New England Trip

We took a high-speed passenger ferry to Martha’s Vineyard Island.  The ferry was very impressive – a powered catamaran that cruises at about 35 MPH.  Once on the island, we took a tour bus that circled the island with a non-stop narration.  It was really quite interesting but there was only one opportunity for pictures.  Back in the town of Oak Bluffs (where the ferry arrived), we walked through an amazing area of tiny gingerbread cottages called the Camp meeting ground.

It seems that during the mid-1800s, thousands of Methodists would come to the island and camp in tents in a campground for week-long revivals.  The tents were erected on wooden platforms.  Later, ornate cottages were built using the platforms as foundations.  Today, around 300 of these cottages remain in a mostly walking-path community surrounding the old tabernacle.  The cottages are dripping in gingerbread and painted the most outrageous colors.

After a late lunch in a harbor bar, we returned to Cape Cod and picked up Wicket from the campground kennel where he had been boarded for the day.  We brought him back some presents that we had purchased on the Vineyard – a rubber chew bone, a stuffed lobster squeaky toy, and a CD of music called “Dog Dreams.”  He loves the lobster.

Three pictures follow – the cliffs and beach at Gay Head on the southwestern end of the island, a campground cottage, and the fast ferry’s departure from Oak Bluffs.