Tobacco Bay and St. George's

WATER FUN AT TOBACCO BAY

Great snorkeling combined with a soft sand beach complete with a barefoot snack bar makes Tobacco Bay a terrific beach.

We found time to snorkel there our final two days in Bermuda, including on the morning of the Main Event Wedding.

On both days, we saw diverse sea life including gigantic parrot fish, four times as large as what you might expect to see in Hawaii.  We also spotted some little squid and plenty of other colorful denizens of the reef.

While resting on shore, I watched as Amy, Lukas and Laszlo took a break from snorkeling to shinny up a rope and then scale a craggy outcropping.  Once on top, they jumped into the aqua water.

It looked fun, so I decided to try it myself.

Finding my footing to make the climb around the sharp edges of what seemed to be volcanic rock but might have been ancient coral jutting into a plateau made the prospect of slipping during the climb a much more real danger than actually jumping into the water.

Nonetheless, the leap of faith was still a thrill, awakening that feeling of being a boy on an adventure.

There are some manmade attractions at Tobacco Bay that you wouldn't normally find at a beach, like a pool table that allows you to play in waist deep water when the tide rises.

There's also an inflated volleyball court in the water.

On day after the Main Event, some of the wedding party was playing volleyball there as I swam back toward shore.  Amy, Lukas, Adam, Whitney, Jered, Kelsey and Kim let me join the game.  It was fun splashing around, even if we spent more time leaving the court to retrieve the ball than actually volleying back and forth.

Being me, I had stopped to read the historic sign while approaching the bay on the first day.

HISTORY OF TOBACCO BAY

In 1775, the British island colony of Bermuda was literally in the middle of growing hostilities between our 13 colonies and the British homeland.  Bermuda businessman Henry Tucker went to Philadelphia to meet with Benjamin Franklin in hopes of re-opening trade routes.

Franklin encouraged Tucker to attain 100 barrels of gunpowder stored at a British armory in St. George's and roll them down hill to Tobacco Bay, where they could be loaded into two American sloops and transported to Philadelphia and Charleston.  This Gunpowder Plot helped the burgeoning American cause withstand attacks by the most powerful military in the world.

ST. GEORGE'S

On the afternoon of the wedding, Gina and Laszlo walked into town to pick up some lavender Bermuda shorts for Laszlo, who had not arrived in time for the Hamilton shopping trip.  

Gina, Laszlo and Emma were sharing the two bedroom cottage with Julie and me.  Upon seeing how sharp Laszlo, Jay and Jered looked in their shorts, I decided to return to my original plan to get some for myself, even though it felt like a splurge after already having dropped $110 for a new pair of black shoes during the time I should have been shorts-shopping in Hamilton.

Gina took me back to the St. George's branch of English Sports Shop where Laszlo bought his wedding attire, and with attentive service by the smiling shopkeeper, I bought bright turquoise shorts, which would go pretty well with the teal tie Julie had bought at the same time she bought her matching-fabric dress for the wedding.  I added gray knee socks, to hopefully tie in my suit jacket.  I couldn't justify buying the traditional blue blazer.

Adding the French cuffed shirt Julie had secretly purchased me at the behest of Jay and the Strickland shell cuff links to the clothing I bought in Bermuda, and I felt like I was stylin'.

I should mention that Jay's new brother-in-law Adam helped me become dapper rather than wrinkled when the iron in my cottage didn't seem to work for getting wrinkles out of my new shirt.  Adam and his wife Whitney are New York City lawyers who can't look rumpled in the office.  Adam had brought a steamer along on the trip and kindly steamed my shirt for me.

We had water fun at our resort in St. George's, too.  There was a large swimming pool with a ledge around the side that was good to stand in or sit in nearby lounge chairs while visiting.

Our granddaughter Emma preferred the smaller pool, which felt more private.  She and Gina decided to stay in that pool rather than hiking down the hill to Tobacco Bay, despite not being required to push barrels of gunpowder along the way.

Julie, Laszlo and I joined them for some pooltime, and we had fun holding our breaths to swim from side to side and splashing around.

Everybody who was still in Bermuda on our last night walked into St. George's for dinner at Wahoo's Bistro and Patio.  It isn't a branch of Wahoo's in Redondo Beach, but I still ordered fish tacos.  They were truly terrific.  Julie's Wienerschnitzel was also delicious.

We had a nice vacation in Bermuda beyond the wedding celebration, though of course that remained the very memorable highlight.