Traveling - The Vineyard

We took a break from working on the house to do a bit of traveling. Got a good deal on a place in Martha's Vineyard and headed down with Dad and Matt. This was just mid-May so not everything was open for the season yet, but that gave us a glimpse at what all goes into getting a "summer place" up and running. The answer? An amazing number of workers doing an incredible amount of old fashioned work - fixing fences, repairing cedar shingles and roofs, hauling out old stuff and putting in new. A regular bee hive of activity and it was cool to see. The views were pretty darn good too!

From the ferry ride in

Edgartown by the Chappaquiddick ferry 

On the balcony

Sunshine, wine, and Matt

Gay Head Cliff's

Edgartown lighthouse

In addition to wandering around and seeing the sights (mainly beaches, lighthouses, art galleries, and nifty homes) we got some house related ideas and gorged on seafood.

I loved this driveway design. And although brick wouldn't work for our place, we do have rocks. Lots and lots of big Adirondack rocks. So I'm thinking this would be great for the southern side of the house where we don't typically drive but need to sometimes. Grass verge next to the porch to catch sand and dirt before stepping up on the porch, with stone tracks for tractor/truck/car loading, grass in between and on the opposite side before dropping down the big hill. Hmmm, pretty nifty thought.

Incredible driveway design

Chris seemed to think we needed a big lounging guy in the yard, but I told him that's why we have a hammock.

Goofing off

A gate at Mytoi garden really caught my eye. We need something to keep the deer out of the future garden. The sides of this gate are actually bamboo feed through a hole-pierced bar. Simple, good looking in a rustic kind of way, and effective.

Gate at Mytoi garden

Close up!

Seafood is, as you would imagine, widely available and lots of restaurants have signature dishes. We ate at plenty of those but for lunch we went straight to the source. The fish markets are great and they'll cook up some catch of the day for you. We had the two-for-one mussels special and it was incredible and fed all four of us. Easily.

Huge plates of mussels; discard box in middle

And I finally tried raw oysters. I love food. I love seafood. I never got the point of putting a slimy cold oyster into my mouth.

Definite look of trepidation

First one went down with lemon and cocktail sauce. Surprisingly non-slimy and a good mouth feel. But all I could taste was the condiments. So the second was straight. Was it good? Yes. Would I pay that much money per oyster anywhere but at the fish market where they caught them that day? No. These won't be on my restaurant got-to-have list any time soon.

 A good trip overall with some very cold weather and some great food.