Martha's Vineyard Monkey

When the dust settled from our synagogue’s silent auction and a weekend on Martha’s Vineyard was still up for grabs, we jumped at the chance to snap it up. The weekend in question was June 6-8, so last week, we headed out for a long weekend of exploring a new island with the Monkey.

We stayed in Aquinnah, the town formerly known as Gay Head, and perhaps the most isolated of the several towns on the island. It was a very different experience from our “usual” of Block Island, where the (one and only) town was a twenty-minute drive from our house. But it was definitely fun to experience a new place.

Friday and Saturday were on the cold side, but we did some exploring. Monkey enjoyed looking at the lighthouse in Aquinnah (“Red light!” “White light!” “Red light!” “White light!”) and digging in the sand. However, he does not like having sand on his hands or feet, making for a unique challenge. He did his digging primarily from the safety of the beach blanket.

Here’s where the story has an interesting twist. On Saturday evening, we decided to drive into the town of Oak Bluffs to grab some dinner. We walked along the water, and then turned into the large green and walked past the gazebo back toward the town.

A minute after passing a group of people near the gazebo, we heard someone shouting “Matt Fried! MATT FRIED!” Turns out we had just walked past Rob, Matthew, and Jess Goldfarb, brothers who Matt knew from his summers on the Connecticut shore. Mind you, these are people he hasn’t seen in close to twenty years, but in their words, he looked “just like Matt Fried. Only grown-up.” We had dinner with them and the others with them, and learned that all three live on Martha’s Vineyard now, and Matthew and Rob run a farm in Edgartown called The FARM Institute, which offers community-supported agriculture and programs for kids ages 2 and up.

Now for the real treat: on Sunday, we met Rob and his wife, Magda, at the farm, and got a tour! [Bad Mommy and Daddy did not think to bring the camera...oops!] We got to see chickens and baby chicks, piglets and a great big momma pig, a cow and her four-day-old calf (already running around, of course), and lots of other animals. Our Monkey most enjoyed chasing around the guinea fowl, listening to the ducks quacking, and watching the bunny hop, hop, hop away from him. Oh yeah, and sitting on the tractors was a big hit, too – he’s still talking about it! It was so fun to reconnect with old friends, and to hear about the really amazing work that they do. Check out their website and see for yourself!