I started off my second day in Martha's Vineyard this morning by heading to the
Sailing Camp Park, a facility for holding functions in Oak Bluffs. This place has a beautiful view of Lagoon Pond.
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| Sailing Camp Park |
From here, I visited a few other places before heading for my first hike in Oak Bluffs at the
Farm Pond Preserve.
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Revival Church for the Nation,
60 Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road |
The trailhead to the Farm Pond Preserve is located behind Oak Bluffs School. In order to find the school, I had to enter from the side of Tradewinds Road connected to Wing Road, as the other side is blocked off. The route I took here is highlighted below in pink.
Walking from the parking area behind the school, I headed into the woods and emerged into an open plain, where there is a side trail leading to a viewing platform over a small patch of wetland.
From here, I continued the rest of the way to reach the shores of Farm Pond. Views of it follow.
I decided to take the easy way back, by following South Circuit Avenue to Wing Road and then on to Tradewinds Road, but as I was walking along South Circuit Avenue, I saw a dog lying on the road from afar, and when it noticed me, it started barking at me and coming towards me. I tried to back off, but the dog kept coming closer. To make it worse, another dog emerged as well and started advancing toward me too. I tried to flank them to the right, but they were not to be so easily outsmarted. In the end, I decided to stand still and wait for them to approach me. Thankfully, they were nice to me when they finally made physical contact with me. With that, I was able to move on as planned, all the way back to my car.
The next place I went to was
Pecoy Point Preserve. I initially thought the entrance to this place was at the end of Ice Pond Lane, but upon closer scrutiny, the entrance is actually a dirt road found along Pulpit Rock Way between Ice Pond Lane and Brush Island Way. Heading all the way to the end of the trail, there is a parking area very close to the shoreline of Majors Cove. Views here follow.
With that, I was done with Oak Bluffs and on to Edgartown. As I was looking for the heath hen statue at
Manuel F. Corellus State Forest, I passed by the Riverhead Field Disc Golf Course, found along Barnes Road after Dr. Fisher Road. I could not find Gate 18 or 19 on the Edgartown side of the , where the heath hen statue is supposed to be at, so I decided to give up for the moment and head to the
Martha's Vineyard Airport in West Tisbury.
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| Martha's Vineyard Airport |
There is a restaurant aptly named
Plane View situated in the airport, and I decided to have my brunch there. From where I sat, there was a view of the planes out on the airfield.
I decided to have some hot Tazo tea, and Hash and Eggs for breakfast, which was pretty good.
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| Plane View Mug |
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| Hash and Eggs |
With that, I decided to continue my search for the heath hen sculpture, this time in the West Tisbury side of the State Forest. I finally found Gate 18 along Edgartown-West Tisbury Road, close to its intersection with Pond Road West. There is a rock memorial at the entrance commemorating the heath hen, with a few toy hens lying on it, shown below.
From here, the route I took to find the heath hen sculpture is highlighted in pink.
As stated, I finally found the heath hen sculpture midway between Gate 18 and 19. Up till now, I never knew that the heath hen was extinct, and that the forest had been conserved to try to save it from extinction during the 1900s.
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| Heath Hen Sculpture |
Having finally accomplished my mission, I headed back to Edgartown to continue my exploring there. The first place I went to was
Cannonball Park on the corner of Edgartown-West Tisbury road and Upper Main Street, which has some nice monuments, including nicely stacked cannonballs which give the park its name.
Next, after visiting the
Edgartown School which was nearby, I headed for a hike at
Sweetened Water Preserve, located along West Tisbury Road close to Jemegan Pond Road.
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| Edgartown School |
The path I took here is shown below in pink.
I forgot that Sweetened Water Pond was right next to the road, so when I reached Beetle Pond, I thought that was Sweetened Water Pond, and I did not spot Google Pond behind me as it was almost unnoticeable due to its low water level. As a result, I walked well past Beetle Pond while trying to look for it, ending up trespassing on private property and even further as shown above because the gates were open and nobody was around to stop me. Luckily, I soon realized my mistake because I did not see any water body anywhere nearby, so I headed all the way back to my car.
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| Beetle Pond |
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| Sweetened Water Pond |
I next went to the town center area. The various interesting buildings here follow.
With that, I was done for the day, as my friend was done with work for the day, so I headed back home, and along the way I saw a whole group of wild turkeys walking along the side of the road.
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| More Wild Turkeys |
We headed out for dinner, but decided to stop for a small bite first in Oak Bluffs at Mocha Mott's on 10 Circuit Avenue after seeing a partial sunset at the
Lake Tashmoo Beach in Tisbury. We ordered a hot chocolate and a roast beef wrap, which was decent, but thankfully not filling.
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| Hot Chocolate |
We then headed to
Le Grenier Restaurant for dinner. This restaurant is on the 2nd floor, and it had really nice decor.
I really liked the garlic bread they served us as starters, and got the delicious portabello mushroom bisque special as an appetizer.
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| Garlic Bread Basket |
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| Portobello Bisque |
For the main course, we both decided to try out unique dishes, me having the calf's brain grenobloise, while she had the special of quail stuffed with duck and veal. The meal also came with a side of carrot puree.
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| Quail Stuffed with Duck and Veal |
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| Calf's Brain Grenobloise |
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| Carrot Puree |
As can be expected from an upscale French restaurant, the food was excellent, to say the least. Even after this, it wasn't enough, so we decided to have some dessert, in the form of the Frozen Key Lime Souffle, which was pretty much like key lime ice cream, but much better.
With that, I had to say goodbye to Martha's Vineyard for the weekend, and took the ferry back to the mainland. The trip was pretty fast, and I was back home about 2 hours after leaving. Oh well, back to work tomorrow.
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