I just returned home to upstate New York from an eight-day Martha’s Vineyard vacation. I loved it there. I have never gone twice to the same place for vacation but I told my wife that we must return next summer. My family had a great time at the beach, playing tennis, walking and even taking the Chappy Ferry. I enjoyed Aquinnah at sunset, several restaurants in Edgartown, and the most unbelievable courtesy shown to me when I was on my bicycle. I felt like a celebrity; everyone stopped for me. How weird that was.

To top it off, with about an hour left on the Vineyard, while waiting in the grass with beautiful flowers (our third or fourth visit to see the irises bloom, actually), I spoke to my wife, Janet, asking her when our breakfast would be ready to be picked up. Seven minutes, she told me.

We met up at that cool coffee shop, Espresso Love, but then Janet says, where is my phone?

We race back and can’t find it. We are nervous as her credit cards and ID are in the pocket, and I know we have a ferry to catch in Vineyard Haven in 55 minutes, but it’s gone.

I found a young man in an Edgartown traffic suit, and I asked him how to contact the police. He got me the number, and a nice person there told me that she would call me back soon (I had no confidence in that). But in just a few minutes, she called me back to say they have it at the police station.

We pick up the wallet/phone, make the ferry to the “continental” USA, and drive home.

You people are the nicest people I have ever met. You’re polite, honest, friendly and calm. That whole “Vineyard Time thing,” is real. Thank you, and thank you again. We don’t know who it was that gave the police Janet’s wallet (are you kidding me, not in N.Y.), but thank you, too.

I’m coming back, I’d make a commercial for you! I will tell everyone how great it is to visit you there.

Charlie Arbuiso

Endwell, N.Y.