Cape Cod
Headin’ Off Cape for the Night
Although I rather be saying that I am heading off-island, it suits me just fine to be heading “off cape” for the night.
- Starting point- Right here in Falmouth, MA
- Launching point - At the ferry terminal in Woods Hole, MA
- Arriving point - At the ferry terminal in Vineyard Haven, Martha’s Vineyard, MA
- Disembarking point - Town of Oaks Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard, MA
By Shuttle, Ferry and Bus
The whole experience will be fairly automobile-free for me. All I have to do is walk a couple blocks over to the Palmer Avenue parking lot owned by the Steamship Authority. They provide free shuttles from their parking lots to the ferry terminal in Woods Hole which is about 4 miles away.
In fair weather conditions, I might opt for walking or biking down the Shining Sea Bikeway which ends at the ferry terminal. You can actually purchase passage on the ferry for your bike ($3/each way) as well if you want to bike on the island. Since the weather forecast looks to be “iffy” for the day, (at present time of this writing, cloudy and in the high 30s, low 40s with a possibility of rain), I will take the shuttle as soon as I am ready and hang around Woods Hole until the ferry arrives.
I am planning on catching the 10:45 AM ferry so that I can enjoy a short wait time for the Vineyard Transit which runs buses all over the island at regular intervals. Believe me when I say there will not be very much to see at all in Vineyard Haven especially in February.
The nice thing about the Vineyard Transit is that they have an all-day pass ($6) so I can just take Route #13 (see PDF) which will take me along the beach roads to Edgartown. Just in time for lunch at wherever is open in the dead of the winter.
It will give me a good couple of hours to kill walking around Edgartown before I hop back on good ole #13 in Edgartown back down the beach roads to Oak Bluffs.
A couple hours may not sound like much until you consider the fact both Edgartown and Oak Bluffs have roughly 3,750 to 4,000 year round souls in each town. With that many year round residents, you won’t have to walk far to where you want to go (as opposed to Manhattan and its’ 2 million residents where you have to take the subway from uptown to downtown).
I suppose depending on the weather conditions, if it looks good, I’ll try to catch a ride down to the legendary “Jaws Bridge” to grab a couple pictures around sundown. You probably have seen this bridge already. You know that scene in the movie where that big white fish named Jaws
Enjoyed the Storm at British Beer Company
The other night during the first snowstorm of the year (January 26th), I went out with my family to dinner at the British Beer Company, a popular local watering hole where you can get terrific meals in a cool atmosphere .
You can see an excellent shot of the same place here during normal weather conditions. I apologize in advance for the lousy quality since these pictures were taken with my Blackberry Curve which has a built-in camera. It ain’t no Nikon but it is still nifty.
As you can see here in the picture, there is snow on the ground and tire tracks all over the place but there is no snow swirling around. As the old saying goes, looks can be deceiving. Across the street from the restaurant is the beach where you can see Martha’s Vineyard across Vineyard Sound on a clear day. However, that night I wasn’t even sure if I could see Martha’s or if the storm was playing tricks on my eyes.
Here is a shot looking down Central Park Avenue. You can see the pub on my right and the park on my left. This is a local park where the locals often have recreational leagues. It is this combination of the location of the park and the pub that makes this place a popular spot. Again, the snow looks deceiving here so I got a better shot of another restaurant/condo complex across the street from the park.
I would say that’s about right. The storm was certainly picking up stronger than any of us expected. I suppose that’s bound to happen if you don’t pay attention to the weather report which is usually 75 percent wrong anyways. The building you are seeing is the Casino Wharf which is not really a casino.
Did they ever plow the streets? They must have at some point during the night. It is an interesting experience to see how different towns allocate their budget for snow plowing in the winter time. Falmouth is a unique town because it is mostly a seasonal type of town meaning things are a-happening in the summer and almost dead in the winter. They did eventually plow the streets the next day after the storm passed.