New England Road Trip 2018 - Day 2 (9/30/2018) - Martha's Vineyard

This morning started off sub-optimally, as we spotted a cockroach in our hotel room as we finished getting ready.  To be fair, though, the hotel clerk offered to refund my hotel bill when I mentioned it offhand while checking out.  We had the hotel's continental breakfast before leaving around 10:15am.  We headed southeast toward Cape Cod, initially heading for Sandwich and perhaps continuing on further along the peninsula.  However, we saw a sign for the Martha's Vineyard ferry, which re-peaked my mom's interest in going there.  So we decided to make a detour and check that out instead.

We drove down to Woods Hole, intending to drive right onto the ferry and to the island.  But at the pier we found out that it wasn't so simple.  We were directed to a paid parking lot about 4 miles away, where we would then have to take the free shuttle back to the dock.  We would then need to buy tickets for the ferry at the terminal before getting on.  I didn't realize how big of a business this was, and how many customers/passengers they had.  It made more sense then, that taking cars onto the ferry was expensive ($137) and required a reservation.

In any case, we were able to park, return to the pier, buy our tickets, and board the 12pm ferry just before it cast off.  We had a bit of a scare early in the trip when we thought that we had boarded the wrong ferry - its name was (Motor Vehicle) Nantucket, and the announcement made us worry that we had boarded the ferry to Nantucket, but the rest of the ride was pleasant.

After arriving on the island, we found a sightseeing tour company and booked their tour leaving in 5 minutes at 1pm.  The tour lasted 2.5 hours and took us through all the towns on the island.  The only stop where we got off the bus was the Aquinnah Cliffs.  Other than that, the driver/guide (a young Jamaican finishing up his 4th student summer exchange) talked non-stop telling us history, stories, and jokes.  The tour ended back in Oak Bluffs, where we were just in time to board the ferry back to Woods Hole.

After getting back to the car, we drove north toward Boston to find our hotel for the night.  We were staying at the Ramada in the southern part of the city - roughly in Dorchester.  After checking in we drove out to have dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant named Pho Hoa that was a short drive away.    After that we headed back to the hotel room for the night.

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Pictures here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/H6QCPXd5cfTcTrJ7A