Bermuda

I'm writing this blog as I upload my photos from the trip. Some nights, I made it onto the balcony to type my impressions; other nights, I didn't. Hey, I was on vacation!

My peaceful impressions of our balcony the first night gave way to no desire to be out there less than eight hours later. As we hit the Gulf Stream, the trip became noticeably rougher. There were a lot less people out and about on board the ship, and a number of people (our travel companions among them) were feeling quite ill. Steve had put his patch on before we even boarded the ship; early on the morning of the second day, I abandoned my SeaBands for a patch of my own, which enabled me to be one of the ones moving about the ship, taking advantage of all of the on-board offerings.

By the third day, I started to feel as though I was getting my bearings on board the ship, and as though there was some degree of organization to our room. Our stateroom felt small when Leah's bed was pulled out, but was otherwise roomy enough to be comfortable and allow space for all of our (many) belongings.

We arrived in Bermuda around 8 am on Saturday (having left NY Harbor at 5 pm Thursday), and docked at The Royal Dockyard. Our first excursion was a horse and buggy tour of the west end of the island, which was fun. There were only nine of us in the buggy, and the guide shared a wonderful mix of landmarks and folklore. Leah took pictures of all of the brightly colored homes, and particularly enjoyed the story of the shark oil turning white to warn islanders of a hurricane. Little did we know how relevant that information would be less than a week after our return, and how relieved we'd be to be at home, instead of on a beach in Bermuda!

We didn't see the beaches, but did do quite a bit of shopping. We took a water taxi to Hamilton to check out the shops while the guys did a Segway tour. I would have liked to have done some exploring, but the consensus of the group was that we weren't spending enough time in port to add sightseeing to our agenda. Also, since this was our first port, we were reluctant to be too adventurous, especially once we'd separated into two groups. With the advantage of hindsight, I realize that if Bermuda had been one of our later destinations, I'd've been a bit braver.

As much fun as the cruise was, one of the downfalls was the limited time in port. There was so much to see, and it was hard to narrow our options. Guess I'll just have to go back so I can see all of the sights I missed the first time around!!