We shared a wonderful week in Martha's Vineyard with our friends Mark (at left) and Laura and their terrific children. This was a first trip back to the vineyard in nearly 20 years. While I have fond memories of visits to the Vineyard in the '80's I was put off returning by all of the hype the Vineyards received during the Clinton years. I was sure the island was going to be over developed and commercialized. I was more than pleasantly surprised! Not only has the development been managed well, but more than a third of the island has been set aside as publicly available land. This has made the island even better, especially for hikers and bikers!I managed to get out on the bike every day of the
vacation. Some of the rides were hops to town to get coffee before the rest of the house woke up. Other's were longer treks around the island either on my own or with Mark or Lizzie (my wonderful wife). One memorable ride included a ride up island to Gay Head. We included a an excursion to view the famous cliffs (with the rest of tourists) and biked around to the small marina (at left) on Menemsha pond. The best biking is definitely off-road. There are dozens of named trails and paths through parks and land set aside by the MV Land Bank. In addition, there are quite a few publicly accessible "ancient ways" through private land.
Of course, there is more to MV than biking. Every day we visited a different beach - each with it's own character. On a couple of days we loaded up the Mark's car and took the short ferry over to Chappaquiddick. The trek across the infamous bridge and the four wheel drive through deep sand leads you to truly beautiful and deserted beaches.
Lucy is a very serious fisherman. She spent hours surf-casting. But unfortunately she wasn't able to pull in the big one! (Luckily, the local fisherman had much better luck and we were able to find wonderfully fresh fish in the market.)We stayed in a cozy home on Lake Tashmoo. Each afternoon we went out in the canoes to get fresh clams for dinner. Each evening we sat out on the deck and enjoyed cocktails as the sun set. No wonder this was the most relaxing vacation I've had in years!
