Greetings from Bermuda!

I can't believe we're already halfway through our week here. I've been slacking on the blog, but the house doesn't have internet, which is appropriate for Bermuda. The pace of life here is pretty laid back, and Bermuda doesn't encourage checking email every day, especially when you can see the ocean from your villa. We're staying in St. George's, a small town with lots of history -- our house is about 150 years old. Apparently the British were headed for Jamestown and someone made a left turn, and the rest is the subject of dozens of books for sale at the tourist shops here. In any case, it is a beautiful island and the water and sky are shades of blue that make you feel much farther away than just a two hour flight from DC.

Here we are from our visit this morning to Fort Saint Catherine, in the town of St. George's. It dates back to the 1600's, and was used as recently as dubya dubya two.
Here are Jake and Sadie, busy planning out our day. Sadie is checking her map and Jake is looking up restaurants on the laptop:
This is Mimi and Grandpa with Ali and Jake on the steps of the church in town, which I think is the oldest structure in the western hemisphere. Or something like that. Ali has the brochures.

Our house here has been perfect. It was the subject of an episode of This Old House on PBS back in 2004. The owners did a complete renovation with all kinds of electronic shower do-dads and a fully-outfitted kitchen that I've been enjoying. Let's see, do I use the electric convection oven or the gas range with wok attachment tonight....

But probably the best part of the house has been the small lap pool in the back that we've used every day. Jake has been practicing his snorkeling and has gotten pretty brave with that. Sadie, at 16 months, can swim on her own wearing water wings! We've felt her pulling away from us in the water for a few weeks now, and we finally let her go this week. She kicks and bobs her way all around this little lap pool, spitting out any water that gets in her mouth, and loving every minute of it.
We're off to Tobacco Bay again tomorrow (our little lagoon/beach) to do some more swimming and snorkeling. We'll see how she does in salt water, but this girl seems right at home in the water. And then tomorrow afternoon/night, Mimi and Grandpa have the kids and Ali and I will be terrorizing the island on a rented scooter. Look out Bermujans!