MITSUGIRLY BREAKAWAY's 1 last time for the year-review/pictorial
Day 5: Arriving in Bermuda and headed to the beautiful beaches of Warwick, Long Bay, Stonehole Bay, Chaplin Bay, Horseshoe Bay and Baby Bay.
DAY 4: Arriving in Bermuda
I woke up at 8am today and I'm not sure why. I knew we weren't going to be in Bermuda until around 2pm, according to the Captain, so I could have slept in. But, it was rise and shine for me.
I turned on the tv and looked at the map:
It definitely looked as if we were there. I ran to the balcony and all I could see was water.
I woke the family up and I'm sure we went to eat breakfast at this point, but obviously I forgot to take my camera. So, I have no idea where we actually ate at. I do remember trying to call the kids and not one of them would answer. So, I guess they were able to accomplish what I couldn't...sleeping in. :cool:
The Captain came on and said that he was way ahead of schedule and that we would probably be in Bermuda around 12 noon instead of 2pm. WHAT?!? But I just redid all of our plans and mapped everything out and.....geesh. Ok, 2 extra hours, I'm not complaining. I'm just frantically trying to rearrange our plans again.
While I'm frantically dialing the kids rooms, while also texting them on the iConceige, I also have all the maps out along with the bus and ferry schedules trying to come up with a new game plan. IF we dock at this time and IF we are cleared by this time, MAYBE we can make the bus or ferry at THIS time. We'll get to HERE by this time, will get to spend THIS much time here. Then we'll have to catch THIS to HERE. Ugh, for a planner like me, this is a nightmare. LOL But a nightmare I'll definitely take with extra hours.
At 10am we were passing by St George. I may be wrong, but I believe this is the opening for the ferry that goes into St George.
The beautiful pastel houses in the area.
Then I seen a familiar beach...St Catherines Beach. This was pretty neat to see in from a distance knowing that we were just there in June.
I know they were busy building a shack there that looked like it was going to be a place to get food and drinks (this has been confirmed since we were there back in June) and it looks like it might be completed now. (By the color of the shack being painted)
Also in this picture, it shows you just how close Achilles Bay is to St Catherine. Actually, just on the other side of each other. The blue building you see on the hill is to Achilles Bay.
Of course on the opposite side of Fort Catherine's is Achilles Bay, which we had also went to back in June and had a great meal and a good time snorkeling. Here you can see the bay area.
The kids were up. I told them to get dressed, head for breakfast and go down to the excursions desk and buy a 2 day pass. After all these changes, late arrival, early to leave, I just didn't even want to mess with the "cheapest" way to travel using coins, passes, tickets and so on. Just buy the pass and we won't have to worry about it anymore.
The passes were purchased and we were set no matter what we were going to do.
We were pulling in. Bermuda here we come!!!
This picture was taken at 11:27am and we were already being tied off!
It was a beautiful and sunny day. WOO HOO! And there was HEAT!
Then we hear THIS.... can you see it? It has lights. It makes noises. I spotted and heard it coming all the way up by the prison.
Well since we ARE the only cruise ship here, it has to be coming to us.
Yep, I just knew it.
The kids were patiently waiting on their balconies.
Kendra had visitors.
Kolin was excited...don't ya think?
I love this selfie that Kenny & Michelle took. It shows how happy they are and how happy they are to be in Bermuda.
Everyone was watching the squad. They parked, they opened the doors in the back, people got out...and then Patrick caught my attention.
I never did see if anyone got in the squad, but the next time I looked down, I noticed people coming off the ship. "Let's Go!" I yelled to the kids and we all headed out, down the hall and dinged ourselves off the ship and onto this gorgeous land that didn't rock.
We stopped to take a few pictures:
We had originally decided to take the ferry and head over to St George, then the HOHO bus to St David's beaches, then the bus over to Hamilton to go to the Harbour Lights.
However, we decided we really wanted a full day in St George, so instead, we were just going to head over to Horseshoe Bay BUT do it right this time like I wanted to last time. Last time the plans were to take the #7 bus to Warwick and walk our way back to Horseshoe and we were put on the wrong bus. I was going to get it right this time around.
Also, I thought with this being the first day here and Kenny being so sick for 2 days and already getting a bad impression of cruising, I figured we had better do an "easier" day first to get him accustomed to the place (versus a ferry, to another bus, to a bus, to another bus and then a ferry back making for a very long day of riding). We'd break him in slowly. One bus there, one bus back.
We walked to the bus stop, with our tickets already purchased. We were the first there and we took a seat to wait for the bus. We waited and people came. We waited some more and more people came. This bus stop was getting packed and our seats where no longer considered the "front row" and people were standing in front of us, in the street, and surrounding us. Yikes! Something told me that even though we were the very first at the bus stop, this was not going to matter to any of these people and it was going to be a "who ever can get on the bus first gets it" type of deal.
It was weird that this time around, there wasn't anyone standing there to help you out (or put you on the right or wrong bus) like last time. Everyone was left wondering what to do, if they were in the right place, what bus to catch, when they would show up, how they would know and so on. At this point I felt like a pro and knew exactly what we were doing...and that was NOT getting on the "Special" or "Horseshoe Bay" bus!
The bus finally came and we managed to swing in from the side and I managed to get the munchkins up in the bus then stood sideways so that the rest of my family could go in and blocked the raid of people trying to come in from the other side of me. I'm sorry we were the absolute first there at the bus stop when no one was around. We were getting on this bus, even if we were forced to stand.
I remembered to say my "Good Morning Sir" and politely ask if he could let us know when we got to Warwick Long Bay. He smiled and said he would. This was a much better experience than the last time with the nasty bus driver.
The bus filled up and the driver stopped the crowd to let them know there was another bus on the way shortly and he had to leave some seats open for the locals along the way. He left 5 seats available for them. We pulled out at 12:33pm.
Then off we went. This driver was CRAZY! LOL Was I in New York again? Notice Kendra's bf not only sitting but holding on as well. LOL Poor Brayden got stuck in a middle seat in the very back, which is sitting up on a platform really high and his seat was not attached. Every time this bus driver slammed on his brakes, Brayden went flying. Although he thought it was fun, I was a little worried and trying to hold him down.
I taught my kids manors and to respect others and they told me once we were seated that if a local got on and there weren't any seats left, they would happily give up their seat. This is their country and we are here visiting. They make me proud.
I pretty much knew my way to Horseshoe Bay and I knew when we were coming up on the split in the road. I knew we were getting close. I seen us pass Horseshoe and knew that we needed off at the second Warwick stop, not the one with the parking lot.
The bus driver stopped, we thanked him and told him to have a good day and we were off. He pointed in the direction that we needed to start walking to get to the entrance.
We arrived at the entrance at 1:09. I'm sure I was smiling from ear to ear to know we actually finally made it here.
Along the path to the beach we found a smashed crab. It was completely flattened in a perfect crab shape.
WE MADE IT!!! Man this was a beautiful beach!
We picked our spot, put our things down... and then everyone started laughing. I turned to see this...
Kenny is goofy. He's game for anything. He's the life of the party and everyone loves him. He's the first one to take a dare and the last one standing. This time, he'd be standing with his toenails painted. LOL His girlfriend was painting hers the night before and decided she would paint his to match hers. He thought everyone would get a kick out of it so he agreed.
We all headed down to the beach after we managed to bring ourselves back to reality and control our laughter.
The waves were huge. Kendra squealed with excitement. She loves this and loves riding the waves.
Could someone tell Kolin you don't do cannon balls in the ocean. That's a wave, not the deep in. When that wave goes back out, you are going to be left sitting on your butt in the sand.
I can't believe Kendra's boyfriend actually got out in the water at least chest high. He's normally a scaredy cat and if he sees a fish...he'll run. He was out in the water for about 20 minutes before he said "Look at that huge fish". He said it was silver with black on it. Then he went running out of the water. He looked down at his hand and he was bleeding! He said "It bit me!" I have no idea what fish he seen, but he wasn't going back out in the water, I did know that.
The kids had a blast riding the waves. Even the munchkins. This would be the first cruise we have ever went on that we did not bring Sakari's puddle jumper. I was really nervous, but made sure that we had our eyes on her at all times and someone always near her in the water. With 2 brothers and a sister always near by, I felt a little more at ease.
I just loved the areas that had the pink crushed shells in it.
At 1:31pm, we decided to move on to the next beach. I knew there were a lot more to see and didn't want to get caught up at just one beach. So we packed up and started moving in the direction I knew was Horseshoe.
Jobsons Bay
Approximately 8 minutes later, we arrived at Jobsons Bay. I figured this would be a good place to let the kids swim and not worry so much because the waves were gentle.
Of course the area was a little more crowded than Warwick, I'm sure because it was a lot more family friendly and gentle.
Then kids were off and ready for some more swimming.
This was a rather interesting stairway.
I decided to snorkel a little and see if there was anything out there.
cheerios... Snorkeling provided absolutely nothing in my opinion
I did see 1 parrot fish, but it zoomed off super fast and the kids did not get to see it. Darn. I know all the pictures I have seen in the past show tons of the huge parrot fish in these coves along here. I really wanted to show them to Kenny since he's never seen them before. Kolin has seen plenty of them in the Caribbean, but they were not as big as the ones I have seen here in Bermuda.
Of course the climbing begins with the kids...and momma starts to worry. All the boys have done since seeing the beaches is ask about jumping off the cliffs into the water. Of course I try to fib and say it's not allowed and you can't climb on the rocks. But, of course they see others doing it and they knew I wasn't telling the truth. Darnit.
I try to keep myself occupied by taking more pictures, but it's not keeping my mind off of it.
They come back down and decide if they can't find a place to jump off the cliffs, they'd just jump off the rocks below.
I continued taking pictures of the area with my water spotted lens :rolleyes: that I forgot to put Rain-X on suggested by other members on here (grrr) and the boys continued to have fun giving me a heart attack.
We took one last dip and then decided to move on.
We packed up at 1:54 and headed on down toward Stonehole Bay.
STONEHOLE BAY:
We arrived at Stonehole Bay just 4 minutes later and decided not to stay here.
The kids did run down for a minute and I stayed behind to save some walking.
Then off we went:
I'm not sure how I stayed up above while they ran to the beach but yet I managed to fall behind on the path.
I guess it was because I was still taking pictures as we walked along.
They had some cut out paths to walk in. I'm not sure this is helpful or not. You sometimes have to pick your entire foot/leg up and bring it around to take a step in front of you because sometimes they get pretty narrow.
It was definitely a pretty view from up here and would only get better.
Once we were pretty high up, the kids wanted pictures.
My boys will do anything to scare me. Get away from that ledge.
I was trying to capture the view from above looking at the previous beaches we just visited all in the same picture.
Sakari struggled to try to follow her big brothers as I yelled for her to get back here and yelled at them to stop going next to the edge because she wanted to follow. All I ever get from her is "I'm a big girl mommy!" Yea...well big girls fall too. I was about to have a heart attack being up there and here I thought Brayden would be the one to give me it.
I distracted her by telling her "Oh my, would you look how beautiful it is right here? Let me take your picture here Sakari, it's so pretty in the background." Hey, whatever works in a 7 year olds brain right?
Notice there's no shoes on those feet above. About this point everyone started screaming. Ants were all over us and crawling all over their feet. I did everything I could to get them off and get her shoes on while still shooing them off. They were everywhere.
We quickly started walking and I was taking more pictures along the way while trying to console Sakari and her ant bites.
It was so pretty up here. Everyone was right on this board, the view is a do not miss.
We were still getting ate up with ants everywhere. You couldn't stop for more than a few seconds before a few were crawling on you. It was very annoying.
It looks like we have some campers or some homeless people. I'm not sure which one. I know there's a camping area at Warwick, but we are a little ways from there and this was the only tent that I seen along the way. Anyone know?
We had to stop here again for me to readjust Sakari's water shoes. She felt like there were ants inside of it and the minute we stopped, they were back to crawling up our legs. :( Sigh. I'm not sure how the people in the tent were keeping them off. I can't even imagine!
This walk took approximately 17 minutes at "our pace" so time could very depending on how many stops you take in order to get pictures. :D
The next beach we would come to would be Chaplin Bay. After the long walk and getting ate up with ants, we figured we would stop here to swim for awhile and make sure all the ants were off of us.
CHAPLIN BAY:
We arrived here around 2:19 and decided to stay awhile since we were ate up with ants and hot and needed a break. I knew we were getting closer to Horseshoe, so wanted to stop before that to spend some time in the ocean where it was not crowded.
It was very pretty and just like Warwick, not many people there.
The munchkins were having a blast. Brayden has gotten better at swimming and with him being taller than Sakari, that helps a lot too.
The big kids went out to brave the crashing waves. I think the waves won
They all had their plan of attack. Kenny would race it back, Courtney would just plug her nose and hope for the best, Kolin would just dive into the water to keep it from knocking him over, and Kendra well she's just going to assume the fetal position and hope for the best. They were definitely having a blast.
Kolin looks like he's on a surf board. Meanwhile, I'm out taking pictures of water spots...
The hubby decided to wonder out at some point. He was out in the waves at Warwick, but he has issues with his ears (had what they assume was an injury to his ears back when he was younger and he no longer has an eardrum and is prone to infections easily) and the waves at Warwick got in there and he was hurting. But, decided he was going to rough this one out and get back in again.
The waves crashing on the rocks were just beautiful.
It looked like the fun was over and everyone was back at the camp. I figured it was time to move on.
We left Chaplin Bay at 2:46pm and started to head to the next area.
We started walking and taking more pictures. We did run across another beach, but according to all the maps I've seen and everything I've read, there's no name for this beach??? So we call it noname beach.
The boys back to being barefoot again and complaining of the ants biting them so they didn't stay in place for long anywhere we went.
We left Chaplin Bay at 2:46pm and started to head to the next area.
We started walking and taking more pictures. We did run across another beach, but according to all the maps I've seen and everything I've read, there's no name for this beach??? So we call it noname beach.
The views were simply stunning from here.
Someone had built a sand castle
The walk past noname beach was only 2 minutes. Then you come to Horseshoe Bay Beach.
HORSESHOE BAY BEACH
Arriving at Horeshoe Bay and coming around the corner along the path is the opening to Horseshoe:
I absolutely loved the sand around this area away from the beach. It reminded me of sand dunes
This would be considered the "non-crowded" section of the beach. Yes, there were a few people wondering around, but plenty of space to spread out and enjoy yourself.
We ALL started heading toward the "Baby Bay" area where we spent most of our time when we were here in June.
Notice Brayden in the picture?
Still no Brayden in the picture...
You better believe Sakari is with us... We were getting closer to the big rocks that separate Horseshoe Bay from Baby Bay
At this point I'm frustrated that Kendra is still walking toward Baby Bay and I screamed to her "You might want to stop and find your son!" She turned around to look and finally noticed he was gone. I knew exactly where he was because I had been keeping my eye on him. He was still ALL THE WAY BACK AT THE BEGINNING of the beach! ...where he was busy playing in the sand and running back and forth. She started screaming for him to come on. He played like he didn't hear her and this is normal for him. I don't know what makes her think that she's going to walk away and he's just going to follow her. He will never follow her and the split second you're not looking, he takes the opportunity to wonder off.
Since he was acting as if he didn't hear her, this now forced her to walk all the way back down the beach to get him. HAHAHAHAHA...that's what you get! Anyone who's been to Horseshoe Beach knows it's not the smallest beach to begin with and quite the haul to get from one end to the other...especially carrying beach bags and towels.
The kids decided they were going to go exploring while some of us decided to locate what ever remains of beach front real estate we could find at Baby Bay.
Up the rocks they went for the spectacular view that I got when I was here a few months ago. Since I had already done it, I knew I was not going to go up this time around. I was going to sit back and relax on the beach and watch them emerge up at the top.
Kendra finally drug Brayden down the beach and dumped him at our beach-front property and headed off to catch up with her brothers. She finally made it up there as well.
Kendra was up there doing all kinds of hand signals down to me and Courtney joined in at some point. They acted as if I knew what they were talking about. They did it over and over and then would turn to each other and laugh then continue with the charades. I would later find that they were trying to tell me there were turtles on the other side...only to find out they were kidding and were trying to entice me to climb up there. But since I suck at charades, I didn't move and they didn't accomplish their goal.
I told the kids to take lots of pictures for me when they were up there and this is what they brought me back...
Kenny standing someplace that looked like he probably shouldn't be standing at...too close to the edge.
Yes, she just had a baby 4 1/2 months ago. I hate her and her skinny body. (j/k)
The girls come back complaining about how the boys were scaring them by getting so close to the edges. Michelle said she was about to have heart failure because of Kenny and I'm glad I didn't go up there. They would have for sure had to carry me down and call the squad.
Monkey see, monkey do. Kolin joined in on the fun just to get Courtney going as well. They totally convinced them they were going to jump into the water.
Since they didn't jump, they decided to climb down there. I didn't even realize you could find a place to do that. But, of course my boys did.
Looking back at Baby Bay
After their adventures, they all headed down to me to let me know how bad the boys were and I breathed a sigh of relief that they had all safely made it back and none of them decided to jump.
BABY BAY
Meanwhile, Baby Bay looked a little different this time. The water was up higher than last time and there was less beach front property to claim so late in the day. Where we sat last time was actually under water this time. We are definitely the kind of people that can lay a towel or blanket down and be perfectly happy without lounge chairs and that's exactly what we did.
I don't know what it is about this hill but all the kids like to climb on it.
We tried to snorkel, but there really wasn't much to see. All the parrot fish were gone and there were only a few fish over in the small drop off in the area above by the rocks. Maybe the hurricane whisk them all away? Or do they migrate somewhere else during the winter season? I was real disappointed and was hoping that tomorrow would bring a better snorkeling day.
You could tell the ocean was still a little upset from the hurricane a few days earlier. It was really churning still, but it made for some awesome waterfall pictures of the waves crashing over top of the rocks and pouring into Baby Bay.
All over the rocks there were snails and crabs crawling. We found 1 snail last time we were there and they were just all over the place here this time.
Everyone decided they wanted a bite to eat so the boys headed up to the snack shack and brought us food back. I did notice that the prices had changed since the last time we were there. They had actually went UP instead of down. You would think with it being the end of the season and not as many ships coming in that it would go down? Or do they still have the same amount of ships coming in at this point?
The fries were tasty just like last time and still for $4.50 for a basket of them I thought they were a good deal. They loaded the basket up and there were plenty to share. The hubby came back with a cheeseburger and said it was good. Kendra came back with chicken fingers and they did look yummy. I ended up sending the hubby back to get me some. However, I ended up with 1 less chicken finger than they come with. Oh well, I guess I would deal with it and eat when we get back to the ship (which I would do anyhow whether I got another chicken finger or not...just saying).
While we sat around and ate, Sakari decided the birds were hungry too and she was on a mission to get them to eat out of her hands.