Vacation to Martha's Vineyard, then Into Canada
Before Coming Back to Houston
July 2nd to July 20th, 2005

              This summer, as soon as my programs were finished at Rice University, we took off for what might be the last vacation we'll have on Martha's Vineyard.  We're in the process of getting ready to sell my mom's home on the island, and it's just too expensive to visit there very often. Before, we could afford to spend several days or even weeks on the island because our housing was free.  That always helped offset the horrible prices for food, gas, and everything else on the island.

              When we left the island, we took a little detour (up into Ontario, Canada) to follow the route of the monarch butterfly migration from Canada to Mexico evey autumn.  It was for research for a novel I'm writing.  The novel follows the path of a butterfly, and picks up the story of various people it intersects with on its journey.  I needed to see the countryside so I will be better able to describe it.

              The images on these pages were taken with two digital cameras, a Canon EOS 10D, and a Canon Digital Rebel.  I've tried to indicate wherever possible who took the picture, Minay or I.

It took us five days to get to Martha's Vineyard, just driving, not really trying to see anything. We did take a few photos on the way, mostly at rest stops and in the evenings. Once we were on the island, the weather kept us in the house for a couple of days, but we got out long enough for a walk and to run a few errands.	We finally got a chance to get out and do a little sightseeing, in between running more errands.  We also went out to eat quite a bit, to avoid creating any more mess in the house than we had to -- besides, we were on vacation.  This section has pictures from several trips into Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, and to South Beach (no, not that South Beach).	This section has pictures of the last day n the island, leaving on the ferry, and then shots from Upper New York State and the first day in Canada (during which we drove from Watertown, NY, the whole length of Lake Ontario, and through Toronto to Cambridge, Ontario).
We decided to split this day in two parts, and see wild animals during the morning (African Lion Safari, near Cambridge), and see Niagara Falls in the afternoon before heading west toward Rochester, NY.	We spent the night in Batavia, NY, then started working our way south toward Pennsylvania.  We spent two nights in Akron, PA, so Minay would be able to have plenty of time to forage for material at the quilt shops in the area.  When we left Pennsylvania, we headed into Virginia, making a stop at Natural Bridge (more research, part of my novel happens there), then got as far down the road as possible, spending the night in Dayton, TN (home of the famous Scopes trial -- the original evolution vs. creationism debate).	The next morning we hit the road early, so we could get even closer to home.  On the way, we stopped and saw our friends, Don and Sue Ellen (both artists extraordinaire), and spent some time on the Natchez Trace (more novel research), and in Natchez, MS, before reaching Louisiana and our last night away from home.
Minay took quite a few pictures of signs on the island. She's done quilts in the past that were inspired by things we've seen there, and she's thinking of doing one based on island signs, hence the series of photos.	Click on the Trip Notes icon for some basic info about the trip (gas prices, interesting sites, food, trivia, etc.).