Okay, here you go–the whole trip in one (long) post!

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Left the house at 8:00 and got in the car for MV. Chappy, of course, did not get breakfast, but then, I didn’t get my coffee, either.

The extra addition to the usual group was Ramble, the travelling sheep, home for a visit on his whirlwind tour. He wanted to come with us to visit his old birthplace.

The drive up was pretty normal. Stopped in Mystic for lunch, saw a bride and groom getting their picture taken. Took Ramble’s picture over lunch while he told us all about his last visit to Mystic.

We caught the 2:30 ferry to MV—for once, it was the ferry we were actually scheduled to take, not an earlier one we managed to squeak on. We even had time for a quick snack (coffee and a cookie) at Pie in the Sky in Woods Hole.

On the island, we checked in at the Island Inn, chatted with the woman in the room next door for a bit, and then headed into Edgartown. The weather was perfect—shirtsleeve weather, sunny, with just a hint of coolness as the sun started getting lower.

Shopping-wise, this was a great weekend to visit the island—huge end-of-season, Columbus Day sales, which means we actually did some more shopping than usual. Mom dove right in, looking at t-shirts at some of her favorite stores, and both of us ended up buying more stuff than we have in a while, just because the prices were so darn good.

After walking around for a while, we got dinner from the Newes of America and drove out along State Beach and parked the car, watching the sunset while we ate. (Interestingly, the sliver of moon that showed low in the sky as the sun went down, actually went DOWN, which seemed a surprise.)

Sunday, October 10, 2010 (10/10/10)

First thing in the morning, I took Chappy out to go to the bathroom, and while we were walking around, a blond woman carrying a coffee cup walked by and commented that we must be thrilled to be staying there with so many noisy boy scouts, but I just smiled and said that we didn’t mind, and then went back inside to wait for Mom to get dressed.

Instead of going to Espresso Love for breakfast, we went to the Katama General store instead. It was its last weekend of the season and I’ve been tweeting with someone from there for months, so we wanted to be sure to stop in. It’s adorable inside—small, but with an interesting collection of food, toys, and odds-and-ends, just like a general store should be. We asked if the person who did the tweets (Jackie) was there, but were told no, not until the afternoon, but the man behind the counter called her to tell her we were asking for her—and she told him to give us free scones! A cranberry-orange (which Mom ate) and a ginger one for me. So nice! I made a point, later, of finding some wifi hotspot so I could tweet her a thank you.

After that, we drove up-island. We tried, first, to find a LYS I’d heard about (Vineyard Knitworks), but it was closed, but then we drove on through Chilmark to Gay Head/Aquinnah.

We took the usual photos, including but especially one of Ramble at the cliffs.

Menemsha, too. Mustn’t forget the fishing.

Then we drove out toward Vineyard Haven. (Stopping, on the way, at the Black Dog Café to get a couple cookies for lunch—though the coffee is never as good as I think it should be.)

Mom called Kate Taylor that afternoon, in the hopes we’d get to see her, and found out that another one of her Carly-Simon-fan-club fellow members was not only on the island, but also staying at the Island Inn, so we hurried (more or less) back to the inn and Mom figured out what room she was in and went to leave her a note. She, Kelly, called us after supper and arranged to come over for a quick visit—quick, because her son was sick, but she didn’t want to miss meeting Mom.

Dinner that night was lobster rolls from the Quarterdeck in Edgartown, eaten in the car, before driving back to O.B. at sunset again. The part that was interesting was that they’re rebuilding two of the bridges, and they have temporary stop lights on the street so that the one-way traffic can pass the single-lane bridges safely. Never seen stop lights on MV before! I bought a bunch of postcards, too–something we don’t do every trip. I’d bought a book of postcard stamps, though (20 of them), so bought a bunch, which was fun.

Anyway, so at 7:30, Kelly ran over to say hello—the same woman that had commented about the boy scouts that morning! We had a wonderful, quick, hilarious visit. By bedtime, again, we were all exhausted.

How exhausted? Chappy didn’t even fidget at bedtime like he usually does in a new place.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Woke up, got dressed, checked out of the Island Inn, then, luggage in car, drove to Edgartown to Espresso Love where Mom (phew!) got her blueberry scone. I stopped in Claudia’s jewelry store and bought two simple pairs of silver earrings, and picked up a throw for Chappy’s chair at the Black Dog Home Store down by the harbor. (Some dog biscuits, too.) Specifically there because the girl in the store had been so nice to Chappy on Saturday night.

After, we drove into Oak Bluffs and went to Good Dog Goods for some more biscuits, and to give Kerry a chance to gush over my dog, who was very shy. Though, he was willing to do his tricks, he wasn’t interested in sampling any of the biscuits. We got a late lunch from Linda Jeans (Splitting a tuna sandwich) and talked to Kate. She invited us to coffee in Vineyard Haven at 3:15, so we piled in the car and headed that way.

But first, we went over to West Chop lighthouse for a photo op. Kerry had asked us to take Chappy’s picture, with a G.D.G. logo-bag by the lighthouse for Mom’s (and hers) mutual friend Seamond, so we did that and then drove into town to park the car and meet Kate.

Which we did, and then she, Mom and I went to the Beetlebung Café coffee shop for coffee and sat and talked for an hour or so.

Then, back to Oak Bluffs to walk around the campgrounds and take yet more pictures. (Mom has been taking a LOT of pictures.) On the way, though, poor Chappy threw up in the backseat—luckily on his towel and NOT on Ramble. Then, we got crab-roll sandwiches from Linda Jeans and ate by Ocean Park … again at sunset.

We came back to Brady’s B&B after that, I took a quick shower, and then we went downstairs to his living room to watch Chuck (yay!), though he talked through most of it (grin). He’s a sweetheart of a man, but definitely a talker.

More sleep of exhaustion.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Woke up and had Brady’s breakfast—it’s not an elaborate one, but fruit, juice, cereal, and toast. Tasty—and so nice to eat at a TABLE. We left at 10:00, though, because we had another chance to see Kate and her daughter Liz, who is a Twitter friend of mine. I’m so happy I got a chance to see her again since she’s been so very busy lately.

Mom, Kate, Chappy and I went for a walk, which was gorgeous. The weather couldn’t have been better and the company was great–lots of laughs–but Chappy hurt himself. At one point, he turned his head back and at first I thought one of the red berries from the bushes had somehow gotten stuck on his nose, but no, it was a big drop of blood. Apparently he’d hurt himself on one of the thorns, but didn’t yelp or complain. In fact, just then he did one of those delightful turn-back-and-jump-up-to-say-thank-you things he does that always melt my heart. Mom gave me a tissue to wipe the blood off his face and it came down to a pin-point spot, right next to his left nostril—just barely onto the furry part of his nose. There’s a scratch next to it, but that’s the only really sore (i.e. bloody) spot.

We left shortly after that, stopping at Alley’s store and getting oatcakes to eat. Then, back to Edgartown. We’d been invited for tea by Steve and Karen at the Victorian Inn who are also wonderful people and it just made more sense to go straight there. We parked and walked around for a bit, sitting by the library. (Though, Mom wouldn’t let me read from our book, which is just ironic.) Then, over to the inn, where we spent another couple hours, chatting.

By the time we left, it was about quarter after six, and we both wanted to get these very specific turkey sandwiches from Zephrys in VH, so we drove there (in the dark) and …. No sandwiches. They weren’t even on their menu any more.

We ended up at the Black Dog bakery just as they were closing for the night. I got a corn muffin for supper and Mom had a blueberry muffin. This makes this trip the first ever (I think) that I haven’t had clam chowder. (Sigh).

So … tired.. Chappy’s exhausted and probably hungry (though he ate his supper). Our ferry tomorrow is at 10:45. We’ve been so lucky with the weather–Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were absolutely perfect, and the rain on Tuesday conveniently happened early in the morning (with maybe a spritz around 10:00), and then later, after 8:00. Absolutely no complaints.

Wednesday, October 13th

Woke up to the sun shining, and squeezed in a quick walk along the water in Oak Bluffs before heading to the ferry. We drove straight home, only stopping for a quick lunch more or less right off the boat, and to fill the gas tank. (Something I try not to do on the island because the prices there are horrible.)

We hit some traffic on the western end of Connecticut, but were home about quarter after five.

All in all? A great trip, definitely successful.

There were only two real negatives–Chappy hurting himself on the walk, though that was minor and has already been shrugged off.

But, more importantly, his mouth is bothering him. There was one night when we found a couple drops of blood on the bed sheet from bleeding gums–something we’ve NEVER seen from him before. Mind you, there’s no question that he needs a professional teeth cleaning, but I was hoping to get all of my own expensive dental work done first. But–those couple drops of blood have been followed by a couple days of really bad breath and very careful chewing on anything crunchy, so obviously his mouth hurts. And today he woke up with a swollen eye which has been getting redder and more sore-looking as the day goes on.

I took him to the vet this morning and she said the first thing she wanted to do, because of some red spots inside his ears (petrichae?), was to do a blood test to make sure that his blood clots correctly. Except, she didn’t tell me how darned expensive the blood test was, so that today’s visit–a check up, an eye exam to make sure his eye had no scratches, some drops, and that blood test–cost over three hundred dollars. Eep!

Oh, and I tore a hole in my lovely Aran cardigan. It’s conveniently located between two cables in the ribbing at the lower edge, and it’s relatively small … except, it completely tore through about 5 rows of knitting and I’m dreadful at mending things. I know this is definitely fixable, but I’m not quite sure HOW. I’ve got to figure it out soon, though, because I want to wear this to Rhinebeck!

Now–I know this was a long post, but head over to Ramble’s Blog to see what he brought back with him!

Here’s a hint!

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