The Island needs no calendar to mark this stop along the way into summer. Our journey in the seasonal fast lane begins and it truly is summertime on the Vineyard.

And now, the blur of days along our never ending shoreline shifts the rhythm of Island life to a point where time passes too quickly. The signs of season are everywhere to be seen. It is a story told in longer lines at fish markets and in ferry queues, in parking places that are suddenly as precious as gold and in the visits of friends and strangers to crowded Island beaches stretching from Chilmark to Chappaquiddick, from Oak Bluffs to Edgartown and beyond to the moorish up-Island landscapes of Aquinnah.

Welcome to Island summer.