Martha's Vineyard

In November of last year, we received a Save the Date card announcing the upcoming marriage of our cousin, Brendon on Martha's Vineyard. We were so excited for him and decided immediately that we had to come, not just for the wedding, but for the whole week. And without any kids. It was a week in paradise!

Mom, Dad, Steven and I landed in Boston on Saturday afternoon. After checking in to our hotel, we headed down to the pier to walk around and eat dinner. It has been almost 20 years since I have been back to Boston and I had forgotten how beautiful it is.

Quiency Market is a hot spot! Tons of shops and great food. Dad was fascinated with the street performers. Mom was on a mission to find a Boston sweatshirt. And I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have my picture taken with Norm! Cheers!

My only request on the trip was to make a quick stop at Harvard. I was there in 1993 going to school and I wanted to take a stroll down memory lane. So worth it! Since buildings on the East coast are restored instead of torn down, everything was just like I remembered it. Steven and I are sitting on the stairs of Widener Library (above).

Harvard Book Store and the entrances to the yard are big landmarks.

Here I am in front of Holworthy Hall, my home at Harvard. I lived on the top floor with three other roommates. Our room had an old fireplace in it and when you looked out the windows you could see initials carved in with dates back to the late 1800's.

This building is where I registered for classes.

This old water pump was just outside of my dorm building. When Steven came to visit me that summer, he thought it was so cool. Somewhere in our family photos we have a picture of him doing this 17 years ago.

The pictures above are of Harvard Yard, Harvard Square Theatre, Harvard Square crossing and the Philosophy building. Harvard Yard is beautiful. It is filled with so many historical buildings and landmarks. Harvard Square Theatre is where we went to all of our summer movies. You can't see it in the picture but the bottom show listed is the Rocky Horros Picture Show. This was playing when I was there. I had never been to see it so my roommates took me. I had to idea what it was going to be like. When the audience started throwing things and screaming, I got a little nervous. Definitely a first for the small town girl from Idaho. The Philosophy building is where I had my Philogophy class. The hardest class I have ever taken!

And last, a visit to Uno's, our favorite pizza spot! What a great trip down memory lane!

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We arrived by ferry on Martha's Vineyard late Sunday night so it wasn't until the next day that we got to see how amazing it is! Our house was in Edgartown but the first place we really explored was Oak Bluffs.

Oak Bluffs is known for it's old Gingerbread and Victorian style houses.

This beautiful one sits inside of a giant horseshoe overlooking the ocean.

These particular gingerbread houses were inside of property that used to be a giant Methodist camp.

Oak Bluffs is definitely a more touristy spot than the other towns. One of the highlights there is the oldest running carousel in America. We had to ride it!

And we learned something new about old carousels. They used to have these arms that stuck out and as riders would go by, they would try and grab the rings out of them. The rider to grab the one brass ring at the end would get another free ride.

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In Edgartown, we found the Martha's Vineyard Museum. One of the best things about this part of the country is how much they treasure history and try to restore as many things as possible.

Dad and Steven had a great time in the 1800's dress up room.
It's a little hard to read but this gravestone says, "Poor Tweedle Dedel Bebbee Pinky. Died June 19, 1871 at 1/4 past 7 o'clock in the eve. Aged 4 yrs." This is the gravestone of a chicken. Made by one of the funny (and crazy) lady characters who once lived on the island.

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We had a great little house about a mile from downtown Edgartown. Mom did a lot of research to find this "saltbox" style abode. And got a great deal on it too!

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Martha's Vineyard is absolutely beautiful! So calm and relaxing. Even with tons of people there, no one was in a hurry. More than once during the trip someone commented that this must be what heaven is like!

Edgartown was definitely our favorite town. Full of fun shops, good food and amazing homes! Steven had the best shopping experience. One of the things Martha's Vineyard is known for is that it is the place where the wealthy "summer". The streets are lined with women with massive diamond rings and young kids dressed in pressed polos and shorts with boat shoes. Steven met one of these fine chaps when he went shopping for some sunglasses. This is pretty much how the conversation went:

"Hi, I'm looking for a pair of cheap sunglasses. What do you have?"

What do you mean by cheap?", asks the clerk. "We have these for $160 and these for $1600."

"Well, I buy my sunglasses at a gas station in Idaho. Does that answer your question?"

One of my favorite things to do was drive around and look at houses. These are just a couple of them. There were SO many!

Most of the lighthouses on the Vineyard are closed off to going inside but this one was open in Edgartown so we went to check it out. And fell in LOVE with the island all over again!

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In mom's research of things to do, we discovered that the island has Ghost Tours. I love this kind of stuff and the fact that we would be going on Friday the 13th only made it that much better!

We had two tour guides with lanterns to take us through the town and share the scary stories.

We stopped at the Federated Church. This is actually where Brendon's wedding is. We promised not to share the spooky stuff with them though so they wouldn't get freaked out on their big day!

We stopped at the Victorian Inn and the Gazette and visited the grave site of the Mayhew Family (very prominent family on the island in its early years).

This is the gravestone from one of the Mayhew children. Ok, here's where spooky comes in and makes believers out of skeptics. Notice the "orb" in the picture. It's the circle on the bottom right. I snapped this exact picture just a second earlier and this "orb" was not in it. Are you scared yet? We were!

After the tour, we decided to treat ourselves to some yummy ice cream at Mad Martha's. I chose a Fluff a nutter Sundae. You can see my excitement over it (or rather Ella's excitement as this is what she would be doing if it were sitting in front of her.) For those who have not been to the East coast and experienced Marshmallow Fluff - I am so sorry! It was my favorite thing growing up and we only got to have it when we visited family or someone was nice enough to ship some to is. You cannot get it on the West coast. So delicious! Fortunately, I found some at the local market and brought it home to enjoy.

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South Beach was by far the best one we went to. Pretty crowded but amazing sand, some waves and great sun! I was a lobster after the first day we went.

A display above of unconditional love. Mom, being mom, making sure that no one gets burned!

One of the greatest things was getting to let the air out of our tires and drive right onto the beach!

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The Cocktail Party was our first official wedding event (it lasted four days). It was at a private beach club. Since most of mom's family lives back East, we don't get to see them very often. It was fun to get to catch up with everyone. And enjoy delicious food as the boys are doing below!

After the party, we were still hungry so Dad and Mom took us to the Atlantic to eat. Very nice place but the forgot one thing - lettuce. Brittany ordered a tomato and onion salad and you can see what she got. Large slices of tomatoes and onion. Doesn't a salad usually involve lettuce?! Brittany wins the best food award on this trip!

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The next wedding event was a day at Fuller Beach. Another great opportunity to see and visit with everyone.

And for Scott to dig giant holes in the sand! What a kid (who didn't take his ADD meds)!

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Kristen and Brendon's wedding was a blast! Everything was so beautiful and beyond anything we had ever been to before. I felt like I was in a movie and kept looking for camera guys to pop out.

The bridal party heading to the reception in a Trolley car.

Delicious food was everywhere!

And they provided flip flops for the ladies so we could dance the night away. And we did!

I think I can speak for everyone when I say that this was one of our best family trips ever! While I missed my kiddos, I knew they were in great hands and I cannot tell you how rejuvenating it was for me to just be me for a week. I slept in until 10am and stayed up late at night going out to movies or getting hooked on 24 (thanks, Steven)! I read the Hunger Games and learned that I can't move my big toe by itself. The second toes moves with it. Silly, I know, but when you're a mom, you don't have time to discover crazy and stupid things like that. It was so fun to be with everyone. I love that our family is so close and I hope that our kids want to hang out and do trips like this with Scott and I someday. It truly did feel like we were in a little corner of heaven and we are agreed that one day we will be back!