in for a wall of water from 1pm-6pm– others say scattered chances all day – the internet says that it will be windy at 1pm but won’t rain until 5pm…  so the weather is up in the air, and we decide that we don’t want to be at the beach, or even out shopping when it decides to start pouring on us.   Even in the short time that we’re sitting out on the deck we feel a drop or two hit us, but the rain doesn’t come.

We drive down to the grocery store so that we can finally get supplies for lunch and other meals.   Sandy and Amy are the people who cook, and Sandy is really policing Amy’s food intake because of the scare at the hospital, so they’re put in charge of dinner.   We want to try to look at the Vineyard Haven Black Dog because that’s the original store and we think they’re the ones that will have the 2015 shirts.  We decide to go there before we go to the grocery store so we’re not carrying all that around or leaving it in the car for too long.  On the way down to the store we see a big group of wild turkeys just roaming the streets, I didn't realize that happened here... 

We’re in luck with the shirts!  We find our 2015 shirts – and they’ve improved on the shirt material since 2007 – the sales girl explains that this is brushed cotton, and it’s SO soft, one of those shirts you just can’t stop touching.   Amy finds a tote bag that she really likes but she wants it in the colors of her sorority (red and white) and we hear someone say to the manager, Frank, that someone wants to see him – turns out that it’s Amy.   She wants to talk to him about this bag – and it turns out that the bag does come in red and white – and it’s the give away bag.  If you just spend over $125 in any of their stores in the course of one day, you can show your receipts, and combine them, to get this bag for “free”. 

Black Dog layered look turns it into a wiener dog

We crossed the street and did our food shopping – but Sandy and Amy want fresh fish for dinner, so they’re going to go by the fish market on the way back home.  We put our food in the car and we decide to look at a few more shops and let Amy and Sandy take the car.  We’ll walk back up when we’re done, and they can take the car to the fish market.  We find some cute whale shirts, Dana gets one and I make note of some super soft hoodies that I may be coming back for..  Dana even finds a book on searching for sea glass, one of her favorite things to do.  But it’s not island specific and doesn’t list any place to find it here – in fact they say that it’s harder to find these days because things just aren’t made out of glass these days. 

We get back to the house and there is some kind of construction happening in the street out front and a  police officer seems to be overseeing it (they don’t have much else to do with the island crime rate) and the cop said that we just missed them.  We think it’s funny that the police officer knew who we were looking for… and must have talked to them a bit because he also told us they’d be back soon.   Later we hear from Amy and Sandy and apparently they put on quite a Lucy and Ethel show of unloading the car, and then figuring out that there was other food in the trunk, and backing out of the driveway to head out again while trying to maneuver around the construction, with Amy driving like Mr. Magoo, barely visible behind the steering wheel of the car.  We  head around back and go in the back door – which isn’t locked.. it’s the Vineyard.. . 

Amy and Sandy get back with the fish for dinner – and we’re not making any plans to go to any other part of the island today because we’re still just waiting for this rain to happen, and really the radar looked scary with this big wall of water coming our way and tearing up trees and houses in it’s path.   So we walk back down to the Black Dog Tavern to eat lunch – Amy’s family doesn’t like to eat there and Amy does, so we indulge her.  Really, they have good food there and it’s down near the water and the pirate ships, so it’s a pretty cool view.  We get seats inside but with a nice cross breeze, and we’re still feeling that “it’s gonna storm” cool updraft happening.   While we sit and chat we’re treated to a great dog playing fetch with it’s owner.  This is one of those “ball, ball, ball” dogs.  When she’s getting ready to throw it he is on point, so focused, and as soon as she draws the ball back behind her, he just lights up like, “YES!!!”.   She’s throwing it out into the water, so the dog is having to swim out and get it each time – and you can tell that he could do this all day.  Lunch was great – some get BLTs, burgers, I get the fish and chips and chowder and Amy gets this huge salad in an effort to get her greens in. 

We all walked back and chilled for bit at the house and then Amy and Sandy head to the firehouse to get Amy’s blood pressure checked  - she met some very “nice” firemen there…she would like to take one home please… and they walked through the cemetery.   By comparison for steps, today we get about 9, 600 steps… (and really these are Dana’s steps – but we’re all pretty much making the same trips – so it’s an estimate for the group) – but it’s no 27,000 steps. 

Sandy is busy in the kitchen and firing up the grill on the back deck – while the rest of us watched Wild and sat around.  Sandy made a great dinner oven baked seasoned potatoes, a great salad and three kinds of fish: Bluefish, Haddock and Fluke.  The bluefish is Amy’s favorite fish because she used to have it for breakfast when she came to visit the Vineyard (it’s an oily fish, but Sandy found a recipe online that said to soak it in milk first to get some of that fishy flavor out), the fluke is a nice piece of fish too – we all get to sample each kind of fish.  I have pictures of the potatoes and the salad, but we have no pictures of the fish for some reason – I took pics of it cooked and even pics of Sandy with it, and my phone ate them I guess.   Bummer. .   Patti, Dana and I cleaned up since they cooked… and we lost electricity again.  But by now we have it down, Amy has marked the breakers and just goes down to flip the switch.  They really need an electrician.   

We were going to go down to Back Door Donuts for dessert, but we don't want to risk getting caught in the rain and we're all just ready to be in... it's about 8:00, so we decide that the watermelon will be a perfect dessert! 

Sandy gets the grill going

Salad and potatoes

Nice watermelon for dessert! 

The storms finally come in – about 10pm, after waiting all day for them to happen – and they are loud, scary loud – but only last a few minutes.   It never really gave us a good rain, but it would have been a little chilly for the beach anyway.  Tomorrow is supposed to be super nice, and now we have food to pack for the beach - so looking forward to a day in the sun!