Vineyard Day 3

Today was my last day on Martha's Vineyard with my dad. After dad had his morning coffee, we started the day off right with a kayaking trip! I wore a blue and white striped shirt, my same pink shorts, an anchor necklace, and a blue baseball cap that says "Martha's Vineyard Shark Week." My dad was relieved that I was wearing a more normal hat today.

My dad drinking his coffee out of a grumpy cup.

Me in my outfit of the day.

Me in the kayak wearing a life vest like a responsible guy.

My dad in his kayak paddling ahead of me.

After that we headed to Aquinnah to see the clay cliffs. The cliffs are my favorite view on Martha's Vineyard.

Me and my dad in front of the cliffs.

Photo of the cliffs and the lighthouse.

We stopped at the beach on the way back to the house. Then later that afternoon I dragged Dad into a bookstore in Edgartown so I'd have something to read on the ferry. Before we knew it, I had to board the ferry back home. I was sad to leave, but the sunset over the water was gorgeous!

Me on the boat in front of the sunset.

Sunset photo.

Second sunset photo.

Last sunset photo.

Vineyard Day 2

Today was my second day at the Vineyard with my dad and I decided to pull out my most ridiculous hat: the shark hat. Why? Because Martha's Vineyard is the filming location for the movie Jaws. And the famous bridge from the Jaws movie was our first stop for the day.

Jaws movie poster.

In addition to my shark hat, I wore a fish bone necklace, a blue shirt, and the same pink shorts and sparkly sandals as yesterday. Here I am in my hat by the Jaws bridge in Edgartown:

Me making a grrr face on the Jaws bridge.

My dad apparently thought I was just going to wear my shark hat for the Jaws bridge photo op and then take it off. Sadly for him, he was mistaken. I was determined to wear the hat all day. Next up was a trip to Chappaquiddick - a tiny island that is part of the bigger island of Martha's Vineyard. We got there via the Chappy Ferry, a small two-car ferry.

They have a Japanese Mytoi Botannical Garden that we decided to explore. They had my favorite plant ever - ghost pipe. They also had a fish pond with fish and turtles and dragonflies.

Dad at the botannical garden.

Ghost pipe plants.

Dad looking at the pond.

Me and my Dad. He convinced me to take the hat off for the photo.

Turtles and fish.

After wandering around the garden, we decided to go on a Chappy Lighthouse Tour. To my dad's dismay, the hat came along with me. The tour involves driving around the island and over sand dunes via jeep. Apparently the trick to driving on sand is to let some of the air out of your tires. As someone who has had his car stuck in the sand, I wish I'd known this information earlier in life. We saw cormorants, osprey, a northern harrier hawk, and. And we got to eat beach plums!

Going across the bridge to the restricted area.

We're driving on sand!

Photo of the sand dunes and sky.

Sand, sky, and sea.

A beach plum in my hand. They look like blueberries but taste like kind of tart plums.

Climbing the lighthouse spiral staircase.

Ladder to the top of the lighthouse.

Me at the top of the lighthouse.

View of the roads from the top of the lighthouse.

After our tour, we went back to Edgartown for ice cream at Mad Martha's. Then it was off to the beach near the Jaws Bridge!

Getting back on the ferry to Edgartown.

A picture of my cup of ice cream in front of the ice cream counter.

The path to the beach.

After the beach, we went back to the house to chill and then headed to Sharky's Cantina for dinner. I was thrilled to be able to wear my shark hat at Sharky's. My dad kept asking if I was done wearing the hat yet. Nope!

Me in my shark hat next to a shark statue at Sharky's Cantina.

After dinner, we went back to the house and dad stayed in while I made a run to Backdoor Donuts in Oak Bluffs. When I was younger, this place was more of a secret. When it started, it was just a local bakery that sold doughnuts out of their back door in the wee hours of the morning while they baked the next morning's batch. Now that people have hyped them up on the internet they've changed the entire bakery's name to Backdoor Donuts and there was a huge line of people waiting to get their doughnuts. Luckily for my dad and I, their apple fritters are still as amazing as ever.

Back door donuts!

My apple fritter. Yum!

Homeward Bound

Today is the day Alice and I drove home. But first! We went to two more attractions...

The first was the Coudersport Ice Mine. Here's a link to the wikipedia page about it. Basically it's a cave that forms icicles in the spring and summer but not in the fall and winter. Isn't that weird?

Me in front of the opening to the ice mine.

Alice is cold!

The ice mine opening. Look at this ice! In the middle of summer!

After that it was off to the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum:

Alice found Smokey the Bear in the parking lot.

Random pointing wooden figure and Alice.

Me in front of a wood carved man.

Train!

Alice rowing.

Creepy cutout guy.

Alice is in a train.

Alice sees things at the museum.

Me with birch beer. I'm not sure I like it.

Alice with birch beer. She is a fan.

I try my first fried pickle.

And then we went home! The end.

Friendcation Day 2

Today was day two of Alice and my Friendiversary Friendcation.

Chickens near our air bnb.

Cows near our air bnb.

The day started off with a drive to Rock City Park in Olean NY because it wasn't actually very far away and it looked interesting. Of course I had to pull over and run in place for a bit when I saw a sign saying "Johnson Run" since my last name is Johnson.

Me running near the "Johnson Run" sign.

On the way we stopped for breakfast and looked at the random sculptures nearby.

Bottle tree sculpture.

Me in front of another bottle tree sculpture.

Truck with monkey.

Random sculpture.

Alice in a monument.

Me with a knight.

Here's the park:

Monarch butterfly!

Alice in the park. 

Alice at the park.

I pretend to be a bear in a cave.

Alice walks on the trail.

I jump over a crack in the trail.

Cool mushroom.

Alice on the stairway in the nature park.

Bottle tree at the nature park.

Alice goes down some stairs.

This rock looks like a face. Can you see it?

Me hugging a bear statue.

Weird caterpillar.

Me in a cave.

Also? We totally saw bigfoot.

Me walking with bigfoot (the sculpture).

Alice and bigfoot (the sculpture). 

The next stop on our itinerary was Kinzua Bridge. This bridge was a giant 301-foot tall 2,052 foot long railroad trestle that spanned Kinzua Creek. Most of its structure collapsed during a tornado in July 2003. Then they turned it into a tourist attraction. Neither of us is a big fan of heights so walking to the broken off edge of this bridge was slightly terrifying.

Alice in the Kinzua Sky Walk Visitor Center.

The bridge.

Bridge again - isn't this frightening to think of walking along?

Alice and I in front of the bridge.

Alice and I on the bridge. You can see how windy it is by looking at Alice's hair.

Me on the bridge.

Alice walks on the glass floor of the bridge.

After our harrowing bridge adventure, we intentionally drove past some fancy mansions (no photos) on the way to our next destination – the Keystone Elk Country Alliance visitor center! Their website is here. They have 245 acres of land with plants favored by elk to attract them. We aimed to get there at dusk because that' the time of day when elk are most likely to be out and about. Lucky for us - we saw a whole bunch right up close!

I found an elk! An elk statue, that is...

Me and Alice in front of the elk statue.

Alice has elk antlers.

Elks are surprisingly tall.

Alice in front of the elk.

Elk.

Elk.

Elk.

Elk.

The elk are way in the back of this photo but I thought it was pretty anyway.

After looking at elk, we drove home and saw what I'm pretty sure was a bobcat. Then we looked at the sky some more and ate friendiversary cake!

Driving at night is so dark!

Our 20th Friendiversary unicorn cake.