Category: photos

This weekend we met up with my parents and Hilary (briefly) for some relaxing at the sea. As is intended when going to the beach during the winter, we got some excellent storming, though Saturday itself was amazingly nice. So we walked, sat, ate, and had fun.

I’ve added pictures of it to my gallery. I doubt others care that much, but I love pictures from the beach because of the colors. The grays, blues, browns and yellows just seem so calming. As is the steady wind and noise from the waves.

I really like winter beaches. The steeper gradient is more interesting, as is the flotsam left behind. Still early in the season, the high tide had already carried logs up an access ramp. We even narrowly escaped a sneaker that had us scrambling onto the rocks. There was some evidence of mass wasting in areas, and always artifacts of people trying to hold onto their precious bluffs. Don’t they know they can never win?

Sunday we celebrated with friends at the Digit on Hogback Ridge. I almost hesitate to say it, but the trip was fun. I took a couple panoramas. The weather was perfect, the snow a nice addition.

This weekend Michelle and I attended Hop Madness 2004. I’ve written more about it at Rooftop Brew, so will only mention the pictures here. There are even a couple small movie clips of hop harvest items. Floating hops!

Matt was the only one to get any action shots from our trip to the Clackamas River two weeks back. He even got a sequence of me jumping from the high rock, which I’ve stitched together for the fun of it. As usual, I start in true “riding the invisible horse” form.

There is a fair amount of stuff missing from the photo, so use your imagination. I’ve spliced in one of my own photos of the same area to help fill in one of the empty spaces.

I’m combining day 6 and 7 because they were fairly uneventful. Plus, no one really cares anyway.

Saturday morning we woke to complete darkness. When your state room is in the middle of the ship, there’s never any clues as to what its like outside. There’s a channel on TV that shows the view from the bridge, but its annoying to look at. When we eventually did make it up to breakfast, we were surprised by the surrounding fog that had enveloped the boat. While reading in of of the comfortable chairs by the coffee bar, I heard some Boston natives lamenting about the weather. It was the comment that one of them made that captivated me the most:

“Those Bermutian bastards don’t know how good they got it.”

I barely stifled my laughter. Bermutian? like Martian? He was right though. It was raining and cold when we left Boston, and rainy and cold when we returned. But I think the Bermudians understand just how well they have it. I think that’s quite well reflected everywhere in the island.

We finally ended up eating with other people on the last morning. We’d managed to sit alone for meals until then, and liked it quite a bit. I’ve enjoyed sitting with others on cruises in the past, but they included my mom and grandpa, who are both very outgoing and could strike up conversation with Attila the Hun. Regardless, it wasn’t too bad, and we were able to talk dogs. That filled up almost 70% of the conversation, and the rest was either filled with us watching two of the older women at the table make confusing requests of the wait staff, or explaining that we were from Portland Oregon, not Portland Maine. They were surprised that we came all the way from Portland for the cruise, and I was surprised that 80+ percent of the people lived within an hour of the port.

All in all, the trip was amazing, and as I’ve typed this I’ve become eager for the next trip. Maybe we can try diving this next time.

Knowing it was our last day, we got up early, grabbed some food from the breakfast buffet and headed back to Tobacco Bay for a last bit of snorkeling. The beach was empty at 8am, but the sun was out, the water was calm, and the water wasn’t that cold once you got acclimated.

Michelle’s snorkel was acting up again so she returned to the beach and her book. I venture further and discovered a number of sea slugs, brilliant cobalt blue and yellow fish, and even some crabs. The fish were much more plentiful than before, so I waved Michelle back in. She wasn’t to happy having just dried off and settled in, but she came back out and swam around with just her mask on. After a while she headed back in and I ventured further down the coast. I found several golf balls since we were near a course. I kept an faded orange one because it had Japanese characters on it. I swallowed a few mouthfuls of sea water (accidentily) and decided to head back in. We relaxed on the beach for a while before strolling back into town and on to the boat. We boarded around 11:00am, showered and found some good spots topside for watching the departure.

Departure was a little after noon, and we soaked up some sun until heading through “The Cut” and back towards Boston. Leaving the island was kind of sad. Its such a gorgeous place, and the white roofed houses (they collect rainwater for drinking water) were visible as we sailed away.

Back at sea (and Michelle’s birthday – I didn’t remember until mid-afternoon), we read a bit, played some cards, and relaxed. After beating her badly at two games, she returned to beat me at two. Dinner was horrible, service wise. There was at least a 30 minute delay between courses, and my meal was improperly prepared. We left without desert. I didn’t dare point out that it was Michelle’s birthday. She’s got some being-sung-to-in-public-phobia. I think I do too.

Fortunately, there was a midnight chocolate bar, so we ventured up and feasted on fruits dipped in chocolate, cakes of chocolate, and even my leftover dinner dipped in chocolate. We ate quickly because the two couples we were seated at weren’t happy people.

Today we had big plans to it the western parishes again for some snorkeling and pick up some gifts. We caught the #10 to Hamilton earlier than usual but were unaware that it was on a school run. This means that it winded its way through several small neighborhoods we’d not seen yet. It extended the ride by at least 20 minutes, but I’m really glad we happened upon the bus. The interaction between the pedestrians and the bus drivers, and even the interaction between all motorists is very friendly. There seems to be a custom where you honk at people you know, and they honk back. All the car horns are the “meep” type found on Japanese cars. Even the busses had benign horns.

Most of the honking was a single sounding, though sometimes people would honk twice, or even three times on a rare occasion. I never figured out what the differences were. The seemed to relate to traffic issues like right of way and such, but I’m not sure. The honking was both annoying and cute at the same time.

Anyway, we got to Hamilton, and then took the Ferry across the great sound to the Dockyard again, did some shopping, then took the #7 down to Somerset Village. There’s not much there, but we were looking for snorkeling. We ended up doing some walking to get to the Somerset Long Beach, which turned out to be a lame snorkeling site. However, the walk, like the bus ride, was very enjoyable. We got to see some out of the way houses and the “impoverished” part of the island. Considering the mean per capita income is $68k, (among the highest in the world) poverty has a very different face in Bermuda than in less fortunate countries like the Bahamas, Jamaica, Haiti, and the United States.

The two places we had looked at snorkeling were a bust, so we headed back to grab some lunch then try some spots on St. David’s Island (including a shipwreck). Sadly, while we were on the boat for lunch, it had to change its mooring, which took nearly 2 hours, and we missed our bus rides to St. Davids. We watched some shore hands struggle with the lines for so long that it was painful. They appeared so inept that it really made us wonder where the extra $200 in port fees that every cruise ship docking in Bermuda was going.

We looked around St. George for a while, winded through some alleyways, and spent some time at Tobacco Bay. While there, we watched an entourage of around 60 cars and scooters packed with teens tooled around looking for a party.

Since the boat was leaving Bermuda in the morning, we went to bed a little early so we could fit some more snorkeling in before leaving.

Today we hit up Hamilton, the largest city and capitol of Bermuda. Getting there from St. George required us to once again hop on the #10. After 40 minutes, we were on Front Street. After a quick stop at Albuoy’s Point (see panorama), we did a walking tour that mixed points of interest with shopping. Hamilton is where you’ll find high fashion, cheap gemstones, and criminal corporations avoiding taxes (see Tyco).

We included several gardens, like Par La Ville Park, the city hall/art gallery, Anglican and Catholic churches, state houses, and other small attractions. The parks are well kept, and are the very same that Mark Twain visited while he was enjoying Bermuda. St. Theresa’s Catholic Church was an impressive building, as was the Anglican cathedral. These two were among the dozen or so religious offices within a few blocks. St. Theresa’s was on a corner by with a mosque, a bahai temple, and First Church of Christ, Scientist. I guess harmony is in the air.

After catching the bus (yup, the #10) back to St. George, and grabbing some lunch, we walked over the island to Tobacco Bay for some snorkeling. It was crawling with cruisers and locals, and the small bay was cloudy and barren. So many feet created very turbid water that was bad for animals and visibility. However, just outside the small bay was some great snorkeling. Plenty of reefs and interesting rocks, as well as a good variety of fish. I even encountered a gang of 8 spiny lobsters.

Michelle’s snorkel tube crapped out, so she enjoyed the sun and a book while I ventured up the coast. I probably went further than was wise, but it was gorgeous, the water was calm, and I wanted to see some fish.

We took our time at the beach then meandered back to town through small alleyways. St. George is a beautiful town whose charm only increases with the setting sun. Even into darkness, the streets are welcoming. We walked for a while after dinner then enjoyed some Guinness Foreign Exports on the top deck, overlooking the city. We tried to find a good tap in town, but didn’t have much luck.