Our First Vacation to Martha's Vineyard,
(and then to Niagara Falls before coming back to Houston)
June 25th to July 20th, 1994

              My mother and her husband invited us to spend about a week on Martha's Vineyard with them.  They had been living part-time on the island for a few years, and were trying to sell their home in Lexington, Massachusetts so they could live on the island full-time.  We readily agreed, and were going to meet them in Lexington and drive with them to the ferry to the island..

              We decided we would stop and see some Civil War battlefields, so we saw Antietam and Gettysburg on our way.  We did stay on Martha's Vineyard for about eight days, then spent a couple more in the Boston area before heading home (via Niagara Falls). Instead of heading straight southwest, we headed for Colonial Williamsburg, on the Virginia coast, but stopped briefly in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area, and at Valley Forge first .  Our final route, plotted out, would probably have looked like a large hourglass, not exactly the shortest way to go, but we had a good time.

              The images on these pages were taken with one 35mm film camera, an old Nikon, using a Nikon 105 mm zoom lens.  Sorry I can't be more specific, but it's been a long time since we've had that camera, and I can't remember any more details than that.  We also bought a throwaway panorama camera, and a few of the shots were taken with it. We traded the good camera back and forth freely, so either one of us could have taken any of the pictures. Go ahead and blame me (or my old scanner at least) for any poor quality shots.

It took us five days to get to Newport, RI.  We made two stops on the way to see the battlefields at Antietam and Gettysburg.  Other than those stops, though, the time was just spent driving.	We arrived in Lexington, MA, early the next day, and rode down to the island with Mom and Bill.  Once we were on the island, we went a few places with them (like the Edgartown 4th of July parade), but mostly hung around the house.  Minay and I did get out a couple of times to explore a few of the local towns and one of the beaches.	We took another few trips out to explore, and went to South Beach (sand and seagulls) and to the Methodist Campgrounds in Oak Bluffs (little tiny cottages, covered with gingerbread).
After we left the island, we spent a little time in the Boston area, then drove across MA and through NY to Niagara Falls (crossing over to the Canadian side), then came back into the States, drove through NY again, and into PA, stayed a while, then drove down to Colonial Williamsburg to spend a couple of days.  This took about eight days altogether. .	After we'd seen Williamsburg (and Carter's Grove), we started for home, stopping here and there. We arrived home in Houston four days later, hot and tired.	Click on the Trip Notes icon for some basic info about the trip (gas prices, interesting sites, food, trivia, etc.).