Dukes County

We woke up after a wonderful night's sleep not only in our own beds but our own rooms! What a treat! Not that sharing a bed with Kate isn't a very special treat ;-)

We're so lucky to have been offered this great home to stay in for a couple of nights. Sadly as we cancelled our Hyannis hostel at such late notice we still had to pay for one night but it was totally worth it.

We're becoming quite self sufficient when it comes to food to cut down on costs so generally have cereal, fruit and yoghurts for breakfast and make ourselves packed lunches for the day. After breakfast, we set off for Woods Hole (just south of Falmouth) where we were set to get the ferry to Martha's Vineyard. It's worth noting that there are various ferry routes available to MV. This one is by far the cheapest at $15 for the park and ride followed by $17 return for the 45 minute ferry crossing. Several of the other ferries cost $60 plus before parking.

Thankfully our commute to MV was seamless. I had been concerned the day before that it could be stressful and I was in need of some downtime after our ridiculous step counts of the last week.

The ferry ride was very pleasant. The temperature on the Cape has been in the early 20s which has been a refreshing change from the early to mid 30s of the past week!

Once at MV, we headed straight to the bus and jumped on the first available with the intention of travelling around the island and hopping on and off where we fancied. Whilst the day riders were very reasonable, the bus network was very complicated. We started hatching a convoluted plan to reach the furthest point of the island (Gay Head Lighthouse) and soon came to realise that we were trying to do too much and after speaking with a couple of transit authority reps agreed we would simply visit Vineyard Haven (where we were already headed on bus number 13), Edgartown and Oaks Bluff (where the ferry landed and would depart). This was much more sensible and chilled out.

The bus journeys were very scenic passing white beaches and millionaire summer homes. We enjoyed mooching around the towns. Edgartown was full of high end stores. It reminded me a little of Dartmouth in Devon. It had a Jack Wills Store which contained photographs of stores from all across the world including Bath and Harrogate. If we'd been further into our trip I'd have probably felt quite homesick.

Oaks Bluff was a little more touristy with cheaper seaside stores but it held the biggest treat of all - the Gingerbread Houses. The Gingerbread Houses are a collection of beautiful wooden houses of all colours in their own small community behind the main street in Oaks Bluff. Many of them are available to rent. Some are simply lived in. Kate and I were in our element here choosing our ideal home. I still haven't decided!

MV was definitely worth the visit but exceedingly busy. I'd recommend going in late Spring or early Fall when it's a little quieter. I was expecting the price of things to be more expensive but things seemed rather reasonable. It's a very 'cute' island - lots of pretty houses, boats and clearly a lot of money!

We returned from MV to the car about 18.30 and headed into Falmouth MA for a nosey. We only had a couple hours of daylight left so we went lighthouse hunting and generally mosey'd down the coast back to our cottage in the woods where we made dinner, packed for the next day and attempted to get an early night.

We wanted to leave our kind hosts some thank you gifts so bought them a hummingbird feeder, cat treats for Petunia and Kate did them a lovely drawing of the house. I drew them a cartoon picture of the Spaghetti Bandit who we were very disappointed but at the same time relieved not to meet. Who on earth is the Spaghetti Bandit?' I hear you say. Well...

A couple of years ago, our hosts arrived at their lakeside abode to find the house open and lights on. Convinced they'd been broken into, they called the police. As they started to search the property, it became clear nothing had really been stolen and oddly the place seemed cleaner than ever. Clothes and towels had been laundered and put away, dishes washed, surfaces dusted, floors cleaned. The final oddity was that the kitchen cupboards were a little sparser than usual, most notably lacking in pasta. The policemen looked at each other and nodded. They'd seen the signs before. This could be the handiwork of only one crook - the Spaghetti Bandit. The Spaghetti Bandit was becoming notorious in the area for moving into empty properties, eating any food they could find but generally leaving the place in a better condition than when they arrived. The Spaghetti Bandit was on the loose and no one knew where he or she might strike next. This case belonged to none other than Inspector Nuts. This is a true story! Our hosts never did find out who the SB was so Kate and I decided he was a raccoon.

Anyway, after that tangent, I hope you enjoyed my slightly delayed but longer blog post! Be great to know if you're reading. You don't have to sign up to the site. You can just drop me a message - I have full phone and data access.Read more