MV

A week on the (at the... in the..?) Vineyard, no television, lots of bike riding, reading, eating great food, enjoying local stories from a few 90-years-young citizens of the island, sandy feet and... well, e-mail and facebook checking now and then.... but you did see the -no television part, right? - I'm proud of that.

If you've never been... a must see... the gingerbread cottages of Oak Bluffs are my favorite destination on the island, especially on illumination night. The grounds surrounding the gingerbread houses were formerly campgrounds for Methodist church group retreats. The houses were built in the mid-1800s by members of the church community. Many of the houses have been passed on through generations of families. My guess is there are atleast 100 of them with a large meeting house/ dome seating area on a green at the center. I would LOVE to own one.. they are each so unique, no bigger than approx. 800-1,000. sq. ft. ..and most are not winterized. The campgrounds are pretty desolate in the winter. There are a few currently for sale, starting in the high $400's. I checked... just incase it was do-able. Umm... it's not.

We visited John Belushi's Grave out in Abel's Hill Cemetery. Fans still leave beer cans and booze bottles, hair ribbons, cigarettes... oddly there are two stones, the one pictured is humorous, the one 11 feet over is more traditional.

There were hydrangeas of every shade, beach roses along most paths, blues skies and sea breezes... almost made you forget about the many many other tourists mostly dressed in lilly pulitzer and dockers ... very expensive everything else, and traffic like nobody's business.