Hi - Jason here. I just had a restaurant review published over on inafunk.com. Below is an except. Click on over if you want to read the full article. Thanks!
Dim Sum Garden
A rose by any other name…
Over the winter, a new restaurant opened up in Chinatown, and has quickly become my go-to place when I’m in that area. The place is easy to overlook, as it sits in that dark cavern on 11th Street, between Filbert and Arch - right next to the Chinatown bus terminal. So, as you might tell, it’s really not much of a garden at all, but what’s in a name? I’m more interested in what’s inside...
Click here to read the rest of this article.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
Old School, meet New School
Spring has sprung here in Philadelphia, and the weather is (slowly) getting nicer. Time to spend more time outside. This means it's also time to start ramping up my on-bike training for the Livestrong Challenge ride, which takes place in August.
A few weeks ago, I pulled out my Trek 1200 road bike from the basement and started cleaning the crud off of it. I haven't ridden this bike in over a decade, and while it's in pretty good shape (thankfully, aluminum doesn't rust), it needed a good cleaning, and to have some of the consumables replaced. I replaced all the cables, and also the chain. All the bearing seemed to be rolling smoothly still, except for the headset bearings, which were badly indexed. To put that simply, the steering bits were toast and had to be replaced. As this required expensive tools that I'd probably only ever use once, I decided to drop it off at a local bike shop and have them take care of it.
In fact, I just got it back from them today... good as new! And a surprising thing happened at the shop... as the mechanic pulled my bike of the rack and gave it to me, he said something along the lines of, "wow... that's a pretty light bike!" I said, "yeah... especially considering it's 18 years old.". Now for you non-cyclists or casual bike riders out there, mentioning the apparent lightness of someone's bike is roughly equivalent to telling a woman she looks 10 years younger than she really is. In other words, I could feel myself on the verge of blushing and getting all giggly.
The "New School" mentioned in title of this post is the new bike computer I recently got - a Garmin Edge 305. Now, I tend not to fall all over myself when it comes to gadgetry, but this Garmin 305 has serious "Gee Whiz Factor". In a nutshell, it will tell me speed, distance, altitude climbed (and grade), pedaling cadence, heart rate, and countless other types of data that I'll probably never use. The clincher for me, however, was GPS capability - not to tell me where I'm going, but to record where I've been. What's cool about that, you ask? Well, it lets me do nifty things like import the ride data into Google Earth and view my route... like this:
That's the route of my first ride on the old Trek that I took tonight. Starting at the "Rocky Steps" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I headed up along West River Drive, across Falls Bridge, and then back down Kelly Drive. 8.5 miles, according to the GPS. What a difference a proper road bike makes! I did the same ride on my slick-tired mountain bike recently, and tonight was ~17 minutes faster for the loop on the Trek.
It's not all sunshine and happiness, though. The extreme riding position is going to take a while to get used to again. Plus, my butt really hurts now. Hopefully, both issues can be solved simply by getting some training under my belt.
__Jason
A few weeks ago, I pulled out my Trek 1200 road bike from the basement and started cleaning the crud off of it. I haven't ridden this bike in over a decade, and while it's in pretty good shape (thankfully, aluminum doesn't rust), it needed a good cleaning, and to have some of the consumables replaced. I replaced all the cables, and also the chain. All the bearing seemed to be rolling smoothly still, except for the headset bearings, which were badly indexed. To put that simply, the steering bits were toast and had to be replaced. As this required expensive tools that I'd probably only ever use once, I decided to drop it off at a local bike shop and have them take care of it.
In fact, I just got it back from them today... good as new! And a surprising thing happened at the shop... as the mechanic pulled my bike of the rack and gave it to me, he said something along the lines of, "wow... that's a pretty light bike!" I said, "yeah... especially considering it's 18 years old.". Now for you non-cyclists or casual bike riders out there, mentioning the apparent lightness of someone's bike is roughly equivalent to telling a woman she looks 10 years younger than she really is. In other words, I could feel myself on the verge of blushing and getting all giggly.
The "New School" mentioned in title of this post is the new bike computer I recently got - a Garmin Edge 305. Now, I tend not to fall all over myself when it comes to gadgetry, but this Garmin 305 has serious "Gee Whiz Factor". In a nutshell, it will tell me speed, distance, altitude climbed (and grade), pedaling cadence, heart rate, and countless other types of data that I'll probably never use. The clincher for me, however, was GPS capability - not to tell me where I'm going, but to record where I've been. What's cool about that, you ask? Well, it lets me do nifty things like import the ride data into Google Earth and view my route... like this:
That's the route of my first ride on the old Trek that I took tonight. Starting at the "Rocky Steps" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I headed up along West River Drive, across Falls Bridge, and then back down Kelly Drive. 8.5 miles, according to the GPS. What a difference a proper road bike makes! I did the same ride on my slick-tired mountain bike recently, and tonight was ~17 minutes faster for the loop on the Trek.
It's not all sunshine and happiness, though. The extreme riding position is going to take a while to get used to again. Plus, my butt really hurts now. Hopefully, both issues can be solved simply by getting some training under my belt.
__Jason
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Kickboxing 101
Today was the 3rd session in an 8-week kickboxing class that Cherie and I decided to take at the gym. Don't misunderstand... there are no dreams of participating in some mixed martial arts tournament, or getting a guest appearance on a future episode of TapouT. Nope, this is sort of a beginner's non-contact course, primarily intended more for fitness rather than combat training. We thought this would be a good way to mix things up a bit and kick-start our bodies heading into spring, so when the weather warms and the time comes to venture back outside, we can hit the ground running.
The question I have is this: If this is a non-contact class, why do I leave each week feeling like I just got my ass kicked?
We did this circuit course today, and one of the exercises involved moving up and down the length of a rope ladder on the floor, jumping in and out of the "squares". Fun, right? Actually, that's not bad. The part where we had to lift a medicine ball over our heads on each jump "in" was slightly less fun. OK, even that's not too bad, as it's not a particularly heavy ball. And this was a circuit course, so you only spend about 2 minutes at each exercise before moving to the next. Somehow, the 2 minutes I spent on the medicine ball thing lasted exactly 72 minutes, at least in my head. Remember that scene in the movie "Risky Business" where Joel is staring at the clock, waiting for the bell to ring at the end of class, and the clock suddenly ticks backwards and he's really pissed off? Yeah, well if Joel had been jumping around hoisting a medicine ball over his head, that would have been how I felt.
And so it goes in the struggle to build Jason 2.0. It's all for the best, however. The way I see it, the more pain I endure now, the easier it will be fore me when I ride the 100 miles in August. Eye of the tiger. I'm hoping that next week, we can play "catch the chicken."
The question I have is this: If this is a non-contact class, why do I leave each week feeling like I just got my ass kicked?
We did this circuit course today, and one of the exercises involved moving up and down the length of a rope ladder on the floor, jumping in and out of the "squares". Fun, right? Actually, that's not bad. The part where we had to lift a medicine ball over our heads on each jump "in" was slightly less fun. OK, even that's not too bad, as it's not a particularly heavy ball. And this was a circuit course, so you only spend about 2 minutes at each exercise before moving to the next. Somehow, the 2 minutes I spent on the medicine ball thing lasted exactly 72 minutes, at least in my head. Remember that scene in the movie "Risky Business" where Joel is staring at the clock, waiting for the bell to ring at the end of class, and the clock suddenly ticks backwards and he's really pissed off? Yeah, well if Joel had been jumping around hoisting a medicine ball over his head, that would have been how I felt.
And so it goes in the struggle to build Jason 2.0. It's all for the best, however. The way I see it, the more pain I endure now, the easier it will be fore me when I ride the 100 miles in August. Eye of the tiger. I'm hoping that next week, we can play "catch the chicken."
Sunday, January 27, 2008
2008 Livestrong Challenge
As mentioned in my previous post, this August I am planning to ride 100 miles as part of the Livestrong Challenge charity event. This will be a big milestone for me, because even when I was a young lad that rode constantly, I never once attempted to tackle a 100 mile ride before. I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into...
At any rate, if you would like to show your support for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and support me while I train for this event, a you can donate online here: http://philly08.livestrong.org/tuckerjw.
(Note: donated money goes to the LAF, not to me! However, the more donations I can get, the more motivation I'll have to successfully complete this ride!)
Thanks!
At any rate, if you would like to show your support for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and support me while I train for this event, a you can donate online here: http://philly08.livestrong.org/tuckerjw.
(Note: donated money goes to the LAF, not to me! However, the more donations I can get, the more motivation I'll have to successfully complete this ride!)
Thanks!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Building Jason 2.0
It was around May, 2007. I finally had enough. Enough struggle. Enough suffering. Enough pain. I was also sick of being winded from climbing a couple flights of stairs, and having to suck in my gut to button my pants.
That's right. I was sick of being fat and lazy.
As you can see from the diagram of Jason 1.0, I was primarily composed of fat and weakness. Those rolls in the diagram are not from a billowing shirt. Nope. Fat.
Now, I know... some of you might look at me as say "Jason, you're really not that fat." Well, yes and no. While I certainly wasn't to the point of having to wash myself with a rag on stick, I was most certainly overweight. You have to understand, I'm what they call an "ectomorph". That is to say, I'm a thin person - or should be a thin person. Common descriptors of ectomorphs are things like "delicate", "lean", "thin", "Hard Gainer". I've been skinny most of my life. To put that in some sort of perspective, when I graduated from high school, I was 6' 2" and probably less than 170 lbs. See? Skinny.
The other thing to note is that I'm one of those people that puts all of their extra weight on around the waist. This is not good. They say that people that distribute their fat evenly around the body can live long and healthy lives, even though technically, they are overweight. I'm not one of those people. People like me that put all their weight on around their trunk are much more likely to suffer from thinks like heart disease, stroke, cancer, etc.
In other words, what I'm trying to say is that I was really a skinny person trapped in a spare tire. My "fragile" body was going to collapse as a result. But Mr. Fat's days were numbered. I was formulating a game plan.
Step 1:
Adjust how I eat. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I have a thing for food. All kinds of food. I don't do diets. I've tried, and failed. You will not be able to sustain any kind of diet that deprives you of the things you love. And I love all kinds of food. So, my plan is to keep eating whatever the hell I want, but use my brain a bit more in doing so. For instance, in stead of skipping breakfast, and then getting so hungry at lunch that I gorge on junk, I will now eat smaller, regularly spaced meals throughout the day. The trick is to eat something relatively small before you get hungry. That way, you're body's not going into a defensive mode and forcing you to eat more than you need, just because it doesn't know when food is coming along. I'm not religious about this, but much better than I used to be, and it makes a difference.
Step 2:
Get active again. Back in the day when I was truly skinny, it was easy to stay that way. Primarily due to the fact that I typically cycled 100+ miles a week. For whatever reason (laziness?), I stopped riding regularly close to 15 years ago. Huge mistake. Well, I'm getting back in the saddle again... literally. A couple years ago, Cherie and I bought some new mountain bikes, but this starting last summer, we really got serious about putting them to good use. The fact that we live in Philadelphia, which has the largest municipal park system in the US, certainly helps. We have a lot of bike-friendly places to ride. There is even a mixed-use recreational path that goes from our doorstep (practically) all the way to Valley Forge Park - a round trip of ~42 miles. No more excuses. And now that we've made it a habit, we really love riding regularly. Well, I always loved it... but now Cherie has developed a fondness for it as well.
Step 3:
Get back to the gym. I've been going to the gym on and off for years. Which usually means, a few months on, followed by a few years off. Starting last July(ish), that's changed. Cherie and I are both going regularly now, and the results are starting to show. Part of my motivation for hitting the gym? Simple: muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does. That means, if I can keep my overall body weight approximately the same, but lose most of the fat while replacing it with muscle, my basal metabolic rate will naturally increase. What does that mean? It means I'll burn more calories without even trying. Which means, it will be harder to gain fat as long as I keep my eating under control. Nice.
Step 4:
Set goals. I'm the sort of person who needs to set goals. Setting a tangible milestone to work towards really helps keep me focused. Last fall, Cherie and I were to take part in the City of Hope charity bike ride here in Philly as part of the team from Sutter Home. It wasn't a super long ride - only 25 miles - but we made sure we were in good enough shape to pull it off with ease. Here we are with the Sutter Home group, including 5 time (and currently reigning) National Criterium Champion, Tina Pic from the Sutter Home women's pro team.
It was a fun ride. Alot of good people.
This year, I've decided to bump it up a notch. My goal for this year will be the 100-mile Livestrong Challenge "century" ride, which is scheduled for late August here in Philadelphia. Even when I used to ride all the time, I never once banged out a ride of this distance. 50 miles is about the most I've ever done in one day. But this year, I've decided to pull out my old road bike from the basement, blow the dust off it, and get some serious training in once again.
That's my goal. For now. The fact that I'm putting it in writing here for the world to see just helps to solidify my commitment.
It's a somewhat personal challenge, but the fact that my success will help contribute to a good cause gives me even more motivation.
Oh, and my overall fitness progress so far? Since last June, I've lost 25 pounds overall and went from ~23% body fat, to ~16%. By August, I hope to be close to 10%.
Wish me luck.
That's right. I was sick of being fat and lazy.
As you can see from the diagram of Jason 1.0, I was primarily composed of fat and weakness. Those rolls in the diagram are not from a billowing shirt. Nope. Fat.
Now, I know... some of you might look at me as say "Jason, you're really not that fat." Well, yes and no. While I certainly wasn't to the point of having to wash myself with a rag on stick, I was most certainly overweight. You have to understand, I'm what they call an "ectomorph". That is to say, I'm a thin person - or should be a thin person. Common descriptors of ectomorphs are things like "delicate", "lean", "thin", "Hard Gainer". I've been skinny most of my life. To put that in some sort of perspective, when I graduated from high school, I was 6' 2" and probably less than 170 lbs. See? Skinny.
The other thing to note is that I'm one of those people that puts all of their extra weight on around the waist. This is not good. They say that people that distribute their fat evenly around the body can live long and healthy lives, even though technically, they are overweight. I'm not one of those people. People like me that put all their weight on around their trunk are much more likely to suffer from thinks like heart disease, stroke, cancer, etc.
In other words, what I'm trying to say is that I was really a skinny person trapped in a spare tire. My "fragile" body was going to collapse as a result. But Mr. Fat's days were numbered. I was formulating a game plan.
Step 1:
Adjust how I eat. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I have a thing for food. All kinds of food. I don't do diets. I've tried, and failed. You will not be able to sustain any kind of diet that deprives you of the things you love. And I love all kinds of food. So, my plan is to keep eating whatever the hell I want, but use my brain a bit more in doing so. For instance, in stead of skipping breakfast, and then getting so hungry at lunch that I gorge on junk, I will now eat smaller, regularly spaced meals throughout the day. The trick is to eat something relatively small before you get hungry. That way, you're body's not going into a defensive mode and forcing you to eat more than you need, just because it doesn't know when food is coming along. I'm not religious about this, but much better than I used to be, and it makes a difference.
Step 2:
Get active again. Back in the day when I was truly skinny, it was easy to stay that way. Primarily due to the fact that I typically cycled 100+ miles a week. For whatever reason (laziness?), I stopped riding regularly close to 15 years ago. Huge mistake. Well, I'm getting back in the saddle again... literally. A couple years ago, Cherie and I bought some new mountain bikes, but this starting last summer, we really got serious about putting them to good use. The fact that we live in Philadelphia, which has the largest municipal park system in the US, certainly helps. We have a lot of bike-friendly places to ride. There is even a mixed-use recreational path that goes from our doorstep (practically) all the way to Valley Forge Park - a round trip of ~42 miles. No more excuses. And now that we've made it a habit, we really love riding regularly. Well, I always loved it... but now Cherie has developed a fondness for it as well.
Step 3:
Get back to the gym. I've been going to the gym on and off for years. Which usually means, a few months on, followed by a few years off. Starting last July(ish), that's changed. Cherie and I are both going regularly now, and the results are starting to show. Part of my motivation for hitting the gym? Simple: muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does. That means, if I can keep my overall body weight approximately the same, but lose most of the fat while replacing it with muscle, my basal metabolic rate will naturally increase. What does that mean? It means I'll burn more calories without even trying. Which means, it will be harder to gain fat as long as I keep my eating under control. Nice.
Step 4:
Set goals. I'm the sort of person who needs to set goals. Setting a tangible milestone to work towards really helps keep me focused. Last fall, Cherie and I were to take part in the City of Hope charity bike ride here in Philly as part of the team from Sutter Home. It wasn't a super long ride - only 25 miles - but we made sure we were in good enough shape to pull it off with ease. Here we are with the Sutter Home group, including 5 time (and currently reigning) National Criterium Champion, Tina Pic from the Sutter Home women's pro team.
It was a fun ride. Alot of good people.
This year, I've decided to bump it up a notch. My goal for this year will be the 100-mile Livestrong Challenge "century" ride, which is scheduled for late August here in Philadelphia. Even when I used to ride all the time, I never once banged out a ride of this distance. 50 miles is about the most I've ever done in one day. But this year, I've decided to pull out my old road bike from the basement, blow the dust off it, and get some serious training in once again.
That's my goal. For now. The fact that I'm putting it in writing here for the world to see just helps to solidify my commitment.
It's a somewhat personal challenge, but the fact that my success will help contribute to a good cause gives me even more motivation.
Oh, and my overall fitness progress so far? Since last June, I've lost 25 pounds overall and went from ~23% body fat, to ~16%. By August, I hope to be close to 10%.
Wish me luck.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Bermuda - September 2007
With the low pressure area which would eventually develop into tropical storm Gabrielle lurking nearby, Cherie and I started our Bermuda vacation on September 5. Ultimately, the storm moved off towards North Carolina and was no threat to Bermuda, but did cause our first day to be a bit drizzly. No worries, however, because all we really wanted to do on our first day was pretty much nothing at all.
Last year, on our first trip to Bermuda, we stayed at Coco Reef Resort, on the south shore of the island. While it was nice to stay literally steps away from Bermuda's famous pink sand beaches, the hotel experience for us wasn't the best way to stay. Hotels on Bermuda are expensive, and really all we need is a comfortable place to sleep, because during the day we're out and about - not sitting around the hotel room. I don't even think we used the pool at Coco Reef last year, as it was always full of people... including one obese fellow who always seemed to be floating around like a bloated corpse.
But I digress.
This year, we tried something different. We decided to go the bed & breakfast route. We booked our lodging at the Granaway guest house, and we're very happy we did. This place has all the charms that you would expect from a 273 year-old house. Actually, because the few guest rooms in the main house were booked up, we ended up staying in the cottage, which served as the slave quarters back in the day. Again, with a full kitchen, this was a bit overkill for us (we're on vacation, after all) but the added privacy was nice. Next time around, we would probably choose to save a few more bucks and stay in one of the rooms in the main house.
Courtyard behind the Granaway's main guest house
Inside of the Granaway Cottage
The private garden next to the cottage
Each morning breakfast is prepared by the hosts, Michael & Carol, along with their helper, Fransisco, who also resides on-site. They give you the choice of eating with the rest of the guests outside when the weather is nice, or having your breakfast served privately. If the weather doesn't cooperate, the Granaway's beautiful dining room inside the main house is put to use. Fortunately, we had all but one of our breakfasts outside, where we got to meet some of the other guests.
After breakfast on our 2nd day, we called Oleander's to rent a pair of scooters, or "cycles" as they are referred to on the island. They have a location nearby, and within a few minutes they picked us up in a van to take us back to get the cycles. Bermuda's narrow and windy roads aren't really well suited for heavy automobile traffic, so as a visiting tourist, you simply cannot rent a car - in fact, foreign driver's licenses are not recognized at all on the island. There are 3 options: hire a taxi to take you everywhere (expensive), rely on the bus/ferry services (cheap, but you have to live by their schedule), or you rent cycles. As long as you are at least 16, all you need is a credit card to rent a cycle, and once you do, the island is your oyster - you can go where you want, when you want, for however long you want. Perfect! And for those that are unsure of your two-wheeled skills, keep in mind that the only bikes available to rent are 50 cc, and they will provide an area to practice in, if you need it.
Even though the engines are all the same size, the "premium" bikes we rented from Oleander's this year had *much* more pep than the bikes we rented from their competitor last year. Those bikes had us feeling like road hazards, with traffic stacking up behind us, but the bikes we got this year had no such problems. The posted speed limit on the island is 35 KPH (about 22 MPH), but these bikes has no problem pushing 50-60 KPH. These bikes allowed us to keep up with traffic with NO problem, however, we still got passed every so often as the Bermudian residents are allowed to own cycles up to 150 cc, and they are fearless riders on those twisty roads.
Posing with our trusty cycles
Video: Cruising down Harbour Road (sorry, no sound!)
So, with our cycles secured, we were ready to roll - and over the next few days, we saw the island top to bottom and end to end. From snorkeling at Tobacco Bay (east end) to buying rum cakes at the Royal Naval Dockyard (west end), and as much as we could manage in between. One of the more interesting stops was at Crystal Cave.
Crystal Cave
The cave was pretty cool, and the water gave it an interesting appearance. As it was explained to us, the water provides a magnifying effect due to it being primarily salt water, covered with a thin layer of fresh water that was continuously dripping from the stalactites. Because of this effect, things like rocks or ancient stalagmites that look like they are just below the surface, are actually 20 or 30 feet down. At its deepest point, the pool is close to 60 feet deep, and crystal clear.
Our main preoccupations on this trip had to be eating and swimming, however. With our breakfasts taken care of, we still had to deal with lunch and dinner. A couple lunch stops at the famous Swizzle Inn, or "Swizzle Inn and Swagger Out", as the staff's t-shirts say. A few dinners in Hamilton, with the star attractions there being the Barracuda Grill (pan roasted hogfish, with vanilla-roasted baby fennel and carrot spaetzle... yum!) and the new Yashi sushi bar, which is inside the Coconut Rock restaurant. However, September 1 marks the first day of spiny lobster season in Bermuda, so we had to get our fill while we could. Last year, we had good experiences at the Lobster Pot in Hamilton, but this year they seem to have a problem with over-broiling the poor bugs. Fortunately, we found another place that more than made up for it. On Sunday, we stumbled across the Black Horse Tavern, way out in St. David's for lunch. Wow... what a lunch it was! The best fish chowder (a staple at just about every meal, every restaurant), stellar conch fritters, and the catch of the day. While we were eating lunch, we kept seeing all these huge broiled lobsters being served, and they looked good. Based on the quality of our lunch, and the looks of the lobsters that others were eating, we decided to come back for dinner as well (it was our last night on the island, so now or never).
Now, part of me is reluctant to post about the Black Horse - or at least reveal it's name. This no-frills tavern is mainly a hangout for locals, and they keep it packed for one very important reason - the food is friggin' amazing! The lobsters we had for dinner could not have been cooked better - perfectly plump and tender, including the knuckles... and even in that spine thing sticking out of their heads (spiny lobsters, after all). I'm afraid of this place getting too much publicity, because I don't want it to change. I don't want it to be flooded by the hoards that are coming in on the cruise ships - you know the ones... you can usually spot them by their matching neon-colored t-shirts that typically have some sort of catchy slogan on them, like "I'm not as think as you drunk I am" or some nonsense. No, I liked the fact that we were the only tourists in the joint that night. The place is special, and shouldn't be spoiled. However, the fact that this place is out "in the country", the only way tourists will get there for dinner would probably be by taxi ($$$) or cycle. I think that the place is far enough off the beaten path, that hoards will avoid it for the time being. I hope. The locals seem to give it more than enough business, so I don't think they'll miss the "boat people".
OK... enough about food. Swimming. Bermuda is famous for its pink sand beaches. Yes, they are pink, but what they don't advertise so much is how *soft* this sand is. Really, it feels like baby powder. It's hard to believe that we have parrot fish to thank for it (more on that later).
Cherie at Horseshoe Bay
Sergeant Major fish while snorkeling at Church Bay
The beaches on the south shore are beautiful, wide expanses of pink sand with some hard-to-reach tucked-away coves mixed in for good measure. However, the surf on the south shore can be a bit rough at times, and one of the most famous and picturesque beaches - Horseshoe Bay - tends to get overrun by the aforementioned "boat people" when the cruise ships are docked, so aside from some good snorkeling at Church Bay, most of our time was spent in the northeast section of the island, at Achilles Bay and Tobacco Bay.
Cherie at Tobacco Bay
Tobacco Bay was amazing! We never stopped there before, and I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's because the on-beach bar (and music), or the all of the families that come with their kids to take advantage of the bay, which for most of the bay is only waist-deep. It just seemed kind of "loud & touristy". However, the best part is just beyond the rocks at the mouth of the bay. Swim out past that area, and there is a large section of reef to explore. The amount of fish out here was amazing... no sooner did I pass the rocks at the mouth of the bay when I was enveloped in a huge school of small fish. Thanks to the underwater housing I recently got for my camera, I even managed to get some decent video.
Video: Snorkeling at Tobacco Bay
We saw a pretty good variety of fish here, many of which I've never seen snorkeling in other sections of the island. At one point, I saw a barracuda slowly cruise by. Unfortunately, didn't think to get a photo until he moved out of range... oops! One of the strangest things we saw was a school of cuttlefish, all about 6" long. It was weird... they were all lined up, and looking right at us. I tried to get some video of them, but they were careful not to let me get too close, so it was a bit hard. You can check that video out here. There was a small porcupine puffer fish... he was really tricky to get a picture of as well.
Bluestriped Grunt at Tobacco Bay
Parrot Fish at Tobacco Bay
Now, back to those Parrot Fish and the pink sand. We saw a lot of these guys while snorkeling all around Bermuda. Even when you can't see them, you can tell when they are nearby because you can hear them. "MUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH MUNCH" These guys live on algae, and the algae they like grows on coral and rock. So, they eat the coral and rock. You can hear them scraping the coral with their "beak". They munch on the coral, digest the algae, and what they can't digest, well... I'll just come out and say it - they poop pink sand. We saw it - the magic of nature... a 3 foot parrot fish pooping pink sand right in front of us. I've read that a single large parrot fish can produce a ton of sand per year. Think about that next time your strolling on a coral sand beach.
Anyway, our vacation was great, and there's a good chance we'll make this a regular yearly trip. Michael, our host at the Granaway, suggested that if we really like snorkeling, that next time we should charter a trip out to the off-shore reefs, as that's where the real action is. We did a SCUBA "resort dive" on our honeymoon in Mexico, and were thinking about getting our dive certifications, but Michael said that SCUBA is overkill for the Bermuda reefs - much of the good stuff is easily accessible with simple snorkel gear. Sounds good to us! Can't wait to go back...
By the way, additional photos from our trip can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonwtucker/Bermuda2007
Last year, on our first trip to Bermuda, we stayed at Coco Reef Resort, on the south shore of the island. While it was nice to stay literally steps away from Bermuda's famous pink sand beaches, the hotel experience for us wasn't the best way to stay. Hotels on Bermuda are expensive, and really all we need is a comfortable place to sleep, because during the day we're out and about - not sitting around the hotel room. I don't even think we used the pool at Coco Reef last year, as it was always full of people... including one obese fellow who always seemed to be floating around like a bloated corpse.
But I digress.
This year, we tried something different. We decided to go the bed & breakfast route. We booked our lodging at the Granaway guest house, and we're very happy we did. This place has all the charms that you would expect from a 273 year-old house. Actually, because the few guest rooms in the main house were booked up, we ended up staying in the cottage, which served as the slave quarters back in the day. Again, with a full kitchen, this was a bit overkill for us (we're on vacation, after all) but the added privacy was nice. Next time around, we would probably choose to save a few more bucks and stay in one of the rooms in the main house.
Courtyard behind the Granaway's main guest house
Inside of the Granaway Cottage
The private garden next to the cottage
Each morning breakfast is prepared by the hosts, Michael & Carol, along with their helper, Fransisco, who also resides on-site. They give you the choice of eating with the rest of the guests outside when the weather is nice, or having your breakfast served privately. If the weather doesn't cooperate, the Granaway's beautiful dining room inside the main house is put to use. Fortunately, we had all but one of our breakfasts outside, where we got to meet some of the other guests.
After breakfast on our 2nd day, we called Oleander's to rent a pair of scooters, or "cycles" as they are referred to on the island. They have a location nearby, and within a few minutes they picked us up in a van to take us back to get the cycles. Bermuda's narrow and windy roads aren't really well suited for heavy automobile traffic, so as a visiting tourist, you simply cannot rent a car - in fact, foreign driver's licenses are not recognized at all on the island. There are 3 options: hire a taxi to take you everywhere (expensive), rely on the bus/ferry services (cheap, but you have to live by their schedule), or you rent cycles. As long as you are at least 16, all you need is a credit card to rent a cycle, and once you do, the island is your oyster - you can go where you want, when you want, for however long you want. Perfect! And for those that are unsure of your two-wheeled skills, keep in mind that the only bikes available to rent are 50 cc, and they will provide an area to practice in, if you need it.
Even though the engines are all the same size, the "premium" bikes we rented from Oleander's this year had *much* more pep than the bikes we rented from their competitor last year. Those bikes had us feeling like road hazards, with traffic stacking up behind us, but the bikes we got this year had no such problems. The posted speed limit on the island is 35 KPH (about 22 MPH), but these bikes has no problem pushing 50-60 KPH. These bikes allowed us to keep up with traffic with NO problem, however, we still got passed every so often as the Bermudian residents are allowed to own cycles up to 150 cc, and they are fearless riders on those twisty roads.
Posing with our trusty cycles
Video: Cruising down Harbour Road (sorry, no sound!)
So, with our cycles secured, we were ready to roll - and over the next few days, we saw the island top to bottom and end to end. From snorkeling at Tobacco Bay (east end) to buying rum cakes at the Royal Naval Dockyard (west end), and as much as we could manage in between. One of the more interesting stops was at Crystal Cave.
Crystal Cave
The cave was pretty cool, and the water gave it an interesting appearance. As it was explained to us, the water provides a magnifying effect due to it being primarily salt water, covered with a thin layer of fresh water that was continuously dripping from the stalactites. Because of this effect, things like rocks or ancient stalagmites that look like they are just below the surface, are actually 20 or 30 feet down. At its deepest point, the pool is close to 60 feet deep, and crystal clear.
Our main preoccupations on this trip had to be eating and swimming, however. With our breakfasts taken care of, we still had to deal with lunch and dinner. A couple lunch stops at the famous Swizzle Inn, or "Swizzle Inn and Swagger Out", as the staff's t-shirts say. A few dinners in Hamilton, with the star attractions there being the Barracuda Grill (pan roasted hogfish, with vanilla-roasted baby fennel and carrot spaetzle... yum!) and the new Yashi sushi bar, which is inside the Coconut Rock restaurant. However, September 1 marks the first day of spiny lobster season in Bermuda, so we had to get our fill while we could. Last year, we had good experiences at the Lobster Pot in Hamilton, but this year they seem to have a problem with over-broiling the poor bugs. Fortunately, we found another place that more than made up for it. On Sunday, we stumbled across the Black Horse Tavern, way out in St. David's for lunch. Wow... what a lunch it was! The best fish chowder (a staple at just about every meal, every restaurant), stellar conch fritters, and the catch of the day. While we were eating lunch, we kept seeing all these huge broiled lobsters being served, and they looked good. Based on the quality of our lunch, and the looks of the lobsters that others were eating, we decided to come back for dinner as well (it was our last night on the island, so now or never).
Now, part of me is reluctant to post about the Black Horse - or at least reveal it's name. This no-frills tavern is mainly a hangout for locals, and they keep it packed for one very important reason - the food is friggin' amazing! The lobsters we had for dinner could not have been cooked better - perfectly plump and tender, including the knuckles... and even in that spine thing sticking out of their heads (spiny lobsters, after all). I'm afraid of this place getting too much publicity, because I don't want it to change. I don't want it to be flooded by the hoards that are coming in on the cruise ships - you know the ones... you can usually spot them by their matching neon-colored t-shirts that typically have some sort of catchy slogan on them, like "I'm not as think as you drunk I am" or some nonsense. No, I liked the fact that we were the only tourists in the joint that night. The place is special, and shouldn't be spoiled. However, the fact that this place is out "in the country", the only way tourists will get there for dinner would probably be by taxi ($$$) or cycle. I think that the place is far enough off the beaten path, that hoards will avoid it for the time being. I hope. The locals seem to give it more than enough business, so I don't think they'll miss the "boat people".
OK... enough about food. Swimming. Bermuda is famous for its pink sand beaches. Yes, they are pink, but what they don't advertise so much is how *soft* this sand is. Really, it feels like baby powder. It's hard to believe that we have parrot fish to thank for it (more on that later).
Cherie at Horseshoe Bay
Sergeant Major fish while snorkeling at Church Bay
The beaches on the south shore are beautiful, wide expanses of pink sand with some hard-to-reach tucked-away coves mixed in for good measure. However, the surf on the south shore can be a bit rough at times, and one of the most famous and picturesque beaches - Horseshoe Bay - tends to get overrun by the aforementioned "boat people" when the cruise ships are docked, so aside from some good snorkeling at Church Bay, most of our time was spent in the northeast section of the island, at Achilles Bay and Tobacco Bay.
Cherie at Tobacco Bay
Tobacco Bay was amazing! We never stopped there before, and I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's because the on-beach bar (and music), or the all of the families that come with their kids to take advantage of the bay, which for most of the bay is only waist-deep. It just seemed kind of "loud & touristy". However, the best part is just beyond the rocks at the mouth of the bay. Swim out past that area, and there is a large section of reef to explore. The amount of fish out here was amazing... no sooner did I pass the rocks at the mouth of the bay when I was enveloped in a huge school of small fish. Thanks to the underwater housing I recently got for my camera, I even managed to get some decent video.
Video: Snorkeling at Tobacco Bay
We saw a pretty good variety of fish here, many of which I've never seen snorkeling in other sections of the island. At one point, I saw a barracuda slowly cruise by. Unfortunately, didn't think to get a photo until he moved out of range... oops! One of the strangest things we saw was a school of cuttlefish, all about 6" long. It was weird... they were all lined up, and looking right at us. I tried to get some video of them, but they were careful not to let me get too close, so it was a bit hard. You can check that video out here. There was a small porcupine puffer fish... he was really tricky to get a picture of as well.
Bluestriped Grunt at Tobacco Bay
Parrot Fish at Tobacco Bay
Now, back to those Parrot Fish and the pink sand. We saw a lot of these guys while snorkeling all around Bermuda. Even when you can't see them, you can tell when they are nearby because you can hear them. "MUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH MUNCH" These guys live on algae, and the algae they like grows on coral and rock. So, they eat the coral and rock. You can hear them scraping the coral with their "beak". They munch on the coral, digest the algae, and what they can't digest, well... I'll just come out and say it - they poop pink sand. We saw it - the magic of nature... a 3 foot parrot fish pooping pink sand right in front of us. I've read that a single large parrot fish can produce a ton of sand per year. Think about that next time your strolling on a coral sand beach.
Anyway, our vacation was great, and there's a good chance we'll make this a regular yearly trip. Michael, our host at the Granaway, suggested that if we really like snorkeling, that next time we should charter a trip out to the off-shore reefs, as that's where the real action is. We did a SCUBA "resort dive" on our honeymoon in Mexico, and were thinking about getting our dive certifications, but Michael said that SCUBA is overkill for the Bermuda reefs - much of the good stuff is easily accessible with simple snorkel gear. Sounds good to us! Can't wait to go back...
By the way, additional photos from our trip can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonwtucker/Bermuda2007
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