Day 699: Martha's Vineyard

Wednesday, August 5, 2009 - We decided to go to Martha's Vineyard in spite of the health concerns around Madeline last Friday. We figured that if her eyes became worse, we would immediately leave the island. I watched her, hawk-like for the first 2 days, slowly letting go of my worst fears about a recurrence. When she complained of eye trouble before she was initially diagnosed, she declined rapidly and was exhausted constantly. I was looking for any of those initial signs. Yesterday, following a busy day visiting Edgartown with cousin Kathryn and walking Lambert's Cove, Madeline and Julia joyfully played at the pool for hours. I could really let go of my worries and see how blessed we are right now in this very special place. It has been beautiful here, with hot, humid, sunny weather, some showers at night, and occasional howling winds. It is quiet here as it is never quiet where we live on our well travelled street, the cacophony of birds and crickets and the sound of wind through the low pines mingled with an occasional car passing by. We have found the perfect coffee house, Chez Lounge in VH that vies with Vivace in Seatle, and are trying to find the best home-made icecream, improbable given the litany of possibilities between VH, OB and Edgartown. That's the perfect challenge!! XO, CA

I was with them on Martha's Vineyard last Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning. We had a great time in that wonderful house, and I was sorry to go. Actually living on MV would be fun, but my commute to work on Monday was 3 hours, door-to-door. Yikes.

I can attest to the high quality the of espresso at that funky little coffee shop in Vineyard Haven, but it's very punny name is actually Che's Lounge, and they have use lots of graphics like this. Nice place. They were even written up in The Times.

Like Chris, I was keeping an eye on Mady's stamina this weekend, but after many hours in the pool diving, wrestling, making up crazy races (e.g. swimming in a seated position using only your arms with your legs exended in front of you and toes out of the water... thanks for that one Cousin Jon), she was stronger than ever. I, however, was exhausted. -TK