Martha's Vineyard

I'm still trying to catch up on blogging all of the wonderful moments from when we were in the northeast earlier this summer! Thanks to my mom's husband Bill (his family owns a house on Martha's Vineyard), we were able to spend 5 days on Martha's Vineyard, a small island off of the coast of Cape Cod. The picture above was the view from a restaurant that we ate at. Seriously, I could sit and look at that view all day. There's just something so New England about it!

We drove to Cape Cod and took the ferry from there. The kids really enjoyed the ferry ride, especially the sea gulls that flew alongside the boat. Once there, we were able to relax on the porch a lot. My brother Gary and his wife Katie were able to come for a few days and it was awesome to be able to hang with them and catch up on life.One of our favorite places to go is Menemsha Beach where there are loads of amazing rocks to look at. I have to admit that I did bring some rocks back to California.Sky enjoyed looking for critters hiding among the rocks. Another one of our favorite stops is Beadniks, a really cool bead shop. Sky made a bracelet for Aunt Katie and Uncle Bill and Grandma B made an amazing cat necklace for Sky. We had lots of beads left over that we were able to bring home and play around with. And then there were the lobsters! My brother Gary bought a bunch of fresh lobsters and we had them one night for dinner. There is nothing in the world like New England lobsters. Here in California, I think the lobsters come from Australia or something and there is NO comparison.

We enjoyed our wonderful dinner on the front porch in the rocking chairs. There is a very old (the country's oldest?) carousel on Martha's Vineyard and the kids took a few rides on it while we were there. There are metal rings that you have to try to grab as you go around and if you get a brass ring, you get another ride for free. Lila was sporting her Martha's Vineyard shirt which had actually been Sky's from the last time we were here.On the way home we had lunch at the IHOP on Cape Cod. Sky loves IHOP!Brad wanted his picture taken with this whale outside the IHOP.The ride home was brutal because the car we were borrowing didn't have air conditioning and it was a very hot day and a very long car ride. For a portion of the ride, it was 103 degrees as seen on the car dashboard below. Everyone was miserable especially the people in the backseat. But we made a few stops for drinks and cooled off in some air conditioned restaurants and we made it back safely.