As summer turns the corner from July to August, it’s easy to find yourself yearning for a respite from the high temperatures, traffic and long lines of the hectic summer season. A picnic can be a great way to slow down, appreciate your surroundings and remember why so many people choose to visit, or make their home on the Vineyard.

What follows are some ideas to help plan a vacation within a vacation, with three different budgets and locations.

When Joe DaSilva starts talking about his cooking career, little of it has to do with food. He talks about the people and conversations that start over a meal. Eating is an experience, he says, that doesn’t rely solely on the ingredients. Sometimes you just have to go back to the basics.

It is high summer on the Vineyard and nowhere more than at l’étoile restaurant in Edgartown, where customers are filling up the dining rooms indoors and out and sitting shoulder to shoulder at the bar late into the night.

And the food being prepared for them is a work of art. Well, actually it’s the work of an artist.

The Slow Food movement and Martha’s Vineyard have a lot in common, and not just in our delight in eating locally grown plants and animals.

In the 1970s McDonald’s set its sights on the Island, targeting an area along the Vineyard Haven harbor. But the people said no. A grass roots campaign sent fast food packing.

Similarly, in Italy in 1986 the voracious appetite of McDonald’s spurred another movement that harkened back to a simpler and healthier time.

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

It was showtime this week at Martha’s Vineyard Chowder Company, a new restaurant in the old Dreamland building in Oak Bluffs. The space is across the street from the Flying Horses. Diners will remember the spot as formerly the Ocean Club, formerly Balance and at one time Danny Quinn’s, at 9 Oak Bluffs avenue. As of Tuesday night, after much preparation and waiting, it is officially the Martha’s Vineyard Chowder Company.