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Photo Album: Martha’s Vineyard, Batavia and the ‘falls’ – Niagara and Seneca

It was a quickie trip, but an extended weekend visit did produce lots of photo opportunities between good old St. Johns and Martha’s Vineyard. Stops along the way and back again included a visit with former St. Johns resident – and RBW Class of ’61 alumnus – Bill Ortwein; the birthplace of women’s rights, Seneca Falls, NY; and one of the world’s natural wonders, Niagara Falls.

A picture is worth a thousand words, the old adage goes, so we’ll let these digital images tell the story – with a few side comments about particular points of interest and special people.

• We thoroughly enjoyed an overnight visit with Bill and his family - wife Ann, and children Michelle and Dan - who have called Batavia home for a number of years. An artist who has exhibited works in New York City and beyond, Bill has fond memories of his hometown – and some interesting stories of childhood adventures and high school escapades.

  

  Wayne Dedyne and Uncle Bill Ortwein, RBW class of 1961

• Thanks to a wonderful host, Steve Wolfson, we had the inside track on where to go and what to see on Martha’s Vineyard. Unfortunately, despite his best efforts at chauffeuring us around the island, there was no way we could see everything in a short three days. Points of interest and events of note included:
  
• Walking through the grounds of the historic Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association in Oak Bluffs where more than 300 cottages are lovingly maintained in the Victorian style. The center of the grounds features the old Methodist Tabernacle that is currently undergoing renovations back to its 1879 roots.
  
• A pair of bridges: the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge on the Joseph Sylvia Parkway that links Oak Bluffs with Edgartown was the setting for that memorable scene in Jaws where visitors point and shout "Shark!" much to the dismay of Roy Scheider; and a reconstructed Dike Road Bridge on Chappaquiddick where many, many people pointed in dismay when the real-life tragedy occurred on the death of Mary Jo Koppenich.
  
• Dining on fresh steamers, crab cakes, smoked blue fish pate, stuffed scallops and ginger seaweed salad in the bright sunshine next to Larson’s Fish Market on the wharf at Menemsha – a great little fishing dock straight off any picture-postcard of New England.
  
• Driving along the dunes of Chappaquiddick in the ‘fish truck,’ headed to and from Wasque Point – where Wayne snagged his first-ever False Albacore, and I got some lovely pictures of the Swan Pond in the adjacent Cape Poge Wildlife Refuge.
  
• Fantastic shoreline views – from the Martha’s Vineyard Ferry and everywhere else on the island.
  
• A short pit stop in Seneca Falls resulted in failed attempts to visit the Women’s Hall of Fame or the Women’s Rights National Historic Park Visitor Center, both of which were closed on Monday. Budget cutbacks, no doubt. We were able to get a picture of the sculpture that commemorates the introduction of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who were instrumental in the formation of the Women’s Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls in 1848. This was the start of the women’s suffrage movement.
  
• Words truly cannot express the majesty of Niagara Falls. We were particularly fortunate to view ‘rainbows’ on the American Falls, capturing their beauty – sort of – in digital images.