Welcome to Bermie

Can I just say that Bermuda is amazing? Islands always seem to have a laidback feel to them. Every person we met was so friendly, strangers chatted freely with us everywhere we went. Our taxi driver gave us a tour on the way to the hotel. He "may" have two children, four total. This was a far cry short from the eighteen kids in the family he grew up in. Wow! When I was amazed at the beautiful color of the water, he told us they dye the water blue every day. He also told us about how the white roofs on the houses capture rainwater to be reused in the house.
This is the Fairmont Southampton hotel where we stayed.

When we walked out on the balcony of our room, we saw this amazing view of one of the two lighthouses on the island. That day we took it easy with a little ride down to the hotel's private beach. We saw a bunch of athletic looking men walking around the hotel, only to discover that our hotel was hosting the players in the international rugby tournament that week. We met a couple of Argentina's players on the trolley who met up with more of the team down at the beach. The water was C-O-L-D and very salty. We were pretty much the only ones in the water. I loved the perfect white sand. That night we had a little nail painting fiasco and watched Strictly Ballroom on my laptop. I was exhausted after staying up all night to pack, so we were in bed by 8 pm. :)

On Sunday, we were excited to try the Bermudian breakfast buffet at the hotel. Apparently, we went too early to get that part, so our breakfast as pretty non-Bermudian. We took the early ferry across the bay to Hamilton so we could catch a bus to church. Dai, the captain, let us take turns steering the boat.

Bermuda is actually very Christian. The city was pretty dead on Sunday with many businesses closed and the buses don't run very often. Although it made us a little late to church, I thought it was pretty awesome. We did see this parade of sorts with marching band. Not sure what is was for, but fun to see.

When we arrived, we were delighted to find out that the ward was having its Primary program. This little girl showed us, with a little shake, that the hand motions for Book of Mormon Stories are quite similar to the Macarena. Her mom was trying to coach her from the row in front of us, so the girl scowled at her, but angelically grinned when dad turned to look. The only other interesting event was some man came in late and was wandering around the stairs at the front of the chapel in the middle of the meeting. There were rooms back there, but still pretty strange.

After the meeting we went next door to see the caves, Crystal Cave and Fantasy Cave. There are miles of connected caves under Bermuda. Many of the connecting passages are so narrow, though, that you would need to remove your scuba tank to get through them.

Crystal Cave has a floating walkway down the length of it. I haven't been in a cave with so much water before. This cave was the inspiration for Fraggle Rock. Can you just see the Doozers building down here?

Most stalactites/stalagmites grow only one inch every hundred years, but these hollow straws grow six inches every hundred years.

One of our guides told us he drank too much the night before. We had an interesting conversation with the other, though. He is a member of the National Caves Association and went to a cave in New York called Howe's Cave which he quite enjoyed. I had no idea such a group existed.

We got on a bus and asked the driver to tell us when we reached our stop. After a bit, he told us it was the next one and then made us ring the bell before he would stop. Do you think they're monitored or something?

There are wild chickens allover Bermuda. As we walked into the parking lot at Spittal Pond, one of the chickens found a piece of food and twenty chickens were chasing it around and around. We laughed so hard!

The cliffs near Spittal Pond are exactly what I would choose for my Thoughtful Place if I were Pooh. The waves crashed and exploded high against the rocks. Very mesmerizing.

A rainstorm came up so we didn't spend too much time walking around the actual pond... besides it was kind of stinky.
Back in Hamilton, we wandered through this lovely park, searching for somewhere to eat (remember how everything is closed on Sunday?).

We finally found the Penny Hog where we enjoyed steak, eggs, and cajun potatoes with a barbeque hollandaise sauce. Delish!

We were just in time for the beautiful sunset on the ferry ride back to the hotel. Dai saved our seats and invited us to go on his boat on his day off. It slightly reminded us of Darrell. The hot tub was calling to us back at the hotel, which we shared with a mildly drunk and entertaining couple. There is also a cat that must live by the pool which kept an eye on us.