No wine on Martha's Vineyard

Nope, Martha's Vineyard has nothing to do with wine, but with the daughter of one of the first explorers, beginning of the 17th century. He saw wild vines and named the island after his daughter Martha.

Thanks to staying in this conveniently located, modern Fairfield Inn Hotel in New Bedford, we were able to leave our fully packed car on their parking lot, which saved us quite a bit of money for secured parking at the ferry harbor. So, at 8:30 am on Wednesday morning we walked over to the Ferry Harbor with just one bag to catch the 9 am Seastreak Ferry to Martha's Vineyard. Of course, it was cloudy again ... The picture above shows our departure from New Bedford harbor with its lighthouse.

The ferry trip took us not quite an hour on a modern fast ferry (there are also car ferries, but they take longer), with just about six other people aboard. Arrived to Oak Bluffs at 10 am and were picked up by Nancy, who was our very competent and knowledgeable guide for the day.

The island was much different from what we had expected: rich in history and culture, with a robust natural beauty. We had pictured picturesque, but touristy towns with snobby shops. Though Martha's Vineyard attracts aristocrats, politicians (even presidents!), artists, musicians, actors, seems like they stayed down-to-earth.

The roots of the island are situated in farming and whaling, now fishing, and restaurants are renowned for "farm-to-table", shops for unique merchandise – "MV" doesn’t have any chains! There are three harbor cities - Oak Bluffs, Vineyard Haven, Edgartown (pic above) –, three inland communities, five historic lighthouses, lots of galleries and woods and beaches in abundance. More than one-third of the island is preserved from development and most of the homes with beautiful gardens are just occupied part of the year.

We strolled through the Methodist settlement (called "Summer Revival" or "Camp") in Oak Bluffs with colorful Gingerbread style homes (pic above) and then had a culinary tour in Vineyard Haven with little tastes from stuffed quahaugs (Venusmuscheln) at the "Black Dog" (picture) - a trademark on the island - to Italian food, icecream and fudge.

On to the west end of the Island, the community of Chilmark (apparently THE place to live, but, nevertheless, very modest and not really a town). In Menemsha the fish markets are located - very rustic shacks, very authentic and not snobby at all (pics). It's the only beach on the East Coast where you can watch a sunset over the ocean.


In one of the shacks we had lunch (sitting outside on retired lobster cages): buttered hot lobster roll and stuffed scallops (Jakobsmuscheln) – heavenly! The rain took a short break during our lunch, but afterwards it poured down again and we had to skip the Gay Head Lighthouse on the westernmost tip of the island.
On to Edgartown, the largest settlement on the island, where we visited the small MV Museum (pic above) and then stranded in one of the local microbreweries to get out of the rain: Mad Martha's (pic), for a beer tasting. After some more sightseeing by car in the rain, we agreed with Nancy, that we had to compare the first microbrewery with the other existing one and went to Offshore Ale, which was packed with locals - fishermen and workers who were getting out of the rain, too.



After 4 pm we checked in the beautiful Hobnob Boutique Hotel (see pics below) in downtown Edgartown (wished we would have had a chance to stay for another day!) and enjoyed their "afternoon tea" with cheese and port, before we went out again, exploring Edgartown. Unfortunately, most shops already closed at 5 pm. We watched the Chappy car ferry to a nearby island departing and called it a day around 6 pm, enjoyed our hotel and worked.

Fortunately on Thursday morning, just between 7 and 8 am, the sun was out and we went out before breakfast to take "sunny" pictures of Edgartown with its beautiful captains' homes and gardens and views: