Martha's Vineyard and the GOP convention

This is the view from Gay Head, MA., uh wait, they changed the historic name to Aquinnah in 1998. The printed explanation for the name change is that the new name better reflects the American Indian population there.
Yeah, right.
Anyway, most locals still call it Gay Head, even though I couldn't find a souvenir coffee cup to prove it.








We arrived by tour bus, having eliminated the use of mopeds, bikes or a rental car. It is a big (100 sq mile) island, after all.
The trip was sold to us as a 2 1/2-hour guided tour which we concluded would be less stressful than our usual mode of touring plus, would be informative. Of course, once onboard the bus one is committed to that time block. Now, the tour guide's English is much, much better than my Russian and he should be applauded for learning the language so quickly, however we could only understand every fifth word or so.
I think he pointed out Atty. General Eric Holder's home, and said something about James Taylor and John Belushi, who is buried there. He used a pointer on a map at the front of the bus to show where we were.

I couldn't find T-shirts other than plain of Martha's Vineyard, but these signs might reflect the MV culture just as well.






I wish I knew more of my family history because I'm certain my uncle, Tom Gammack, roamed this island. At the time of his death (complications of the mumps) he was governor of the NY Stock Exchange and Joseph Kennedy's right-hand man. He was my fathers' oldest sibling and by all accounts the favorite son. I know very little otherwise, although friends published a book about him after he died and I've discovered some of his writings through Google Books searches. Oh the questions I would have of him today!




Ah, the cruisers life.

We made it back to Bel Sito in high winds, me drenched from sitting in front of the 8' dinghy, and settled in to catching what we could of the GOP convention via live stream on the iPad... The NYTimes ought to stick to what they do best: print (omg) but USA Today ran a decent stream. I am not supposed to make political commentary in this blog, but just let me say this:
I sure can't wait to see what Jon Stewart will do with clips of the Republicans 'dancing'!
Any political commentary that might creep into this blog is solely that of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the entire crew. But he can't dance either.

Off to Nantucket tomorrow!

- Posted by Julie Gammack using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Chapman St, United States