USA east cost #3: Martha’s Vineyard & Boston

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After NYC, New Haven and Newport let’s continue with our American trip with the island of Martha’s Vineyard and the city of Boston. 

Martha’s Vineyard :

We wanted to visit one of New England islands but we didn’t know which one. We hesitated for a while between Nantucket, Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard. Mathilde recommended us Martha’s Vineyard so we book a hotel at the last minute, we took the ferry and arrived under heavy rain at Martha’s Vineyard, one of the biggest island of New England (32 km on 16).

We stayed at Mansion House Inn which wasn’t bad apart from the breakfast.

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Mansion House Inn – 9 Main Street, Vineyard Haven

After a good night sleep I was happy to stroll on this island so famous for its beautiful summer houses. Even though it’s a popular place for tourists, it is still conserved because there are no hotel resorts, no fast food nor brand chains. There are 6 villages in the island. We’ve visited 3 of them : Vineyard Haven, Edgardtown and Oak Bluffs. We started by Vineyard Haven because that’s where our hotel was, then we went to Edgartown where there are typical houses from the  XIXth century (the golden era of whale hunting) each more beautiful than the last.

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Like in Newport, we eat a lot of crab here to my delight and if you like fudge, don’t miss Murdick’s Fudge (21 N Water St, Edgartown).

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Edgartown’s lighthouse is one of the 5 lighthouses on the island. I love lighthouse, I don’t really know why but I think they are mysterious and fascinating.

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We were “lucky” this day because the sun finally came out for a few hours even if the wind was freezing. I took off my coat for the picture but you can easily see that I was freezing to death (the stripes jacket is from Nice Things).

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Then we took the bus to Oak Bluffs where you can see the famous gingerbread cottages. 300 colorful houses that seem to be straight out of Hansel and Gretel’s. These wooden houses have been constructed in 1850 and are today summer houses. At the beginning of May the high season hadn’t started yet so all the houses were empty, it was like being in an abandoned Disney village, it was a bit creepy!

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East Chop Lighthouse in Oak Bluffs

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Martha’s Vineyard is a real jewel that I wish I could go back to one day.

Boston:

Like I’ve told you in the previous blog post, we decided at the last minute to go to Boston because I loved this city when I discovered it a few years ago and because the Boyfriend had never been there. We only stayed 24h in Boston so of course it was too short but managed to see as much as we could.

We stayed at The Boxer hotel that we booked randomly and it was a good surprise. Besides, the hotel lends nice bikes to discover the city differently (even if to be honest, visiting Boston with a bicycle is not the best idea since it’s damn difficult to climb up on these streets).

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The Boxer hotel – 107 Merrimac Street – BOSTON

Let’s continue with the good adresses we tried like The Daily Catch, a small restaurant which doesn’t seem like much but intrigued us and there was a big queue outside so it’s usually a good sign. It’s an amazing Sicilian sea food restaurant! The chef is Chinese and handles pans with a lot of skill and the way he cooks is quite fascinating. It was damn good, bravo Chef! However, get prepared to queue up (the next day at 4pm the queue was even bigger).

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The Daily Catch – 323 Hanover St – BOSTON

Here is another Boston Must on the other side of the street: Mike’s Pastry. Here as well the queue is very big but it’s because they are the best cannolis in the area, it’s a real institution!

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Mike’s Pastry :300 Hanover St, BOSTON

Now, here are some pictures of the city.

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I’m aware that Boston deserves its own blog posts, the few pictures cannot do it justice because it’s an amazing city!

It’s during a coffee break in a Prêt à Manger in Boston that we booked our last night in New England. We were looking for a cute B&B lost in the countryside and I think we can easily say that we just found it! The Roseledge Country Inn is a colonial farm from 1720 and furnished with antiquities like I love and the breakfast was delicious and homemade. Isn’t it super nice?

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This B&B is indeed in the middle of nowhere but while we were looking for a place to have dinner we came across a huge building. Foxwoods is like a mini Las Vegas : it’s the biggest casino of North America but there are also hotels, restaurants, an outlet… We spent a unreal evening, doing shopping at 11pm at J. Crew with discounts of 70%  (350 Trolley Line Blvd, Mashantucket).

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Roseledge Country Inn – 418 Route 164, Preston

Let’s finish with these souvenirs we brought back from New England. See you for the last stop in Virginia. Have a good weekend my friends!

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