Description: When my girlfriend suggested designating at least half a day to Oak Bluffs, I could only say "Why?" To save time we decided to drive over with our bikes on the bike rack. A friendly policeman directed us to free longterm parking over by the beach. Once we made the turn and started around the road that circled Ocean Park, I said, "Oh, I see." The whole road was surrounded by beautiful Victorian, Queen Ann, and Gothic Revival homes immaculately maintained and painted so many differant and contrasting colors that the term "rainbow" doesn't even begin to do them justice. I was sold.
We parked and off-loaded our bikes then headed staight back to the park for a closer look. One particular home caught our fancy, so we stopped for a closer look and pictures. The house was on a corner lot allowing a complete look at the literally perfect landscaping complete with an oriental style gazebo. An islander struck up a conversation with us explaining that a "computer guy" had bought it a few years back when it was completely rundown. He did a faithful restoration spending millions. When we inquired as to the selling price of a "fixer-upper" possibly being below a million dollars, she smiled and said, "I think not."
Moving on to explore the cottage neighborhoods we were delighted with the whimsy of the small multicolored gothic cottages covered with gingerbread. They were the result of an old Methodist Retreat that started as a tent-city, and ended with these to replace the tents.
The locals, "Islanders" they call thenselves, were all friendly and not offended by our rubbernecking. Often they would volunteer information about their properties or their neighbors. There are many points of interest in Oak Bluffs that we simply didn't have time to locate. Half day? I think not.
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