Bermuda 2016:
Day 4 - Horseshoe Bay

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Bermuda 2016: [Day 1 - Long Island] [Day 2 - St. George] [Day 3 - Dockyard] [Day 4 - Horseshoe Bay] [Day 5 - Hamilton] [Day 6 - Cup Match] [Day 7 - Crystal Cave] [Day 8 - Heading Home]

	Tuesday, July 26, 2016: We woke up to another beautiful day in Bermuda.
	We had a breakfast of champions: leftover rice and coleslaw from Island Spice, plus cherries and day-old malasadas from Lindo's. It turns out that these malasadas weren't delicious, but it was probably because of their age.
	Bermuda's currency is pegged to the US dollar, so US and Bermudian currency is interchangeable. We could pay with US dollars and get Bermudian change back. Their money is much prettier than ours, as you can see here. And when exactly are we going to embrace the two-dollar bill, America?
	We found this guy in the hallway of our cottage when we headed out for the day.
	To get to the beaches, we had to take bus route 8 toward Hamilton, so we headed down Middle Road to the bus stop marked with the pink post.
	At Paget Marsh, we got off the bus, crossed the street, and caught the route 7 bus to the beaches.
	Route 7 is similar to route 8 in that it travels between Hamilton and Dockyard, but it diverges at Paget and follows the south beaches before rejoining Middle Road just past Church Bay. Here's the entrance to Coco Reef, one of the resorts near Elbow Beach.
	Here's lovely Astwood Park.
	Our morning destination was Horseshoe Bay Beach, the most famous beach in Bermuda. It's a downhill walk from the entrance by the bus stop down to ...
	... the main park area, which features bathrooms, showers, chair and umbrella rental, ...
	... and a restaurant that we'd be visiting later.
	We scrambled up the rocky hill to the overlook to get the classic Bermuda shot.
	Here it is: Horseshoe Bay Beach. We had hoped to get there first thing Sunday morning before the cruise ships and other tourists arrived, but our travel mishaps prevented that, so we had to settle for a crowded mid-morning visit, but it worked out just fine.
	Looking down to the left, we could see that there was some good snorkeling to be had, ...
	... and looking around more to the right, there was more.
	Horseshoe Bay Cove is right next to Horseshoe Bay. Its calm, protected waters make it perfect for small children, and we decided to drop our stuff and enter the water here.
	We wore our snorkeling vests because we weren't familiar with the water currents and weren't supervised, but we really didn't need them. We tied a frozen water bottle to Debbie's vest and were able to stop for a drink from time to time.
	Let's look at some fish! Here's a blue tang, ...
	... and a stoplight parrotfish, ...
	... and a puddingwife, (pudding is delicious, by the way) ...
	... and a midnight parrotfish.
	We snorkeled from the cove around the back of the rocky hill, then stopped for some rest and ice water.
	If you look closely at this rock, you can see teethmarks from the parrotfish who have bitten at the coral growing on it.
	Parrotfish just like this blue parrotfish, in fact.
	Here's a blue angelfish. It is native to Bermuda and absolutely gorgeous. We got better photos of a couple that we saw later -- that is, they would have been better photos if the camera had actually been turned on. Sigh.
	This still life is titled "Brain Coral, Past and Present." You know, because that one on the left looks pretty dead.
	Ah, yes, there's our arch-nemesis, the long-spined sea urchin. We saw them from time to time, but not nearly as many as we regularly see in the Caribbean.
	That was fun! Time to eat!
	We lucked out and found an empty picnic table with an umbrella on the beach and organized our gear as we took turns showering and changing clothes. Then Debbie headed to the restaurant, Rum Bum, ...
	... while Tom found a table by the restaurant.
	With Bermuda being a British colony, we had to get fish and chips eventually, so here it is. With us being Americans, we also had to get a cheeseburger. Here is where we discovered the joys of Aardvark paper straws, and now our home has a full supply thanks to the URL printed on the wrapper.
	The walk back up the hill is a little less pleasant than the walk down, ...
	... but we made it, ...
	... and were rewarded with a shaded bus stop with what used to be a pink post.
	Ahhhhh, shade. It's still incredibly hot, but a little more tolerable than full sun.
	Back on the bus ...
	... and back to the pink-posted bus stop at Paget Marsh, ...
	... and across the street to the blue-posted bus stop to catch the next route 8 bus back to our hotel.
	The bus stops right in front of Lindo's Family Foods, so we went in to do a little more shopping. Debbie was transfixed by this huge display of British sauce mixes and got this photo to remember to do some online shopping when she returned home.
	We headed a couple of blocks back up Middle Road to our trusty cottage, ...
	... but it was in the process of being cleaned, ...
	... so we parked ourselves by the pool while we waited. Note the melting frozen water bottles that served us well all week.
	Check out our loot from Lindo's. Tucked in the far left of this bag is ...
	... Bermuda Fudge Co. fudge in two delicious flavors. This took care of our dessert cravings for the entire week and we still had plenty left to bring home with us.
	Back in the room, we spent the afternoon relaxing and enjoying air conditioning and the occasional glance outside at the colorful birds.
	This was our 20th anniversary so we exchanged gifts too.
	Since it was our anniversary, we got ourselves prettied up and headed to the Fourways' restaurant.
	Here it is. We are not much for upscale restaurants, but when you've been married 20 years, you should probably go fancy.
	We tried Bermuda's famous Dark & Stormy cocktail. We aren't rum fans so these $13 drinks were not delicious.
	Since we never got a water refill, we had to make these beverages last our entire meal. We started with a bread basket and a full candle taper.
	We ordered two appetizers. Here's the Fourways Sampling. From upper left, clockwise: Maine Lobster Morsel, Marinated Tuna Salad, Mozzarella with Tomato and Avocado, and Escargot.
	Here's the daily special Shrimp Cocktail. Both of these appetizers were $26 each, so let's do the math here. Let's see, carry the one, hmmm, that seems to work out to $13 per shrimp.
	Debbie had her heart set on the Chateaubriand. Back in her teen years, she was a busser at a fancy French restaurant and always admired the Chateaubriand, so it was nice to order it for the second time in her adult life.
	Here is the finished entree after tableside service. It was all very delicious, including the creamed spinach in tomato.
	Nothing compared to the dessert though -- we each ordered one of the famous Fourways Souffles. Debbie got the Grand Marnier, ...
	... and Tom had the peanut butter. These things were pure heaven and worth every penny. It was a nice touch that they had noted it was our anniversary when I made the reservations.
	At the end of our meal, our taper was nearly gone and our leftover beef had been stored in a little foil basket.
	We had absolutely no room left for the petits fours so they came back to the room with us to be enjoyed another day.
	We spent some time on the balcony when we got back, ...
	... enjoying the romantic sunset, ...
	... and the equally romantic flyover of the International Space Station. (It's just barely visible in the center of the larger version of this photo.) Day 5 >