Day trip to St. George

When I flew out of Bermuda to go back to VA, I noticed this amazing peninsula in St. George where this road that had a beach on either side of it, let out to a rocky cliff. So last weekend Sarah and I decided to take a day trip to St. George. I figured while we were out there, I might as well show her some of the cool things I had found out there. So, we hopped on the bike and headed out there. Now, doubling up on the scooter isn't so bad when we're just driving around town, but it's really not the ideal way to explore. Spending a couple hours driving around on the thing tends to make you pretty sore. But it was worth it.

St. George is really a couple of islands that are all interconnected by some bridges. It is the Northern and Eastern most points of the island. In order to get there you have to go across the causeway as you can see in the bottom left of the map. It is really windy there generally but this weekend it was nice enough to stop and take some pictures.

Yea, I know I look pretty goofy in that helmet. First we went up to the Lover's Lake area briefly before heading back down and going around the airport. We were on the way to the Lost at Sea Memorial when we drove by St. David's lighthouse and decided to go check it out because it was a really clear day. It was really cool. Not only could you go up in it, but it was free and you could actually go out on the balcony on the top.

 St. David's Lighthouse

 You know the Whelpley's love the Hokies!!

We could actually see the beach that I saw from the airport to the left of Sarah's head

 The fort and Lost at Sea Memorial are where the island comes out at a point



After checking out the lighthouse, we were going to go to the Memorial and Fort, but I made a wrong turn in the jumbled up mess of one way streets and we wound up closer to the beach so we decided to go there instead as the weather was really nice. We made our way to Turtle Beach and Clearview Beach out on Coopers Island which was the beach I saw from the plane and what is directly to the left of Sarah's head in the panoramic pic above. The beaches were all beautiful.

Watching planes land from the beach

 The spot where I was sitting had surf from both sides hit me at the same time.

Though cold it was very relaxing.

 Sarah packing up the bike outside of Gumbey's

After we had our fill of the beach, we got back on the bike and finally made our way to the Lost at Sea Memorial. It is behind this old fort with a lot of GIANT cannons. It also has a beautiful view of the lighthouse we were in earlier and the beach we had just left, though I've already posted some pictures of that stuff in earlier posts, here are pics of us climbing on stuff were probably aren't supposed to be climing on.



After driving around St. George and exploring some more forts and the memorial we had worked up quite an appetite so we decided to go to the Swizzle Inn for some Burgers and Ice Cream. Hey, it's the weekend. This place is famous for it's self named drink the "Swizzle". Honestly, it's nothing special though the locals and tourists seem to love them. From what I can gather the recipe is:

8 oz Rum (Gosling's Black Seal)

Juice of 2 Lemon Or Limes

5 oz Pineapple Juice

5 oz Orange Juice

2 oz Grenadine Or Bermuda Falernum

6 Dashes Angostura Bitters

Crushed Ice

Beach Season is officially underway

Well, it's not OFFICIALLY underway as the locals don't really go to the beach until May as the water is still a little cold, but it's definitely been nice enough for us to go the last 2 weekends. We have set a goal to go to every beach, fort, and lighthouse on the whole island. I know, tough life.

My first weekend back, drove down south road and saw this

So we decided to stop at a beach named Jobson's Cove.

We laid out for a bit and noticed a trail leading to the West so we decided to keep exploring and found some beautiful cliffs to the west.

Once up on the cliffs, we noticed there was a trail continuing west and more beaches so we kept going.

 The picture below is a close up of the stairway carved in the stone on this one

We continued down to Stonehole Bay, the next beach down where we stumbled across a scenic view that is without question the most beautiful spot I think I've ever been in my life to this point. Take that Alaska mountains.

The picture really doesn't do it justice. We kept walking west and eventually made out way to Chaplin Bay.

We kept following the trail and eventually stumbled across Horseshoe Bay Beach!! The reason that was a surprise is that had already been there before and had absolutely no idea that they were all interconnected in the way they were.

 We then walked back along the trail, getting some great exercise in a pretty beautiful locale. If you come visit, we'll have to take you on the walk!!! Though I imagine it'll get quite a bit more crowded when the summer begins!!

Pub Golf

The beginning of the month started off pretty slow. Sarah worked a lot and I went back to Virginia to do some wedding planning and see my family while I am waiting for my work permit to get approved, which by the way, I am still waiting!! Trip home was great, got to play golf with my father and grandfather and eat lots of cheeseburgers and pizza. Also went to the mall and Wal-Mart which I have a new found appreciation for. Bought a ton of stuff to bring back and despite having to pay a 25% import duty on a lot of the things I bring back, it's still a great deal. I got back on St. Patrick's Day, but didn't do too much as I had to wake up at 2:15 in the morning to get to Dulles in time. Thanks Dad for driving me!!!

Anyways, first full day back, I went on my first pub golf outing. Basically, for those of you who don't know what this is, you get dressed up in golf wear, the more ridiculous the better, and "play" 9 holes (bars). Decided not to go 18 as that would have cost a fortune and well, we aren't 21 anymore. Just like golf, the object of the game is to have the least amount of strokes as possible. Except a stroke is how my drinks you take from your drink to finish it. Luckily from my days as a pledge, this proved to be rather easy and I was able to get a hole in one on all 9 holes. Did I mention the object was to dress up ridiculous??