The gingerbread ghetto

If Edgartown seems a bit stately and upscale, Oak Bluffs is its far more casual, let-it-all-hang-out neighbor. I kept hearing that Oak Bluffs was the island's "party town," and I've found no evidence to suggest otherwise. There are bars and live music and liquor stores everywhere. You can find Irish music, '80s cover bands, acoustic, karaoke -- pretty much whatever you'd like to listen to at any given time.

But the town's real attraction -- at least for those who don't crave a stiff drink or two -- is its entrancing architecture, primarily the eye-catching "gingerbread" houses that line many of its streets. They're painted in the kind of festive colors few homeowners would dare to play with: bright pink, neon blue, sea-green, etc. And many of them are outfitted with charmingly frilly accessories, including lots of bric-a-brac, towering gables, widow's walks and, in some cases, front porches that you could use to store an aircraft carrier. I jokingly wrote down in my notebook that I was "adrift in the gingerbread ghetto," but these homes are wonderful to admire and, as far as I could see, exquisitely maintained by their owners.

At the center of Oak Bluffs, just behind the "Welcome" signage, is Flying Horses, the country's oldest operating platform carousel and a certified National Historic Landmark. It was apparently built in 1876 for New York's Coney Island and was brought to Martha's Vineyard in 1884. It was acquired by the Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust in 1986 and has been painstakingly restored. It's not a traditional merry-go-round, since the horses remain firmly in place throughout the ride (they "fly," but they don't bounce up and down). The challenge for riders is to try to catch the rings that drop down a chute that's off to the side of the carousel; if you're skillful enough to snag one of the brass ones, you get a free ride. I didn't get close enough to see for myself, but I was told the manes and tails are made of actual horse hair and that inside the glass eyes of each of the horses you can find a small carved charm in the shape of an animal.

Oak Bluffs is also a beach town. There's a nice stretch of sand just behind the stony walls that separate the road from the water, and there's also a ferry station. Move out to the edge of Oak Bluffs and you'll find mostly undisturbed beach settings that are quite a change from the tone of the town itself. Wildflowers bloom everywhere and they're so pretty you might be tempted to pick a bouquet. Don't try: Most of them grow on vines and stems covered with menacing-looking thorns that could tear your fingertips to shreds. I decided I'd take pictures rather than souvenirs.