Martha's Vineyard

We woke up early on Monday morning in order to sail to Martha's Vineyard. When we were sailing along the coast, just outside the town where Jaws was filmed, we noticed a large dark object in the water....yes, it was indeed a shark! It swam to the surface with it's fins above water. I honestly couldn't believe the size of it, and the fact that it was right next to our boat. Needless to say, I did not go swimming! We arrived in Oak Bluffs Harbor in the late afternoon. Here is a picture of some of the adorable houses on the water:

Since we had sunshine, we decided to spend the rest of the day at the beach. Morgan was really excited. She runs up and down the shoreline on "beach patrol." Even though she tends to spray us with sand, we love taking her to the beach :)

The next day, we headed into the town of Oaks Bluff. This was definitely my favorite place of the trip so far. There were about 300 cottages of all different colors (I have more pictures on facebook) constructed in the 1830s. During this time period, Methodists began using the area to pitch their tents during their summer revival meetings. The tents gradually gave way to a town of colorful gingerbread cottages, and it was given the name Cottage City. The town was renamed to Oak Bluffs in 1907. In the center of the town is an open-air church. The houses are in wonderful condition, and the gardens are immaculate. Some of the cottages had specific themes, such as the Wizard of Oz cottage. This was one of my favorites:

Next, we took a bus to Edgartown, which was founded in 1642 and was once the center of the island's whaling industry in the early 1800s. This town was also made famous by Edward Kennedy when his car drove off a bridge in 1969, killing a young woman passenger. It was also the town were Jaws was filmed. Scary. We walked through town and some of the neighborhoods in order to visit the Edgartown Light House. The "stately white Greek Revival" houses all have picture book white picket fences and beautiful gardens. It seemed like we were visiting a movie set instead of a real neighborhood!

The last town we visited was Vineyard Haven, and of course we had to eat at the famous Black Dog Tavern. This tavern started in 1979 and turned into a clothing line that is popular especially in New England. We had delicious clam chowder and mussels. The seafood has been excellent, and we are looking forward to the lobsters in Maine :)