Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard

The age-old first date questions remain:  “Beach or mountains?”  “City or country?”  It’s important to know what your significant other seeks in their future abode, but what if you just can’t decide?  Well, my faithful readers, that puts you into the same boat as the Ramblin’ Bauers!  That’s why, after so much time hiking in the mountains and making city excursions, we threw in some more sandy fun in the sun at Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard.

If you look at the bicep region of Cape Cod’s flexed arm, you’ll see Nickerson State Park, where Bilbo and I stayed.  Like in Acadia, we knew that the chances of finding a camping spot were slim but went for it anyways. There was one spot left for just two night and that was exactly what we needed.  SUCCESS AGAIN! The extensive list of amenities included showers, flushing toilets, a picnic table, a flat spot for your tent, and s central location between our two destinations.  Come on, people! It’s a campground, you can’t expect many amenities. 

 

Once we had taken care of that little bit of business, the exploring began!  The first afternoon was spent driving the extent of the Cape Cod National Seashore and taking sneak peeks at all of the National Park beaches along the way.  We had to choose our favorite for the next day’s sunbathing.  Do you remember how excited we were about being the only people on the beach at Ocracoke National Seashore?  That was not the case here!  The beaches were all packed.  Just look at the photos!

Here’s a pop quiz:  From where was the first United States to Great Britain transatlantic radio signal sent?  Cape Cod, of course!  The site has been renamed Marconi Beach, after the man who set the whole thing up.  The station itself no longer stands, but a small scale replica is set up to show how this monumental event happened.  This ended up being the beach that we decided to go back to because it was fairly close to our camp.

 

The next day, we were greeted by a morning shower.  Incongruous with beach bumming, the weather was perfect for laundry.  This happened to be Bilbo’s first laundry mat experience.  I suppose it was as good as any could be.  We spent the morning making plans, writing blogs, and listening to Harry Potter audio books.  They advertised WiFi, but forgot to mention that it cost $1/minute.  So we did not post the blogs.  The sun came out as our laundry did, and the rest of the day was open for sunbathing!

Each of us have an embarrassing guilty pleasure, and I have to admit that I have a soft spot for cheesy movies.  One of my favorites is “Three Amigos”, a slap stick comedy with an ugly villain named El Guapo (that means handsome in Spanish).  It was quite the coincidence, therefore, to find a Mexican restaurant in Cape Cod called Guapo’s. 

 

There was no horse-riding, kidnapping, poncho-wearing gang leader there but there was this guy to greet us at the door!

  

The specialty of the house was fish tacos and that is what we got.  We were lucky enough to have fish that had just been brought in, caught only 3 hours earlier!  It was so fresh and smooth…YUM!  However, we still prefer WV’s own Tricky Fish for a good fish taco. 

The next morning ended our two night stay at Nickerson and brought on our last day in the area.  We decided to forego a trip to Nantucket because the ferry ride was outrageous--$40 per person each way!  Yikes!  The Martha’s Vineyard ferry was much more reasonable, though.   

 

We took the Island Queen from Cape Cod to Martha’s Vineyard and arrived in Oak Bluffs (at the top right of the map). We didn’t want to spend a lot of money on transportation on the island and we didn’t have a lot of time, so we decided to just stay in Oak Bluffs for a half day.  Below, you can see the port where we came in and the street where we entered town. 

One of the most popular attractions on Martha’s Vineyard is the Flying Horses Carousel.  It is the oldest operating platform carousel in America, built in 1876.  We didn’t ride, but peeked in for a picture.

Another popular feature of the Oak Bluffs area is the village of gingerbread cottages, circling the Methodist Tabernacle (the picture to the far right).  The village began as a tent campground for those coming to the Methodist Tabernacle revivals.  Eventually, the tents were replaced by cottages with elaborate gingerbread ornamentation.  We had a nice stroll through the loop, picking out our favorite cottages.  Bilbo liked the pink one and I liked the ones with an array of colors.

   

After the cottages, we went looking for the lighthouse.  The town’s self-guided tour brochure pointed the way for a one mile walk up to the site.  Then…we went the wrong way.  There were no regrets, though.  We walked through some lovely neighborhoods, saw what seemed like a million hydrangeas, and even made it to the lighthouse. 

   

On the way back down, which happened to be the right way, we saw an impressive church and this amazing house…

   

and we made it back down just in time to see our ship come in…or our ferry, that is.  So we boarded up and that ended our day on Martha’s Vineyard.

   

It wasn’t as pristine or impressive as we had expected, and the crowds were thicker than we like.  Considering this, Ocracoke continues to hold the top island spot for us.  Don’t underestimate the Vineyard, though!  It was a great time!