Martha’s Vineyard: Part 3

On Sunday, the weather was a little cooler (around mid 70’s), but we biked from Vineyard Haven to Oak Bluffs, stopping off at the Net Result for lobster rolls:

The Net Result sells fresh lobsters, different types of fish, as well as breakfast and lunch:

Chris and I both ordered lobster rolls and french fries and picnic-ed outside on the park benches:

They were better than the ones from Zephrus (it wasn’t hard to beat) but there wasn’t enough butter on the bun to make it REALLY tasty. Why is it that the best lobster rolls are found in New York City?

After the Net Result, we biked to Oak Bluffs, had a picnic on the lawn close to the beach (we were both still hungry after our lobster rolls and had to get slices of pizza from Giordano’s, which surprised us with its tastiness), and played on the beach some more. We really wanted to rent a canoe to go boating and just enjoy our time in the water, but there were no boats to be found! Since we didn’t make backup plans, we headed to the beach and had a throwing contest seeing how far we could throw rocks while lying down, threw REALLY BIG rocks, and had another rock skipping contest. After our competitions (I won all of them :)), we headed to the town for more ice cream (yay!) and to see the nation’s oldest carousel:

It was built by Charles W.F. Dare in 1876 and arrived in Martha’s Vineyard in 1884. It’s a little rickety (It’s pretty darn old) but all the kids seemed to be enjoying themselves. After watching the carousel for a while, we headed across the street to the ARCADE! We played all kinds of games, including SKEE BALL:

I forgot how much I loved playing skee ball! I was pretty terrible, but Chris was really good and managed to win us 38 tickets! We exchanged our tickets for two bouncy balls and a flying ninja. Yay! After playing around the arcade and looking around for free tokens (we found three!), we headed to Linda Jeans for a quick bite to eat. We shared a clam chowder (I think it was the best from the entire trip), Chris ordered a burger, and I ordered the lobster roll (I really wanted to give Martha’s Vineyard a fighting chance against the Pearl Oyster Bar):

Linda Jeans had the best lobster roll out of all of the restaurants we went to on the island, but it still was nothing compared to The Pearl Oyster Bar. Well, I guess it’s a good thing since I’m so close to it and I’ll be able to grab myself a lobster roll whenever I get a craving. 🙂

After dinner, Chris and I started to bike back to Vineyard Haven (to pick up a watermelon and pickles!) and on the way back, we found an abandoned boat just sitting on the sand. Obviously, we had to take it out on the water (could our trip have ended on a better note?!). We paddled out onto the water and enjoyed the sunset:

Martha’s Vineyard: Part 2

After our wonderful day in Oak Bluffs hanging out on the beach, Chris and I headed back to our bed and breakfast in Vineyard Haven to get ready for dinner. I made reservations at Home Port Restaurant earlier in the week because I read great reviews online about the seafood:

Since we didn’t have a car and biking was out of the question (too far), we took the bus from Vineyard Haven to Chilmark, which took about an hour and a half (actually, we got back to our hotel around 5pm and I was in the shower when we realized we only had 7 minutes to get to the bus stop! I rushed out of the shower and basically ran out with my hair soaking wet and packed up my makeup to do on the bus). The restaurant is right by the water and the pictures on the webpage don’t really do it justice. The place was filled with families and we were REALLY excited to have lobster because we were really disappointed by the previous night’s seafood offerings. When you first look at their menu, the prices seem kind of steep, but then you read closely and realize that it’s a meal that you’re ordering – it comes with an appetizer, a salad, the main course, a drink, AND dessert. I ordered the Home Port Fish Platter: Shrimp, Fish, Scallops, Oyster, Boiled Lobster, stuffed Quahog, a baked potato, quahog chowder, a house salad, a diet coke, AND blueberry pie (all for $45 – a steal!):

And a pic of me with my bib:

…which I wore all night, even when I was eating my salad. 🙂

Chris ordered the steak and lobster:

His lobster was actually pregnant and she had LOTS of eggs, which was a little gross since the lobster was steamed. I ate the lobster babies and they definitely weren’t as tasty as their mother (too chewy).

Overall, the meal was pretty good – the lobster was just steamed (very plain) and the scallops, shrimp, and fish were steamed in water as well. The stuffed quahog was definitely not worth ordering, but I had so many other things left on my plate that I didn’t even have to bother with the clam. After dinner, we luckily made the bus back to Vineyard Haven and walked from the port to our bed and breakfast (about a mile away). We definitely needed the exercise after pigging out on so much seafood!

Be back later with an update on Sunday’s festivities!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yay today’s my birthday! AND it’s my brother’s birthday! I’m officially 23 (do you get anything special on your 23rd birthday?) and my brother turned 25 today (old enough to RENT A CAR!). Here are some of my favorite pics of me and my brother – enjoy!

David copying me from an early age (although he may see it differently):

Sharing a birthday cake:

Skiing in the Alps:

Hanging out in Brazil:

Blogging in Las Vegas (copying me AGAIN – jk jk):

And spending Christmas with the family (our family likes red):

I’ll be celebrating my 23rd birthday by having dinner at Agave and then Pinkberry (you can’t beat that!). David will be celebrating by having flax seed muffuns and watching Heroes on a big screen tv (I’m guessing). Happy birthday!

Martha’s Vineyard: Part 1

Chris and I spent Memorial Day weekend in Martha’s Vineyard for our birthdays. Martha’s Vineyard, to give a little history, was named by Bartholomew Gosnold, who sailed to the island in 1602. He named the island Martha’s Vineyard after his mother in law and his second child, both named Martha. (If you want to learn more, check out the wikipedia entry on Martha’s Vineyard).

We headed to Martha’s Vineyard by bus: Port Authority to Woods Hole, Massachusetts and then a ferry from Woods Hole to Martha’s Vineyard. We stayed at The Thorncroft Inn, a cute bed and breakfast in Vineyard Haven:

Another interesting tidbit about Martha’s Vineyard – most of the towns are dry (no alcohol!) except Oak Bluffs and Edgartown.

On Friday night, we went to Zephrus for dinner – they specialize in zeafood – and ordered lobster rolls and crab cakes. Chris and I were both disappointed with the food there and we both came to the conclusion that we’ve definitely been spoiled with New York cuisine. The lobster roll had small bits of lobster and didn’t have much flavor and the crab cakes weren’t tasty at all (but the crab meat did taste very fresh). After Zephrus, we headed to Mad Martha’s for ice cream (I read online that kids love this place and they have a ton of great flavors) but when we got there, the ice cream was super soft (I think there was something wrong with their freezers) and we could only get ice cream in a dish. We were both disappointed with the meal and dessert and ended up going to the grocery store to buy fruit and snacks to munch on since we were both still hungry.

On Saturday morning, we headed from Vineyard Haven to Oak Bluffs by bike:

The ride was about 3 miles (one mile from The Thorncroft Inn to the middle of Vineyard Haven and two miles from Vineyard Haven to Oak Bluffs). The ride was really beautiful – so many families out on boats and enjoying the beautiful weather:

Chris and I rode two miles into Oak Bluffs to hang out on the beach. We played frisbee for a couple minutes (before our frisbee landed in the ocean), had rock skipping competitions, and picnic-ed on the beach with cheese and crackers:

After hanging out at the beach and relaxing all afternoon, we headed into Oak Bluffs and had ice cream at Ben and Bill’s:

They had LOBSTER ice cream made with REAL lobster pieces! We sampled it but didn’t order it (I mean, LOBSTER in ICE cream?! COME ON!) Look at how cute the ice cream store is:

The ice cream was delicious (but not as good as the stuff Chris and I make at home!). The day was really wonderful and we had such a relaxing day at the beach (AND the weather was so perfect!). I couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful and relaxing weekend!!

Dos Caminos Soho

On Thursday night, a couple of friends got together for dinner at Dos Caminos Soho. I was in the mood for tacos and fresh guacamole, so Chris and I arranged for our birthday dinner there (my birthday is on May 29th, Chris’ is on May 30th). We started out with fresh guacamole:

The guacamole was great – very freshly made (they had a stand in the restaurant where you could see it being made). Actually, the guacamole was probably the best thing we had that night. For my main course, I ordered tacos…I didn’t realize that they were going to be REALLY really TINY:

It was meant to be ordered as an appetizer, apparently, which I didn’t know when I ordered the dish. It reminded me of…Chipotle. 🙂

Chris ordered dos enchiladas – roasted chicken rolled in corn tortillas with Chihuahua cheese and two sauces:

I was kind of excited that he ordered the tortillas with Chihuahua cheese because I really love that stuff…BUT THEY DIDN’T PUT IT ON! BOO Dos Caminos Soho!

Ariel, my friend from college, also ordered the dos enchiladas:

He was in town for the week and found an apartment in the city for the year (congrats!). He also bought me a chief shirt for my birthday (how sweet!). Dinner, in my opinion, wasn’t very good AND it took FOREVER for the dishes to come to the table (we had eight in our party, but still, it shouldn’t take an hour for 8 people’s food to be prepared…unless they prepared it from scratch). I don’t think anyone really enjoyed their meals (sorry guys) but at least we had good company:

Audrey also brought cupcakes from Buttercup Bakery for all of us to share:

YUM-OH! Even though dinner was really disappointing, it was great getting together friends for dinner to celebrate our birthdays. 🙂 After dinner at Dos Caminos Soho, we headed to Chris’ apartment, enjoyed our cupcakes, and then made frozen yogurt (Pinkberry style). Not a bad way to end the night!