Day 7: Charting a Course from the Vineyard

Or: "New Boat, Old Hotel"

Last day on Martha's Vineyard, so we got up a little early and packed the car. We were scheduled for the 2:45 ferry from Oak Bluffs, so we wanted to make sure we left the hotel in time to do a few more things before we sail.

The weather was a cloudy and cool this morning (no surprise after last night), but I think the rain will hold out for a bit. Overall, I'd say we've been pretty lucky.

Breakfast this morning was at another of our favorites, Among the Flowers Cafe in Edgartown. I'm surprised we hadn't been here yet, but there's so many great places to eat in MV. We almost had dinner there Monday night, which was unusual (Fourth of July), because they're usually only open for breakfast and lunch. But the wait was way too long. So glad we went back. Great example: Madison ordered a bowl of strawberries, and they took the time to slice them up and plate them artistically.

Afterwards, we drove up to Oak Bluffs for some last-minute shopping before getting on the ferry. Marsha bought a sweatshirt (necessity) and finally picked out a new Black Dog shirt that she liked.

Thanks to the weather, we thought the ferry ride would be a bit rockier than the trip over. In fact, we could feel it moving while we were still sitting at the dock.  But once we got moving, the ride was perfectly smooth. What's more, we immediately noticed that our ferry was brand new (built this year) and still had that new boat smell.

The drive to Newport was just fine, though it took a while to get out of Woods Hole and Falmouth. Those little tiny roads with traffic lights every few blocks aren't meant to handle the endless stream of vehicles coming off the ferry. They could use another road just for ferry traffic or let the lights stay green longer. Still, we made good time and arrived with plenty of time to get settled in at the hotel before our 6:45pm dinner reservations.

Or so we thought. Our hotel, which was on the water and rather pricey, was less than we expected. There was no elevator, so we had to carry the bags up three flights of stairs. That was no big deal, but the room itself had a musty smell. Madison's bed was in an upstairs loft (which was cool), but the sheets had stains and the bed cover was torn. For the price we were paying, we expected something cleaner. They offered to move us to a different room, but our preference was to just go elsewhere.

Fortunately, they were nice about it and gave us a full refund. Marsha was able to book us another room at the hotel we stayed at before (which we really liked), so we repacked the car and rushed over. By this time, it was almost 6:30. We checked into the new hotel and they left our car out front (parking is now valet only; they had both before), then we rushed off to still make our dinner reservation just in time.

After dinner (at The Mooring, which was great), we went back to the new hotel and got our bags. The new room actually needed a few lightbulbs, but otherwise was a huge improvement over the previous one. We'd switched rooms before, but this is the first time we've switched hotels.

Once we finally got everything situated, we got comfortable and settled in by watching The Shawshank Redemption on TV. Great movie to end the day.