Having decided to spend another night in Edgartown we were looking for something interesting to do. We decided we wanted to have lunch in Menemsha and were considering various options to get there. In the end we determined that renting a car would give us the greatest flexibility. To avoid dealing with the dinghy dock we took the launch into the town docks and from there we took a taxi to the airport where we got the car. We “hit the road” by 9:30.
We headed towards Aquinnah and stopped at various shops and craft fairs along the way, including Alley’s General Store, Chilmark General Store, and Allen Sheep & Wool Farm. At the craft fair, Rick had extensive discussions with several potters, a weaver and of course, a photographer. We also stopped at Lobsterville beach. Here are pictures from the farm and the beach.
We arrived at Aquinnah and checked out the cliffs and the light house. According to a sign at the lookout, the Aquinnah Wampanoag believed that Moshup, a benevolent giant, created Martha’s Vineyard and the surrounding islands. He lived in a den on the cliffs of Aquinnah and would wade into the water to catch whales which he would cook for the Wampanoag. Blood from the whales stained the cliffs red and coals from Moshup’s fire account for the black. The Aquinnah Wampanoag consider the frequent fog in the area to be smoke from Moshup’s pipe, a sign of his happiness with the Wampanoag.
Menemsha was the next stop. It was quite crowded and we had trouble getting a parking spot but eventually we did. Rick decided to get his lunch from Larsen’s Seafood. Rick was very happy with his seafood chowder and salmon cake, the stuffed scallop not so much. Kathryn had expected to find something other than seafood but there was NOTHiNG so she had to be happy with an ice cream. Such sacrifice she’s willing to make for Rick!!!
After lunch we went to Vineyard Haven because there was a store that Kathryn wanted to visit. It turns out there was a big music festival in Vineyard Haven so there was lots of traffic. We finally got there and found a place to park. Kathryn went to the store and they didn’t have what she was looking for. We could hear the music, a Canadian band called Alvvay was playing and they were quite good. We decided to walk over to the festival where we learned that tickets were $150/person which was more than we were willing to pay. So, we walked back to the car and decided to go to our favorite Vineyard gallery — the Granary Gallery. They sell work from a photographer named Allison Shaw who we really like. We have a print of hers in our dining room. She has done a series of wooden dinghies framed in shadow boxes that would look really nice in the downstairs hallway.
We are thinking about it as we are still thinking about the painting we saw in the Seychelles which would look fantastic in our kitchen. We went over to the Granary’s sister gallery, the Field Gallery, but we didn’t see anything we liked.
By this time we’d seen everything we wanted to see so we went back to Bad Martha’s for a beer and a bowl of nuts.
After Bad Martha’s we returned the car to the airport, took a taxi back into Edgardtown and returned to the boat. Neither of us was very hungry, too many nuts, but we really needed to cook the tuna. So Rick did and he had a good sliced tuna sandwich. Kathryn is still working on the chicken from several days ago. All in all a very nice day.