MITSUGIRLYS DAWN TO BERMUDA NOVEL (or review as some may call it)

I promised to continue my review today and I'm sorry it's taking so long. I have not been feeling up to par recently. I developed a super nasty hacking cough while I was on the ship and have a sinus infection. It has just really been dragging me down lately and it got to the point where it was a little hard to breathe today. I feel like I have asthma (and I don't). Ugh! I took a long nap after work and now I'm back for the next segment. My apologies for taking so long.

Feel better! Hopefully someone is taking care of you as well as you usually take care of everyone else!

Grew up all over, USAF brat, but now live in Canada and it's POP to us too!

Our plans for the day consisted of taking the #7 bus and getting dropped off at Warwick Long Bay and working our way back toward Horseshoe Bay for the remainder of the day. Depending on how long it took us, stopping to enjoy each little place, would depend on whether or not we were able to catch the last bus heading back toward the dockyard (which left Hamilton at 4:30pm) or if we would just catch a cab and pay the outrageous price to get us all back. I was prepared to do either.

Here is a map I had to help me along:

For those of you that only want to visit Horseshoe Bay and want to take the express shuttle bus there, this service is offered for the price of $16 round trip. It only goes to Horseshoe and back.

We got off the shuttle train at the bus stop. As I said, we all had decided before arriving to Bermuda that we forego the "discount" and just pay cash on the bus to save time and waiting in lines.

There was a guy standing there directing people on what bus to get on. We told him we were going to the Southshore beaches and getting off at Warwick. I had known from all my research that I needed to be on the #7 bus. However, when the #7 pulled up (and it said Hamilton), he told me NO! He said that it was going directly to Hamilton and not where I wanted to go and would not be stopping at the beaches at Southshore. All those months of research and planning and he's telling me I'm wrong? I was really thrown off about this.

(Can anyone tell where this is going yet?)

The bus filled up and pulled away and we were left standing waiting for another bus.

When the next bus came, it said "Special"...ok, this can't be the bus we needed. When I approached him again, he seemed like he was put off by my questions and told me that this was the bus we needed to get to the Southshore beaches. I once again said we were going to Warwick. He started shouting "passes or tokens only".

(What about now, can anyone tell where this is going?)

I thought I would take this opportunity once again to ask another question. I ask if this bus took tickets and showed him my tickets. He replied "Yes". So when we went to get on, he said "Only passes, tickets or tokens" in which I replied "I thought you take cash as well". He said only the correct change...which is what we had.

Once again...just trying to catch the d*@#*&^ bus and get to our destination and he's telling us we need "coins". WE HAVE THE CORRECT CHANGE!!!! You just said we could use the correct change! Nope, must go by coins.

At this point I'm super aggravated and the bus is almost full. We are once again going to miss another bus and this jerk is really being nasty to us and had the biggest attitude. I have read so many things in the past about how Bermuda is so different than any other place you visit. The people are super nice and friendly. This first impression of Bermuda so far and their "friendliness" is giving me a bad taste in my mouth and not starting out on a good foot.

Kendra and family came out with their "coins" and at this point I'm standing there saying "Is there even any room for us on the bus still???" He said "You can stand" I already knew from my research that it would take about 40 minutes to get to our destination...no thank you. However, I did see some seats on the bus and we were going to take them!

We got on the bus as there were actually 6 seats left. We let the 2 little ones just sit on our laps and it all worked.

LESSON LEARNED...the terminology of "correct change only" means CHANGE...AS IN COINS! My terminology of correct change means you have the right amount of money for the trip and do not expect to get any money back. There's a big difference and I did not know this. So, they will not accept any dollar bills. I will know this next time we visit.

It was now 12:05 and we were finally pulling out. This day is not off to a good start, but I did feel comfort in knowing that we had already decided that we would catch a taxi back to the dockyard to maximize our time at the southshore beaches...so no worries...I had hoped.

I already knew that I would need to preserve my battery the best I could for the day...after all, I had a lot of beautiful beach pictures to take. However, when it's your first trip somewhere, it's hard not to resist taking pictures. I developed a habit of turning on the camera, snap a picture, turning it off...repeat...over and over and over and over....the entire cruise. UGH!

As we pulled out of the dockyard, I tried to pay attention to things along the way that I had read about. I tried figuring out when we made it to the area of sea glass beach and Black Bay and so on...snapping pictures along the way.

My apologies in advance for some of the crappy pictures. Remember, we're on a moving bus and I have an excited 7 year old on my lap trying to see everything as well.

I'm not sure what this was. Maybe just a site seeing tour?

Looking at this picture, maybe some of these pics are from our ride back to the dockyard. I know I was not sitting in the very back of the bus taking pictures out of the back window...so let's just pretend for the sake of me having to figure out which pictures go on what part. ;o)~

I was trying to figure out where the buildings are that have been described so many times in the directions on how to walk to sea glass beach. I remember seeing the buildings from "above" on google earth and then the street that goes in between them to cut down behind them to find the path to sea glass.

I'm not sure if these were the buildings or not. It kinda looked that way to me. They didn't look to be in great shape and there was trash laying around. They almost looked like they might have been abandoned?

I know shortly after that would be Black Beach (if you can even see this from the road). Maybe this is it?

Where they keep the friendly people pink buses at:

Yea, I'm going to adventure and say that maybe we weren't on the bus for this picture either. Just saying...But let's just pretend for the sake of the story.

I really love how colorful the houses are here.

Oh whoops, maybe all my pictures are backwards tonight...daddy and Sakari on the choo choo shuttle train in the beginning. LOL

(I'm just seeing if you guys are paying attention that's all...gotta keep you on your toes).

So we are into the ride about 20 minutes and I noticed the split off where the #7 bus heads down the southshore and the #8 bus would continue down Middle Rd (I believe it is...I would have to pull out my map to confirm the name...just going off memory).

So I knew we were getting close to Horseshoe. I had a bad feeling about this. I looked at my husband and told him "I can guarantee we are not going to Warwick. I bet this bus only goes to Horseshoe and this guy at the port didn't direct us to the correct bus even though I told him a good 3 times where we were going".

The bus stopped at Horseshoe. Everyone got off. The entire family looked at me for direction and did not budge until they seen me get up after the entire bus emptied. LOL (Ducks).

I went up to the driver and ask about Warwick. WITH AN ATTITUDE...she was like "wrong bus! Why are you on this bus if you are going to Warwick?" Wow, what a friendly voice you have big bad wolf...I mean grandma. I explained to her that we told the guy at the bus stop where we were going 3 times and he put us on this bus. She said she was not going to Warwick and we would need to either walk down the street or go to Horseshoe and walk the beach there. Well, that completely defeated my plans of walking from Warwick to Horseshoe to remain the rest of the day and as late as we wanted to stay, there would probably be no way to catch a taxi that late at Warwick. THANKS BERMUDA FOR SCREWING UP MY DAY AND MY PERFECTLY PLANNED ROUTE...that I had been working on for months. I JUST KNEW IT! I had a bad feeling about it from the beginning and I was correct. This day was just going down the sh*tter really quick.

She did not offer any other solution other than walking down the road or beach. Non-helpful at all. I mentioned..."Is there another bus that stops here that would take us on down that way??" She sighed (seriously) and starred at me and then said "So you are telling me you need a transfer??? For all of you???" Well......if that's the only way to get there obviously...duh

She pulled out a small piece of paper and flipped it over and wrote on the back transfer, the date and what I assumed was her initials and handed to me. I ask her where to go and she pointed at this little hut. I inquired how long it would be before the bus would come and she said "The next bus should be here within a few minutes"

Sigh. FAIL!

We all piled out of the bus and into the bus stop...where we would wait....and wait...and wait.

Yea, everyone seemed happy at this point, but we had just arrived here. The smiley faces went off their faces after awhile and I felt like I had failed my family with my planning.

I have been so excited to read your review! My other half Jon and I just got back from Bermuda on the Breakaway (May 31- Jun 7).. We freaking loved it. We ended up spending our beach time on St George, tobacco and St Catherine's. Had incredible snorkeling and weather.. Our second day there we rented a Boston Whaler from Sommerset Bridge Watersports.. Our time was so awesome that now Jon is buying a small boat.. lol not kidding, he lost his damn mind.

I saw a preview post you might have done the same. Omg we loved it! We saw numerous stingrays going along.. Stopped to snorkel off some of the little islands.. Jon was so nuts he went into the water by the shipwreck and fed the fish.. I stayed in the boat and threw bread at his head.. Still laughing because he was stressing for me to it again as he was with his mask under the sea.. I love the man but he has a screw loose..

Try and find a kids sail free on the breakaway. It was just the two of us, we had a casino invite from a local casino here.. Yup we are degenerates. :)

Seriously we had zero complaints..

So I am thrilled to revisit the beautiful island through your review until next time we find our way there..

~Tracy

We sat at the bus stop for 20 minutes...and by now, the bus we were on had now turned around and was coming back toward us. So...obviously they go on down a ways in order to turn around and head back to the dockyard. It would have been nice if she would have just been able to drop us off down there. I bet she passed several bus stops along the way. But I get it. She's a "Special" bus and she probably isn't allow to do that. I'm just aggravated that's all.

The kids are entertaining themselves and it's hot out and I'm just getting more and more worried that this next bus is not "coming in a few minutes"...since it had been at least 40-45 minutes. According to my #7 bus schedule, there should be a bus running about every 30 minutes or so. The only bus that left ahead of us at the dockyard left a good 15-20 minutes before us. There was not a bus after that. So, if my calculations were correct, there hadn't been a bus go by there for at least an hour.

I just kept asking the family "What do you want to do? Do you just want to continue to waste time waiting on another bus or should we just walk down to Horseshoe and decide what to do once we get there?" They, of course, looked at me astonished like they had never been put in the position to make such an executive decision and they gave me that "deer in the headlights" look and froze. Ducklings posing as deers do not do well in a role change...just saying.

I would pull rank and make the executive decision that we were heading to Horseshoe Bay. We had wasted enough time on this not-so-wonderful bus system and it was hot and I just wanted to be in the nice cool water at this point...any water. Momma duck would have settled for a puddle at this point. (No it was not that hot outside, it was actually PERFECT outside. I was so grateful for the day it turned out to be. There were clouds in the sky keeping the heat at a good temp and it was truly the most beautiful day I could ever ask for).

So away we went...crossing the street and headed in the direction of where we had seen several people go.

I seen this sign, so I knew we were headed in the right direction.

Somehow my ducklings must have lost faith in my ability to do effective planning for the day and I ended up at the back of the line. That's ok, let poppa duck lead the way since he's never planned a day of our vacations in his life. LOL

We were walking down the hill and I must say it really seemed like a walk. (Back to that feeling of going somewhere for the first time and it seems to take forever). It's definitely quite a hill and not at all what I had pictured.

We made it to the scooter parking lot. I felt like we must be getting close now.

And the rest of the parking lot:

Wash the sand off stations for I guess for munchkins...or maybe it's just a foot washing station. There was no time to stop and find out...keep going ducklings!!!

WE MADE IT!!!

Wow the waves looked a little well...wavy. I decided not to put the burden on the rest of the clan because I didn't want another deer in the headlights look from all them and went to Kendra instead and ask what we should do. Our choices were to stay here or head over and take the long haul down all the beaches in the reverse order that I had planned, which meant we would have to also turn around and come back that way again. She sighed and I left it up to her. She said if we were going to be doing it in reverse order, we might as well start here and pointed over to the "baby beach" at Horseshoe. Sounds good to me...at this point just give me some ocean water.

We headed that way.

We arrived and I was a little shocked to see that there really wasn't very many people in this area.

Before we could even get situated Sakari was already off and running into the water. I absolutely love the water and she loves it like me x10.

We picked a spot and put our things down in the sand and claimed our real estate for the day...which happened to be in the middle of that small beach and in the sun (which was odd for the hubby, he usually likes to find a shady spot).

I was off to explore a few of the nooks and crannies.

There were all kinds of neat places to explore here.

How's the water Sakari?

I was not in all the way at this point. Yes, the water was a little cool, but not too bad and I usually quickly get use to the water after a few minutes. However, Sakari decided it was time that I got fully use to the water and jumped in enough to completely cool me down....ugh, kids. I like to do it on my own time thank you. She decided it was time for me to get wet whether I was ready or not.

What a beautiful bird. There were several nest up in the rocks around the little bay.

We all headed into the water and explored for awhile. We snorkeled, but I have to say the water was all churned up so there really was no way to get any good pictures. I took several and they are all pretty crappy. There were some really huge parrot fish in the area (which is something I had read up on prior to coming, but I had heard a lot of people mention that you would find really huge ones over at Stonehole Beach during our walk from Warwick).

I climbed the rocks to take pictures and it was much easier to see the huge parrot fish from up there.

They were seriously huge. Probably the biggest parrot fish I have ever seen before were here in Bermuda and this wouldn't be the only day we seen them this big. They just kept getting bigger and bigger.

Sakari watching the fish

The rocks in the area and super pointy and jagged. I did not know this and man it would be super easy to get cut up on them. I had to be extra careful since I'm so danger prone on vacations. The last thing I needed was to fall and break something. I got myself into an area along the edge and wasn't really sure how to get back out. So what happens in that case? You just jump off the rocks back into the water. Problem solved. Yea, I took the easy way down.

Like always, I'm always searching for the "neat little things" that people normally wouldn't think to take pictures of. The waves churning back and forth, the rocks in the water would fill up when the tide comes in and when it goes back out they would "drain".

After the hubby seen the fun I was having, he decided to adventure out on the rocks too.

"Hey, give me that camera and I'll take some pictures of you from up here"

Well if that wasn't a fake "I'm snorkeling pose" then I don't know what is...I look more like I'm water tanning.

Hubs decided he was going on up to see the view

Dontcha love water spots

More of the family climbing on the rocks and in the water below

Sakari found something interesting over there by the rocks and spent a great deal of time there for some reason. I think she was finding small snails because she brought me a few.

Us girls decided to snorkel the entire area to see what we could find. Once again...crappy churned up water pics.

I honestly didn't find many interesting things in the area (as far as fish) other than the size of the parrot fish. We still had a lot of fun though.

I managed to find a huge snail and had to show Sakari that my snail was bigger than her snail (which happened to be about the size of a fingernail).

Kendra inspecting the snail and having the nerve to ask me if that was really a snail down inside it and if it was real. LOL She quickly found out the answer to her question while she was holding it that it suctioned to her hand and she let out a squeal and I caught it in a picture just in time as everyone was laughing at her over it. Tell me we weren't having a good time. Just look at those faces.

At this point we were getting a little bored with the area (and when I say "we" I mean Kendra & I because the guys are perfectly happy never having to move more than a few inches from their prime real estate any place we go). We decided that we would just sneak off to the other side of Horseshoe and explore.

We found a cave

Yep, we're going in girls. It was quite the task to make it in there with the slippery rocks in the water below our feet and the huge waves crashing in on us. It would prove to be an adventure.

Once inside I seen a nest up in the rocks with some long tail feathers hanging out. I knew this must be the Bermuda Long Tail bird. She did not bother us and we did not bother her.

There were areas that headed off into the cave and we are not adventurous enough to even try it.

I took a few pictures of the entrance

Then a few goofy pictures before we left

Trying to make our way back out.

Shayla got pounded by the waves

Looking back at the beach. It had gotten a little crowded throughout the day.

I have no idea what this thing was on the beach. Anyone?

The girls decided they wanted to stay in the area and "ride the waves". This is one of Kendra's favorite things to do. She likes the water like this. Me, not so much. I rather have the calmer water so that I can snorkel or at least look around under water without actually taking in the water. LOL Riding the waves takes a little bit of effort.

I decided to head back over toward the baby bay beach area and I was on a mission to climb the rocks and take pictures of the area.

The path leading up was a little tricky. It looked like someone chiseled out foot prints for people to walk up. I climbed them keeping safety in mind and talking it over in my mind about how I could NOT get hurt or fall or break something.

I made it to the top without incident. Looking down at baby bay and seeing the family at our real estate.

I spotted Sakari down there. There was an extremely nice little family that decided to adopt her today. She just hung out with them the rest of the day and they didn't seem to mind. Sakari is a big social bug and will talk to anyone and make friends with everyone.

The hubs looks a little hot and Billy was getting his tanning his tats.

The views from up here were amazing. It's so weird to be down below and you are in your little area not realizing what's on the other side of the huge rocks that are protecting you. Once you are up on the rocks, you have a whole new perspective on things and it's an amazing feeling.

Looking over at Horseshoe Bay

I spotted the girls

I yelled "Kendra" not expecting them to be able to hear me all the way down there plus with the sounds of the waves. She must have had bionic hearing and eyesite to spot where I was.

This area looked kind of neat from up here. It almost looked like an oil spill in the water or a rainbow. I know it was the rocks under the surface, but it was still kinda neat. Do you see it?

I finally caught me a picture of the Long Tail Bird

And another

Selfie

Time to head back down and I wasn't looking forward to it. I knew that going down was going to be a lot harder than going up. I watched as people tried to climb down as I was waiting my turn to go up the path. They were hanging onto anything around them and sliding. Just great.

It looks easy enough, until you are actually doing it. They get smaller and they are not a flat surface.

I had made it back and all was good.

When Sakari seen me, she immediately wanted me to come snorkel with her. I was hot from being up on the rock so out we went.

As we were in the water a guy (teenager) was standing on the other side of this rock wall. He tells me "There's a really neat little "pool like" area back here with tons of little fish, you should come check it out". I ask him how to get back there and he pointed in the direction I needed to go. Sakari and I headed that way, which required us to basically climb up on a slippery rock that was IN the water, down into the little area that was also slippery, holding on to the jagged rocks, and then at one point going down the path you had to step down into this open rock area that was hard to determine how deep it was...all while trying to hold the hand and balance a munchkin and myself. NOT easy and I'm now wondering what this guy got me in to. I just wanted to turn around and go back and I ask Sakari several times if she wanted to go back. She encouraged me to keep going and keep going we did.

We finally made it to this area and while it was "cute", it definitely wasn't worth the hassle of getting there. Thanks dude.

I told Sakari this was not safe and I didn't feel safe being here. She begged to at least go in the little "pool" before leaving and I lowered her in while trying to hang on to myself at the same time.

A picture of the area right beside us and the beach.

I love what you've shown us so far. And I'm a little jealous that you actually got to Bermuda! We went on a cruise towards the end of the season (so, hurricane season) and the week we booked was the week Hurricane Gonzolo hit the island. We ended up in the in Nassau and GSC so I'm not complaining, but we'll get there eventually.

She came up with her trophy...another snail

Can you tell the girl hasn't come out of the water yet today? Look at those wrinkled hands.

It was time to head back out down the slippery, rocky path. I was never more happy to get out of there!

Back at the camp, the hubby went and got a hamburger and some fries. The fries were really yummy! Like seriously cooked crispy and yummy.

Since my last cruise, I came up with a plan to start bringing my own pop to the beaches with us and it worked out pretty well that time, so I figured why not do it again this time. I have a small soft cooler that we use and it holds about 6 cans in it. We have the room steward fill 2 zip lock baggies about 1/2 full and we place them around the cans. It works great and no leaky mess. When we are done with it, the cooler actually fold up and velcros flat. Score!!

From my research I knew that they sold cheeseburgers for $5.75, French Fries for $4.00 and their soda was $3.00. They also had things like hotdogs and chicken sandwiches and also an ice cream store there as well.

The birds must know that the fries there are awesome too. They sure were loving us and taking the fries. They didn't care how close they had to get. The hubby actually had a few of them take it right out of his hand and if you weren't looking, they didn't think twice about snatching your food and running.