Friday, October 13

Martha's Vineyard, Day 3 - Sunday, October 8

Good evening! As promised, last Sunday's adventures.

Sunday dawned cloudy and drizzly. Started the day with brunch at a restaurant a short distance from our rooms. Their website made it sound great - brunch until 1:30, Bloody Mary bar. In reality, for me, it was overpriced and did not live up to expectations. The OJ, however, was freshly squeezed and came in a gernerously-sized Mason jar :)

I (wrongly) assumed "Bloody Mary bar" meant you got to pick out the condiments of your choice. I did end up with a very good Bloody Mary (top-shelf vodka). Slim pickings on the food - not exactly what one would expect for brunch. Definitely not as advertised.

After Saturday's adventure to Aquinnah, Brother & I decided a visit to the Island Alpaca Company was a good plan for Sunday. They are in Vineyard Haven, not far from where we stayed.

What a day I had there!! The alpacas are SOOOOOOO darn cute! So friendly and gentle! Today's post will be mostly pix of them, which I will scatter throughout the post.

Alpacas

I loved this one!

Alpacas are adorable! Huge brown eyes, so soft. I took over 30 pictures that day. Some here, some at the bottom. They eat constantly (and have very large teeth).

They had two babies on the farm in a separate pen with their mothers. They were out of this world adorable! Alpacas are pregnant for 12 months, then give birth to a 22 pound baby! Wow. Alpacas are not large animals. They are about 120-190 pounds.

Baby - about 12 wks.

Baby - 8 wks.

Like llamas, they do spit (although not as much). If they feel threatened, or their babies are, or if you touch their faces. Alpacas do not like their faces touched, nor do they like loud noises or voices.

The farm had the requisite gift shop and a very hovering sales lady. The shop was small, and the lady kept bouncing around in my way and I got a bit claustrophobic.

So I wandered back to the barn pens. It began to rain a bit more steadily by that time, and all the alpacas all headed inside! It was as if it were choreographed!

Heading inside

Yup, nice & dry in here

I fell so in love with the alpacas :). Do not tell my kitties! According to their literature, you too could own one for about $1,000!

 Not quite full grown

 Heading inside

We left shortly afterwards (both Brother and I were seriously sneezing by that time).






Headed back into Oak Bluffs to ride the Flying Horses Carousel! It is tradition now!

It was really rainy and the wind had picked up by mid-afternoon, and both of us wanted libation. A lot of the places in downtown Oak Bluffs were packed by then, so we headed back to the Dockside area. Found a seat at Coop de Ville (again). Good choice! We wet our whistles, and Brother had a bowl of mussels (another of his favorites).

Mussels

Headed back to the hotel, hot shower and dry clothes from the day"s wind and rain.

Both Brother and I were starved by then, so he called a taxi (there are tons on the Island), and headed to Red Cat Kitchen for dinner. Awesome meal! I had pulled pork BBQ which was outstanding. Unusual for me; I am not normally a pork person. This sounded great though, and sure fit the bill after the day's chill! I could not tell you what Brother had as I was so busy eating :) Really cool place. Wish I had more pix besides the exterior of the restaurant. Next year!

Red Cat Kitchen

We spent two more days on the Vineyard, but I will not be posting until Sunday. Grocery shopping etc. occurs tomorrow. Otherwise my kitties and I will not get to eat next week (that would not be a good thing).

I will leave you with more pix of the absolutely adorable alpacas!

No caption needed!