This past weekend, Benny and I went on our one year anniversary vacation. This weekend also happened to be the last free weekend I will have for the next six months thanks to ice hockey. But really, I do not mind. I love my job.

Benny worked hard to make it extra special for the both of us. After picking up our car from the shop Friday morning, we started making our way down to Woods Hole to catch the ferry. I had never had IKEA breakfast and had been dying to try it, so we stopped along the way. The big breakfast which includes scrambled eggs, home fries, bacon and French toast sticks were buy one, get one free at $1.99 a piece. Needless to say, breakfast was a steal.

After breakfast, we continued our drive south. Once in Woods Hole, we found out that we could park right at the docks because we were bringing our bikes along. We went to the ticket office and bought tickets for the way there and back. We looked at the schedule for the next departure which happened to be at 1:15PM. A ferry named “Nantucket” arrived at the docks around 12:30PM. It proceeded to unload and then reload. Time came and went and before we knew it, it was 1:10PM and there seemed to be no sight of a Martha’s Vineyard ferry. I leaned over to Benny and asked, “Could this possibly be our boat?” Benny: “I don’t know, but I’ll ask.” Turns out, it was our ferry, conveniently named.

We quickly grabbed our bags and bikes and boarded with just a few minutes to spare. At this point, it had started to rain and the water was fairly choppy making us only two of a few people who actually ventured outside on the boat. Benny and I plotted our plan of attack for catching the most crab during this season of Deadliest Catch aboard the new ship, “Nantucket”. We are still both perplexed as to why we not only lost, but we didn’t catch a single crab. Maybe next time we’ll bring our pods.

Once we got to the island, we transferred our belongings from the ferry to the bus and rode down to our hotel in Edgartown. We checked into the hotel, got settled in to our room and then went into town for some shopping. Being that Martha’s Vineyard is primarily a summer vacation destination, most of the shops were having “Closing for the Season” sales. Rest assured, we took advantage of a lot of the sales.

Friday night, we went out for our anniversary dinner. The restaurant was a part of a hotel. It was pretty quiet other than the guests who were there for a wedding. Although, they were more interested in drinking than eating.

Saturday proved to be a far nicer day weather wise. It also so happened to be Tivoli day in Oak Bluffs. Oak Bluffs was only five miles from our hotel, so we rode there on our bikes along the ocean bike path. Tivoli Day is essentially a giant outdoor sale for the shops and rummage sale for the locals. We bought so many goodies that we had to take the bus back to the hotel instead of riding our bikes. Some of our purchases included shirts, a shot glass (I collect them), a skim board and some Department 56 Halloween houses. I am a huge Halloween fan and have wanted to start a Department 56 collection. A gentlemen was selling two houses for $12 total. One had a chip and the other one has burnt out light bulbs. This was hardly a deterrent for me. This was a great start to my collection.

Before dinner, we went for a walk to the Edgartown lighthouse. We saw a lot of weddings along the way, all of them with traditional Cape Cod colors and styles. At the lighthouse, we were able to go to the top. Not only was it a priceless experience to see the island and ocean from that view, but it was amazing that we could even go in the lighthouse.

That night, we went back into Oak Bluffs for dinner. We went to Sharky’s which is a chain Mexican restaurant. For dessert, we went to a little place called “Back Door Donuts”. It is located in a bakery. After the bakery closes for the day, they open the back door of the bakery to sell warm, fresh donuts late into the night. It was shocking that it was located in an alley and yet had a long line of customers. I hadn’t had a fresh donut in a long time, so it was a real treat for both of us. We ate our donuts on a bench on the ocean and listened to the waves roll in.

On Sunday, we only had a couple of hours left before we had to check out of our room and leave the island. We spent the rest of our time just taking a leisurely walk through town and grabbing a quick donut and coffee. The weather was so traditionally fall and the town was so quiet that it made for a really peaceful and relaxing walk.

Everything about the island that weekend lived up to the idealistic fall vacation that I was hoping it would be. The best part was that it marked the one year anniversary of being married to my best friend and soul mate. I could not have asked for a better first year.