Week 1: Exploring the Vineyard

State Beach

Cliffs at Gay Head

Sunset at Menemsha


Lambert's Cove

We're wrapping our first week on the Vineyard and the crew has a few hours of downtime at the airport before our next flight, so I wanted to take a minute and recap everything that has happened thus far: The first two days were spent getting oriented with the MVY airport. The 5 new station agents (including myself) joined Michael and Kari (both returning agents from UGA) and our boss Shelly for a very "hands-on" overview of airport operations. By the end of the first two days, everyone had a chance to marshall in/out a plane, check-in passengers, handle baggage, etc. The seven agents (everyone minus Shelly) are staying in a 5 bedroom house in the middle of the island. We have access to two cars, but most of us shipped bikes up with our baggage. Having bikes on hand has greatly facilitated our exploration of the island. Tim and I had a few days off work so on the first day we biked around Oak Bluffs to State Beach (also known as Jaws Beach because it's where the movie was filmed). On our second day off we took a beautiful ride to Aquinnah to check out the cliffs at Gay Head. As we were walking along the beach next to the cliffs, we unwittingly stumbled across what happened to be the only nude beach on the island. We promptly turned around and continued our walk in the opposite direction. Yesterday was our first full day at work, and it turned out to be much fuller than we anticipated. Our 2:00 departure had a 6 hour ground stop, so we didn't leave the airport until about 9:30, bringing our total to almost a 14 hour work day. I have a new understanding of the term "cabin fever". In our time off, life at the house is pretty calm. We have limited cell phone reception and no internet, and for those of you who know me well, you know that I hate answering my phone, so I'm enjoying the isolation. We pass the time playing lots of Cranium, grilling out in the yard, card games, catch (I'm glad I brought my glove with me), and the guys "chase" rabbits in the yard. Next week Tim and I are going to try and fly into Boston to catch a Red Sox game on Wednesday.

The Adventure Begins

I have officially jumped on the bandwagon and started a blog to keep everyone updated on my life post-graduation. I hope that by maintaining Kellie’s Online Journal Version 2.0 I’ll have a chance to document some of my travels this summer (for those of you who haven’t heard, I’m working at the MVY airport in Martha’s Vineyard until August—more on that later) as well as the beginning of my M.S. degree in Higher Education from Florida State University. This is just as much for my benefit as it is for your reading pleasure, so stay posted as updates will probably be made weekly.