Punch me if I ever call it "the Vineyard"

Last year for Brian's birthday we went to Shelter Island, the laid back alternative to the Hamptons. It was as lovely and unpretentious as promised. So this year, when I got a tip from a co-worker that Martha's Vineyard was a prime location for fly fishing I was torn. Brian likes fly fishing a lot. But fanciness, not so much. Would Martha and her vineyard be too snooty for the likes of us?

The answer was no. I mean, there was some showiness afoot, but nothing overt or bothersome. Mostly we found cute little seaside towns with great food, shopping, and lots of beaches.

This was the ferry ride over when we were still a little suspect.

We stayed at a wonderful B&B in the town of Oak Bluffs. They were very nice to Casey so she asked me to take this picture.

Casey loves swimming at the beach. Actually, she loves standing in the water and staring at you until you throw a stick that she can swim after and decide at the last minute not to retrieve.

A boy and his dog.

We miss having a porch.

On Saturday night we had a grocery store picnic in the tradition of the Watkins family.

Sunday we took a bus to nearby Edgartown, passing over the bridge that was in the movie "Jaws." And then we got in the water. Eeek.

I will let you all guess whether or not Brian said "Ahoy matey" while posing for this picture.

All of the houses on Martha's Vineyard are beautiful

and so many of them are lined with overgrowing hydrangeas.

One of the most popular attractions in Oak Bluffs is the colony of "gingerbread houses" built after the civil war by Methodists who would come here for annual tent revivals. Apparently, they got tired of setting up their tents and taking them down each time. I bet the wives just threatened to check into a pricey hotel and so the husbands started building.

The funny thing was, the houses were about 85% the size of a normal house. At first glance you were like, "okay, this is just a bunch of houses." And then you get closer and you're like, "wait a tick, did I just grow a foot?"

Other notable highlights were:

• the arcade where we spent an hour bringing the median age up to 13. Brian is really good at the punching bag and I am amazing at the dancing game.
• an old movie theater where we saw Inception after a few drinks. Bad idea. I had no idea there was any sort of cliffhanger ending until we got home.
• an amazing fight we saw between a young Russian couple on the beach that involved the girl taking off her flip flops to hit her boyfriend with them, grabbing his sunglasses off his head and breaking them apart, and tearing his shirt in half as he tried to walk away. But the most impressive part was when he came back and started apologizing to her. Then they started making out. It was delightful beach theater.