Cape Cod:
We drove to the very end of Cape Cod –
Provincetown! It was surprising to see
so many trees and hills on Cape Cod, as I thought it would be very flat. The villages were all very charming with their cedar shake houses, and I
especially loved seeing lighthouses.
Martha’s Vineyard:
Like Mackinac Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket were
high on my bucket list. Something about
islands I guess! We didn’t make it to
Nantucket; however we had a lovely stay on Martha’s Vineyard in an old
Victorian-style hotel. We drove around
the islands, visiting all 6 of it’s towns.
And, of course, I had to see as many lighthouses as possible!
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| More sculpture! |
When I think of Martha’s Vineyard, I picture the
“gingerbread” houses. These are truly
adorable homes, but when I learned the history of them, they became more
fascinating. In the mid-1800’s, a
Methodist retreat was held on the Vineyard.
Meeting attendees came and set up tents around a central area. The retreats became very popular and each
year the attendance grew. Eventually the
attendees made their structures more permanent by connecting the tent poles
with boards for walls, floors and ceilings.
They used bright colors to paint the structures and adorned them with
elaborate woodwork carvings and cutouts.
Many of the homes had windows in the gothic style, and thus the style is
called Carpenter Gothic. The community
grew to include as many as 500 cottages.
Today about 300 of these cottages survive.
Massachusetts to be continued in the next post...