Rat for Dinner!

We of course had guests in town this weekend. We are slightly sad, yet feeling okay that we don't have another set if guests until September. While I am sick of running a bed and breakfast (mainly washing sheets and organizing meals), we have really enjoyed having people visit us. We have explored so much of the island and it has given me a purpose for the past 2 months. We have so many great family and friends, and people are always welcome to visit in the future. Part of the allure of moving to Bermuda was the idea that people could come visit us in a wonderful location...not that Erie, PA wasn't appealing, but Bermuda has so much more attraction.

This weekend was full of fun and surprises. Sarah and Amy from Erie visited us for four days. We took them around the island, got some good beach time in, and almost served them a rat for dinner! Yes....I had been noticing some odd droppings in our grill, but after cleaning them out and not knowing exactly what they were, we continued to grill away. Grilling came to a screeching halt on Thursday when Ryan discover the source of the dropping was a giant rat making a home on the burners of our grill. I was at volleyball during this fiasco and came home at 9pm without dinner on the table. The rat had to be chased out of the grill with a broom. Once out, the grill was completely torn apart and cleaned. Our guests weren't grossed out and actually said that the heat would burn off anything offensive. Ryan still did a great job cleaning it out and may have spent a few extra minutes pre-heating the grill on Thursday. Ahhh...what do you do! Tropical islands breed big rats and big bugs, it is just one of the adjustments.

Speaking of rats, Bermuda doesn't have a large amount of wildlife. Bermuda actually has no native mammals. There are no squirrels, deer, snakes, chipmunks, etc... There are many feral cats and the rats have become quite active this summer. I am not sure why rats and mice are here, but I am guessing they came in on shipping boats many years ago. According to Wikipedia, "Over 360 species of bird have been recorded on Bermuda. The majority of these are migrants or vagrants from North America or elsewhere. Only 24 species breed; 13 of these are thought to be native." One bird you will see often in the summer is the Longtail which arrives in Bermuda in the spring and means that spring and summer in Bermuda has arrived. The longtails are beautiful birds and have way more appeal than a seagull which is what they remind me off.

We went out to eat this weekend at The Pickled Onion. While finishing our dinner, a camera crew came over to our table. They were from The Travel Channel and were filming a new series titled, "Castaway." They videotaped us finishing our drinks and we may be on TV. If you happen to tune into The Travel Channel and see a clip about Bermuda, look for our smiling faces!

Until next time...

Tame Fish...

My sister was in town this week and we had a great time. The first thing we decided to do was the Harley's Helmet Diving. We thought the concept was quite crazy, but we actually had a great time! The helmet you wear works like a glass turned upside down in water, no water enters the helmet as you submerge yourself 10 feet down to the ocean floor. They put the heavy helmet on your head right before you enter the water. There is continuous air flow to your helmet while you walk along the ocean floor. The crazy thing is that your head stays completely dry and you can actually put your hand up into the mask and touch your face. There were 30 people on the boat, but they took your down in groups of 8. Each group got at least 25 minutes underwater. You learn about sea life and get to actually touch the fish. Mr. Hartley has a stick with words on it and points to things like coral, sea anemone, and fish. They craziest thing about it is that the fish are trained. Now you may think I am crazy for saying that, but seriously, they know when you are down there and come up right to you. One swam through my legs and another giant hog fish actually tried to take a chomp out of my pink painted finger nails. Mr. Hartley can actually pass a fish to each person and you have the opportunity to hold it for a few seconds. He then rewards the fish with some food just like you would a dog for good behavior. I am sure they have just learned to be tame based on a food reward, but it was still crazy how close the fish were. We loved it and would recommend it to others!

We also went snorkeling off the beach at Tobacco Bay which is in St. George's Parish. We hadn't been there yet because it is about a 30 minute drive from our house. Okay that sounds crazy, 30 minutes, but on a scooter we sometimes don't like to drive that far. Tobacco Bay was great. I think it was the best off shore snorkeling I have seen in Bermuda. Ryan still like Snorkel Park in Dockyard, but I saw many varieties of fish at Tobacco Bay that I have never seen.

This Sunday we also decided to finally go to one of the giant Sunday Brunches in Bermuda. It is $40 a person, but worth the price. Brunches in Bermuda don't start until 11:30am, but that means they have sushi, fresh fish that they grill in front of you, and the best dessert bar I have seen in a long time. We decided to go to Four Ways Inn and enjoyed ourselves...maybe too much!

Another set of guests next weekend then we have some breaks while we leave the island for a few trips to the US.

Until next time...

The Bermuda 4th

We had friends in town this past weekend. It was fun to have guests again, especially since they were our age and wanted to go out on the town (no offense to the old folks that just visited...we love you too).

The weekend was especially fun because it was the fourth of July. Ryan and I volunteered a few hours at the American Society of Bermuda and the US Consulates 4th of July bash and got free tickets for the event. There was a huge BBQ dinner and beer and mojitos. The fireworks were set off right from the beach and were actually pretty good. We felt just like we were living in the US as the DJ was playing, "God Bless the USA." It was actually a little weird to be out of the USA and still be attending such a huge 4th of July bash. There were over 6,000 people in attendance and I heard it is the biggest 4th celebration outside of the USA. I am not sure if that is true, but it was pretty spectacular.

We continue to play volleyball two nights a week and have a great time meeting people and getting out to the beach more then I would have ever imagined. We go to the beach at least once a weekend and twice a week for volleyball. The water is warm now and it is just too beautiful to pass up. Yesterday we went to the beach with two scooters and were able to get 4 beach towels, 1 beach mat, 1 beach chair, a small cooler, and 2 beach umbrellas! We sure have a hang of this scooter riding thing.

My sister Amanda comes Wednesday, so I am sure we will have more stories to come.

Until next time...

If you like pina coladas...

This weekend we had Ryan's dad and step-mom in town. We finally had some decent weather and were able to get out and about. June has been an extremely rainy month for us, which is good for our water tank, but bad for visiting guests! Our water tank is so full that at its highest, we had only two inches before it would overflow into the yard. Ryan and I took the longest showers after we found that out!

On Thursday, I found a coconut on the beach and decided to take it home. Ryan wanted nothing to do with this coconut, but I decided that I would break it open survivor style and drink the coconut milk. Ryan's dad Gary was also all about this coconut and we got some tools out to attempt to cut it open. When I was washing off the coconut, I thought it smelled a little funky, but that didn't deter us from cutting it open. When we finally cut it open, what came out was the most rotten smelling milk you could ever imagine. It was so smelly that it immediately induced a gag reflex! This coconut was a learning experience....only eat the coconuts that you have directly pulled from the tree. A coconut that has been laying on the beach in the salt water and blazing sun is NOT an afternoon treat!

When Gary and Kathy were here, we also decided to rent a boat for the day. It was $260 for a 10-12 person pontoon boat for eight hours! We had it all to ourselves. It was great to take the boat out in the ocean and we were able to stop where ever we wanted. We snorkeled, stopped to look at a sunken ship, and just lounged in the ocean. It was a great way to see Bermuda.

We also went out to eat at one of our new favorite restaurants. Bistro J is located in Chancery Lane in Hamilton. It is a small restaurant and has different menu items every night. The dishes are listed on a big chalk board on the wall. I have enjoyed eating fresh Bermuda fish such as Wahoo.

Ryan found out on Thursday that he passed his final actuarial exam! He is now considered a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society. This is huge news as he has been studying for these 9 exams for the past 8 years of his life. We are excited that he is done and we can enjoy Bermuda without the burden of study season. We are both thrilled....what an accomplishment!

I can't believe it is already July this week. Time flies when you are having fun.

Until next time...

Filled Milk

Today I have decided to talk about milk. Ryan and I love milk and while living in the states, we would buy 3 gallons at a time just for the two of us. Since coming to Bermuda we have been shocked by a few things. There is only one distributor of milk for the whole island. Milk only comes in half gallons and a half gallon costs between $3.50-$4.50 (Yes that equals at least $7 a gallon....if of course we were so lucky to be able to by them in gallons). Also milk only comes in paper cartons, not plastic. Plastic prolongs the shelf life of milk, so since we have to buy the paper cartons, we are forced to drink the milk quickly before it expires. Since we don't want to buy too many half-gallons at a time, we end up going to the store to buy milk at least 2-3 times a week.

The subject matter that inspired this post was actually the concept of "filled milk." I have never heard of filled milk before here and for good reason, filled milk was banned by the US Congress in 1923. The Filled Milk Act was incorporated in response to intense lobbying by the dairy industry. According to Wikipedia, "Filled milk is skim milk that has been reconstituted with fats, usually vegetable oils, from sources other than dairy cows and only exists as evaporated milk. Like pure evaporated milk, filled milk is generally considered unsuitable for drinking because of its particular flavor, but is equivalent to evaporated milk for baking and cooking purposes. Other filled milk products with substituted fat are used to make ice cream, sour cream, whipping cream, and half-and-half substitutes among other dairy products." What I can't figure out is that the filled milk on the shelves in Bermuda is a liquid in a half gallon unlike evaporated milk. Ryan actually had filled milk in a milk shake yesterday and it tasted quite good. I am not really sure what to think, but the concept of vegetable oils in my milk makes me want to stick with the good old skim milk we are used to.

Until next time...

Bermuda in the News...

Today in the city of Hamilton there was a huge protest on the capital's lawn. Signs were being held that said, "Out with Brown." Dr. Ewart Brown is the Premier [President] of Bermuda. According to the article, Protesters demand Bermuda premier's resignation, Dr. Brown made the decision (without consulting Britain) to allow 4 detainees into Bermuda to live and work. These Chinese Muslims were released from Guantanamo Bay prison and were declared innocent of any wrong doing or terrorist activities by the U.S. Still many Bermudians are upset that these 4 men are living in Bermuda without the consultation of Britain, since Bermuda is a British territory.

Two other articles on foxnews.com discuss the issue:

Article 1: Detainees Freed in Bermuda Say China Worse Than Gitmo

Article 2: British Government Raises Concerns Over Detainee Transfer to Bermuda

Bermuda is catching international news with this story, so I thought I would share.

Until next time...

The heat of summer

Summer is here to stay. We have been officially running our air conditioners to at least try and pull out the humidity. Some days it has been as high as 90% humidity. Even though it is hot and humid, we have been busy enjoying Bermuda. We started our volleyball leagues this week. Ryan and I are on a C league on Monday nights and I am on a B league on Thursday nights. The league sets up at least 12 nets a night out at Horseshoe Bay. It is really laid back and it has been great so far. We have also completed 2 of our 4 sailing lessons. We are having fun on the J24, but lack of wind has been creating a problem for getting back to the dock. We have been towed in both nights. Sailing has been fun, but I think I need many more lessons in order to feel comfortable in the boat.

This week, Ryan's mom and step-dad came for a visit. We of course took them to see the glow worms last Wednesday night (read my last posting if you haven't heard about the glow worms). The worms were not as impressive as we had hoped. They did come out about 56 minutes after the sun set. We saw about five female worms and the blue color they produced was very vibrant. We were hoping for hundreds of these worms and were somewhat disappointed in only seeing five worms. We at least know the worms exist and may try and see them again after the next full moon.

We went to see Gibbs Hill light house. It is the world's oldest cast iron light house. We walked the 185 steps to the top and could see almost all of the island from its views. The picture in my post is of the flags attached to the lighthouse.

We also went to see Crystal Cave. According to the Crystal & Fantasy Caves website, "When the Wilkinson family, owners of the property [Crystal Caves] since 1884, learned of this discovery, they immediately set about exploring the cave. Mr. Percy Wilkinson lowered his fourteen-year-old son Bernard with a bicycle lamp into the cave on 140 feet of strong rope tied to a tree! What Bernard saw was “Crystal Caves” a silent world of delicate splendor - magnificent crystal stalactites and stalagmites surrounding a clear lake of 55 feet deep - an exquisite world that Mother Nature began over 30 million years ago." We found the water to be especially clear in the caves since there is no light, there are no fish, wildlife, or any plant material. The saltwater is covered with 2-3 inches of freshwater and looks very deceiving from the surface. It looks like the water is shallow although most areas are over 55 feet deep.

Ryan and I feel that we have explored many parts of Bermuda and have now been all of the way across the island. We do hope to continue exploring with our next guests who are coming to visit in a week and a half.

Until next time...