Eau de skunk in MV

Smelled but never seen

One fact I have learned during my time here on Martha's Vineyard--at no time will you go on a car ride of any length without getting a blast of skunk. Sometimes you can experience up to three per ride.

"We're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave." This morning's national news warned of a heat alert all the way to Cape Cod--Falmouth was expected to climb to 81 degrees today and West Tisbury to 85 degrees. But with the heat index it will feel like 105! Good thing we are from Arizona.

Sunset at Menemsha

Tuesday night Peter advised us to go see the sunset at Menemsha, it's the hot spot for watching, and you can buy lobster rolls to enjoy on the beach while you wait. The last time we were with a group waiting for sunset in the perfect spot was in Mykonos and I burst into applause when the sun went down, as they do in Key West. Not part of the culture in Greece. So I didn't know what to expect here on the island. Apparently someone having a birthday is crowdsourced  so that we can all sing Happy Birthday and then break into applause.


Lambert's Cove sunset

Last night we went to our own little Lambert's Cove beach and found a pretty good sunset there, and very small crowds.

Yesterday Peter took us to a beach that only natives would know about called Great Rock Bight Preserve, which involves taking a long hike into the woods and then arriving at your designated 1,300 feet of public beach.  Owned by the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank, at the beach you find an old man wearing a Land Bank t-shirt who simply indicates with his hand that you are to stay to his right. Better than this darned sign, but still...There is indeed a great rock out in the middle of the sound, which the boys climbed, jumped off, repeat several times.

A corrected/close-up of the privacy sign on Lambert's Cove

We are grateful that Peter has done the reconnaissance on this island. He even turned us on to the "best place in the world" to eat, according to Vineyard  Sound website, the Scottish Bakehouse which serves breakfast all day and lunch and nice desserts. Darr and I got fully loaded BLT's for lunch.

Yesterday and again today I woke up with a swollen left eye, to the point that the boys at dinner were quoting the movie Rocky, saying "just cut me, Mick." Today it was much worse so I sought out the local doc in the box and was told there that my eye swelling was caused by the inflammation of the sunburn on my forehead pooling in the eye on the side I sleep on. I learned some interesting things from the doctor--the sun is very bad for you and can cause cancer and wrinkles (horror) and that I should be wearing a broad brimmed hat, using an SPF 45 AND be sitting under an umbrella.  She claims I will still tan this way.

We had special visitors for lunch today--Susan O'Grady and Jerry Fisher have had the great idea of buying a plane and building a house in Falmouth, Mass. It took them only 5 minutes to fly over here.  We went to Edgartown hoping to catch part of the walk around (too late) and then ate lunch at the Newes from America on Peter's recommendation.  Excellent choice, dark English pub kind of place with lots of air conditioning and cold drinks.

Jerry inspects the plane pre-takeoff

At night we watch movies selected by Franky. Here is what we have seen so far:  No Country for Old Men, Milk, The 3:10 to Yuma, The Prestige and The Usual Suspects.