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INFO: http://www.SandpiperRealty.com - Time slips away easily in West Tisbury. The clock in the church tower is hand-wound, and strikes the hour by day and night. Music Street, in the heart of the village, got its name from the sound of the pianos brought back by the whaling captains and heard through open windows 150 years ago. The tiny police station by the Mill Pond is just as described in the mystery books of 13th generation town resident Cynthia Riggs. Across the street, an old country store, long since closed, collapses in on itself. In the town cemetery, visitors leave small toy birds on the grave of 19th century poet Nancy Luce, who kept chickens as household pets. You can definitely get away from it all in West Tisbury, Martha's Vineyard's traditional farming community. The porch at Alley's General Store, in the heart of the village, is the place to watch the day go by. Pick up a copy of the Broadside, for "one thin dime", and find out what the locals are talking about – the single sheet, front-and-back paper is a distinctive blend of news and speculation, and is put out by a West Tisbury couple who seem to know and hear everything.

INFO: http://www.SandpiperRealty.com - If you're lucky, one of the first sights you'll see when you visit Martha's Vineyard is the magnificent schooners Shenandoah and Alabama under full sail – a thrilling reminder of the Island's maritime past. The schooners, owned by the Douglas family who built the famous Black Dog Tavern, have been anchored in the Vineyard Haven harbor for more than four decades, and they ride at anchor a few thousand feet away from the big ferryboats that connect the Vineyard to the mainland at Woods Hole year round via a 45-minute trip. Just beyond the schooners along the harbor is one of America's few wooden ship boatyards, Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway. Here, beautiful schooners are still designed and built for people enthralled with creations that can only be done by hand. The launch of the boats, designed and constructed by Ross Gannon and Nat Benjamin, are minor holidays on the Vineyard. Hundreds of people come out to see the beautiful new boats, built with the same type of tools used for a century or two. As they slide into the harbors, the boats take their places among more wooden boats than in any other harbor in America. As these emblems of Martha's Vineyard might suggest, Vineyard Haven – the village is the center of the town of Tisbury – has an extraordinarily deep maritime tradition. This was one of early New England's busiest ports. Coastwise shipping passed through Vineyard Sound and the boats docked here. Sailors from around the world knew Martha's Vineyard through the Seaman's Bethel here. First called Holmes Hole, the town only had three families in 1700. Just eighty years later, it had twenty-one inns, servicing visitors in the same way that many of the inns and hotels do now. The town was almost totally destroyed by fire in 1883, and the stores and homes along Main Street in the downtown area date since that time.

INFO: http://www.SandpiperRealty.com - Main Street, Edgartown, looks the way Main Street in a small New England town should look: a one-way street barely two lanes wide; a few blocks of inns, shops and restaurants; a church or two, and the movie theater; the old town hall, with a balcony where regulars can watch the Fourth of July parade; the 1858 courthouse, guarded by shady elms; a small park. Main Street ends at the harbor, at the Edgartown Yacht Club that was once the dock for the town's whaling ships. Standing there, you can see the hundreds of yachts, sail and motor boats docked here on a summer's day. Stroll from here down to Memorial Wharf to watch the On-Time ferry carry three cars at a time (a two-minute ride) over to Chappaquiddick Island, which, while geographically separate, is a part of Edgartown's jurisdiction. There are bicycle rentals and ice cream shops and a hardware and specialty clothing and antique stores and casual and high-end restaurants all within a four-block area. (Edgartown is one of two "wet" towns on the Island, so liquor is served and can be purchased at several shops.)

INFO: http://www.SandpiperRealty.com - Beautiful homes set on rolling land. Rambling stone walls. Grazing sheep. One of the most beautiful of all Vineyard drives: Middle Road. These are the trademarks of Chilmark – along with Chilmark Chocolates, made and sold in a small building just down from Beetlebung Corner. It is not unusual to encounter lines of customers spilling out into the parking lot, while those inside press their noses against the glass counters to make selections of their personal favorites (milk or dark? Nuts, or fruit?). But Chilmark is about the sea as well as the land, even land as compelling as this. At Menemsha, the last remnants of a fabled fishing fleet are tied up at the dock behind two fish markets where you can find the catch of the day. Here you can catch a bike ferry across to Lobsterville, take a catamaran trip to Cuttyhunk Island about an hour away, or climb out on the jetty to watch a spectacular sunset. Families bring folding chairs, and wine and cheese, and sit on the shore to do the same. The two fish markets pack up boiled lobsters for you to take down to the beach, complete with melted butter. An ice cream from The Galley, a tiny walk-up restaurant, completes the meal, if not the day. Chilmark's small, rural community is located toward the western end of Martha's Vineyard. Most of its 10,639 (34 square miles) are devoted to residential and agricultural use – you can get fresh flowers at a Beetlebung Corner self-serve stand, Island-raised lamb at the Allen Farm and wool items knit from their own sheep, eggs from really free range chickens and bacon from local pigs.

INFO: http://www.SandpiperRealty.com - Chappaquiddick Island is a small island off the eastern end of the larger island of Martha's Vineyard and is part of the town of Edgartown, Massachusetts. The two islands are connected, along their southern coast, by a narrow barrier beach not accessible by paved roads. The southeastern point of this beach is called Wasque Point – a popular fishing point to catch bluefish, striped bass, etc. A privately owned bargelike ferry called the On Time shuttles three cars at a time between Chappaquiddick and downtown Edgartown, on Martha's Vineyard. The ferry can also shuttle walk-on passengers as well as bicyclists. In the summer two ferries run, while the off-season only has need for one. Take a trip across on the Chappaquiddick (locals call it Chappy) ferry to Mytoi, a small Japanese-style garden set within an open pine forest. The garden's signature feature is a small pond with an island that is reached by walking over an arched bridge. Winding footpaths take visitors through a birch walk, camellia dell, stone garden, and hillside garden. A rustic shelter offers broad views of the garden and a chance to become immersed in the meditative qualities of the landscape.

The last great North American glacier retreated north 10,000 years ago, and in its wake, there was Martha's Vineyard. The western portion of the Island is marked by boulders, sand and clay deposits from the glacier. But nothing is more dramatic than the colorful cliffs of clay at Aquinnah (Gay Head). The cliffs are open for public viewing, from a high point near the Gay Head Lighthouse. From this vantage point, there is water on three sides, and Noman's Land can be seen to the south and the Elizabeth Islands (both part of Dukes County, but mostly unoccupied) are on the opposite horizon. The view from here of the cliffs and the lighthouse is breathtaking. Equally impressive, though, is to follow a boardwalk down to the ocean, where there is a public swimming beach and a view of the cliffs from below. The cliffs looked sculpted in red, yellow, white and gray clay, with occasional striations of black. Until recent years, visitors could climb on them. Now, the cliffs are protected as a historical site; climbing or prying out any of the precious clay – which is slowly being eroded by the wind and water – is forbidden.