A friend of mine had commented on FB that I should really get an apple fritter from a particular donut shop – she didn’t know this, but said shop is mere feet from my hotel, so after morning coffee in the room, I went out and got one. Ate most of it sitting on a bench outside, until the bees found me.

The plan had been to rent a bike, but my back was so twingey I decided that would be a dumb thing to do. MV has a whole bus system that brings you from town to town, but I went online and looked at the routes and found the whole thing very confusing. (I also somehow got the idea that the buses only run every two hours. Spoiler: not true. Maybe that’s true after mid-October or such.) So I looked at a map and decided to walk to Vineyard Haven, which would be a schlep, but doable, not much farther than my standard power walk.

For some reason, Google Maps gave me a walking route that ignored the bridge and routed me around the water, some 3 hours of walking. No, gurl. But it looked like if I pointed myself at Eastville Point Beach, I’d then be at the east end of the bridge and could figure it out from there. Again with Google Maps, it brought up “Eastville Beach” and I picked that. Very nice walk through all sorts of off-the-beaten-track neighborhood roads and even through a cemetery. Ended up at a beach by a marine research center, not far from where I wanted to be, but on the wrong side of an inlet. Oh, “Eastville Beach” and “Eastville Point Beach” are different. Then a couple more misroutings before I ended up where I wanted to be. But it was a gorgeous day and breezy and I was having a really nice walk.

Over the bridge (“You are entering Tisbury”) and by the time I was thinking it was time to sit down and have a cold drink and figure out where I was, I was actually there, hurrah. By now it was 11:30ish and I decided to walk around Main Street first, then pick a restaurant. Did so, very nice, but I haven’t really been in the mood for tchochke shops. I went in a couple of galleries. Did the route, then aimed for the Black Dog tavern for lunch – where there was a sign saying ‘we’ll serve lunch at 1:00’. Note that the restaurant was quite busy, not closed, so I went up and got a waiter’s attention, who smugly (and queenily) informed me “We’ve stopped seating!” “Until one?” “Until one”. Alrighty then.

I ended up at a place called FISH, where you order inside and then they bring it out to you outside. I’d hoped for something salady, nothing like that there, so I got fried calamari with banana peppers and a cider (and a lot of water). This is also when I looked at my phone, at 35%, and found out that my power brick was garbage. Well, damn. Calamari was very tasty, though, served with three different dips.

I’d vaguely thought to just get a cab from the ferry terminal to Edgartown, but there were several buses there and I found out quickly several things – the buses were running all the time, every half hour or more, there was definitely a bus directly to Edgartown (although I’d just missed it) and another bus from Edgartown to Oak Bluffs – that I could have taken from OB to VIneyard Haven if I’d known about it and didn’t want the walk. So… I hung out in the ferry terminal, charging my phone, then bought a bus day pass and it was off to Edgartown.

Nice bus ride, about 20 minutes. I had a map of Edgartown, so got off the bus, got a soda and started the walk. Edgartown is all about gorgeous fancy houses (Oak Bluffs is about gorgeous adorable houses). More upscale, a lot more galleries and such. More to see, more streets to walk down than Vineyard Haven. Really nice. Ended up by the water, got some ice cream, sat on a bench and looked at the water. Then worked my way back to the bus stop, nice simple ride along the water (the ‘beach roads’) back to Oak Bluffs.

I was sweaty and disgusting, so I lay down for a while on the ‘wrong side’ of the bed – didn’t nap, exactly, but rested. Got up, showered, then did some reading and planning. One big and one little issue to resolve. the big one was what to do today (Monday) – go out to the far end of the island, or take a day trip to Nantucket? I chose Nantucket, so then I had to figure out the ferry situation. The little issue was which ferry do I take to Cape Cod (tomorrow)? The passenger-only one takes me closer to the rental car place, but it’s still a ten-minute walk, and with luggage, I’ll probably just get a cab.

Headed out at around 5:00 to go to the tabernacle, sit and do some journaling, which was lovely. Then went and checked out the row of dockside restaurants, which are all pointed so you can watch the sunset. That dock is where both the Nantucket ferry and the passenger-only ferry to Cape Cod is, so I wanted to check them out. Turns out the passenger-only ferry is so far up the dock that in terms of just getting me and my suitcase to the ferry, I’m going to be better off with the car one that goes to Woods Hole. OK, that will be tomorrow’s plan.

Decided to have a cocktail and maybe dinner at one of the dockside restaurants. Decent enough, the view was lovely. I had a caesar salad with grilled mahi on top, then a piece of cake. Then back to the room for TV and knitting.