Last Tuesday Stacey, Brie and I packed into Brie's jeep and hit the highway. It took us about 6 hours and through 5 states to reach the ferry out to reach Martha's Vineyard but luckily it isn't really tourist season so we were able to get on the first boat and pretty soon we were at the house. We didn't take long to unload and get outside again.

Stacey, Brie and I at Chilmark Beach

After driving through some of the little habitations we went walking along the peaceful beach of Chilmark which, in the summer, is only open to residents. That night I was under orders to try local clam chowder and we found my particular sample at Slice Of Life. It was really good but after snacking all day I simply didn't have enough space for a second helping :-(

Edgartown lighthouse

We stopped to see Edgartown light house and the harbour there then watched the sun set as we were coming along Ocean Drive, Brie's favourite road in the world and it's pretty high up on mine too.

A local artist's statue collection

   Wednesday didn't look so promising weather-wise but when we eventually got going the clouds were starting to burn away and things definitely got better. We spent quite a while dawdling through local homeware shops, finding all manner of things that looked incredibly cool but weren't exactly things I could take home with me. I settled on a bottle opener that screws onto the wall, a nice addition to the basement bar here and Brie got a replacement wineglass for one that got broken at the flat some time ago. We wandered around the pretty town of Oak Bluffs taking in the shingle houses and quiet back lanes.

Some houses of Oak Bluffs

Somewhere in the middle of it we came to the Tabernacle Camping Meeting Place. It's a huge wooden roof in the middle of a grassy park with a road going all the way around it and lots of brightly coloured houses around the outside. This is the area is known as 'The Cottages' and has named houses that get on postcards like 'The Valentine House' or 'The Lavender House'. The area under the roof was being repaired when we where there, but normally it is lined with chairs and ready for town fairs and gatherings throughout the year. It looks like a great place to be hanging out on a warm

Gay Head Light

summer night. Back in the car and we raced to the south-east tip of the island to see Gay Head Light, which featured in Jaws, as did a number of local sights we passed throughout the day.

Menemsha sunset

Menemsha beach was our final stopping point and with the sun sinking low in the sky we set up a picnic on the sand and watched the sky do pretty things in orange and pink. Some of my favourite parts of this whole trip have feature sitting down with friends, eating and sharing stories. Stacey and Brie feature a lot too and I count myself really lucky that they spoke to me on the train station in Spain some 9 months ago

   In the morning we had time for a little souvenir hunt and then a few hours wait for a space on the ferry off island. The drive back down to New Jersey was slowed only when we passed the state border signs so I could get a complete set of those that I have been to. While Rhode Island, New York and Massachusetts all have big colourful boards extolling the virtues (or preferred poultry) of the state, Connecticut only had a standard white-on-blue motorway sign.