For our 40th wedding anniversary we wanted to do something big and meaningful. We had gotten married on the beautiful island of Martha’s Vineyard in 1985, which had been our happy place for 30 odd years of vacations from 1980 - 2015. In 2015, we moved west to California, so we thought it would be fitting to return to where it all began in the lovely Vineyard town of Edgartown.

However, this time our guest list would be different, as it would consist of our growing family - our two sons, their wives, and their toddlers - Nora (18 months) and Walker (14 months). So needless to say, it would be a very different experience from 40 years ago, but one which we all were very excited about.

When we asked the kids what they were looking for in a rental house, they both said: walkability to everything so we don’t have to constantly be loading the kids into a car, and a great place to just hang-out in.

We managed to find the perfect place - a 4-bedroom house located on Edgartown Harbor with views of the Lighthouse and the Chappy Ferry. It was absolutely perfect.

Since it was our first time back to the East Coast in quite a while, Herb and I decided to add sometime before and after our week with the kids in Edgartown - 4 nights in Aquinnah on the other side of the island and 5 nights doing a foliage tour through the Berkshires and Southern Vermont.

The only thing that could possibly rain on our parade was the surge in the Lone Star tick population on the island. This nasty little bugger causes a disease known as Alpha-gal syndrome, which can produce a severe allergy to meat. Being the meat-loving family we are, none of us was particularly thrilled with this new threat, especially with toddlers.

The best we could do was take the necessary precautions - stay away from wooded and bushy areas and beach grass as much as possible. Plus, I brought along some permethrin spray to treat our clothes and insect repellent that would be safe for the babies.

These ticks are especially prevalent in Aquinnah, where we would be starting our trip, because of its extensive vegetation and beach grass.

This being the 50th anniversary of the movie Jaws, Herb and I joked about the new critter stalking and terrorizing the visitors to the island - a tiny little creature no bigger than a poppy seed.