Return to Martha's Vineyard - Part IV

It's a funny thing. You get to the Vineyard and there's a "must-do" routine you fall into year after year. There's the flea market on Middle Road on Wednesdays. And the crafts fair at the Grange Hall on Sundays and Thursdays and the farmers market at the same place on Wednesdays. And the Vineyard Haven street fair on July 8th. And so on. Plenty enough things to keep you from getting bored or becoming too lazy anyway. And if you miss it, well you're only here for a week so you've missed it. Stacey (as opposed to me) kept us on schedule. I tend to lag - different personalities.

So on Wednesday, after our coffee at Alley's, we rode over to the farmers market to see what we could find for dinner. Being at a house (which is expensive, especially if you're not sharing it with another couple) we tend to cook and eat home (which is inexpensive). When you're on an island, and particularly one that is known as home to very wealthy people, dining is an expensive affair. Prices at many of the fancier restaurants match and exceed many in New York.

Welcome to the West Tisbury farmers market.

Local tomatoes from Thimble Farm for tonight's uncooked tomato sauce.

And the red onions from a farm down the road look good enough to photograph!

Flowers for your table?

Stacey gets ready to leave Grange Hall and the farmers market with her ingredients for tonight's dinner.

Roses abound in front of a lovely old Tisbury home.

Later that day we drove (our car!) out to the Vineyard's westernmost point, Gay Head, in the town of Aquinnah. Natives refer to the wilder, less developed western part of the island as "up island." Conversely, the towns to the east are called "down island." As one travels west they are moving up the scale of longitude. The term is thus a hangover from the days of the seafarers.

Gay Head refers to the jutting red cliffs of clay that form the Vineyard's western point, it's head. It's wonderfully remote from the hustle and bustle of the eastern towns, achingly beautiful, surrounded by water on all sides and the topography differs as well: less forests, more scrub and vines. The area also has a concentration of Native Americans belonging to the Wampanoag Tribe. Here's a brief description of their history and culture from their website:

The last great North American glacier began its retreat some 10,000 years ago, leaving behind the accumulation of boulders, sand, and clay that is now known as Martha's Vineyard. The ancestors of Wampanoag people have lived for at least 10,000 years at Aquinnah (Gay Head) and throughout the island of Noepe (Martha's Vineyard), pursuing a traditional economy based on fishing and agriculture. The Aquinnah Wampanoag share the belief that the giant Moshup created Noepe and the neighboring islands, taught our people how to fish and to catch whales, and still presides over our destinies. Our beliefs and a hundred million years of history are imprinted in the colorful clay cliffs of Aquinnah.

From a vantage high above the ocean and looking north, one sees the historic 1856 lighthouse and the fabulous clay cliffs of Gay Head.

Wind swept grass and a foggy ocean - Gay Head.

High above the ocean is a series of concessions owned by the tribe, including the informal Aquinnah restaurant where you can dine on decent seafood and enjoy this magnificent view!

Getting to Gay Head involves picking one of three routes that run east and west. Our favorite is Middle Road for its solitary nature and beautiful views as it follows the highest points on the island. But today we took North Road on our way out and then returned on South Road. We wanted to stop, as we've done before, at the cemetary where John Belushi is buried.

The map shows the location of the cemetary where John Belusihi is buried in a simple grave marked by a boulder.
Click the map for a more versatile Google version.

This simple granite stone is John's final resting place.

I hadn't seen this marker before. It wasn't here the last time we visited several years ago. "I may be gone but rock and roll lives on."

In my next and final post - a bike ride on Middle Road (sigh) and we finally get our sunset at Menemsha. Don't miss it.