Secret Garden

A peaceful oasis off the tourist track

MYTOI CHAPPAQUIDDICK (19)

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idden among the pines and oaks of Chappaquiddick Island just off Edgartown is the unlikely 14-acre Mytoi Japanese garden, whose red fretwork bridge is framed in daffodils, flowering dogwoods, azaleas, rhododendrons, Hanoki cypress, and holly, designed by Vineyard resident Hugh Jones. You can hike, fish, kayak, bird-watch, and pick blueberries. To get there, hop aboard what locals call the one-minute ferry from the Edgartown wharf.

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It’s an odd name to have seared itself into the national consciousness, but Chappaquiddick will forever be remembered as the place where U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, then 37, crashed his Oldsmobile off the Chappaquiddick Bridge on July 18, 1969. His passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, 28, was killed. The Dike Bridge, which spans the 150-foot channel at the end of a long dirt road, was rebuilt in 1995.

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