Memorial Weekend in Pennsylvania

At the last minute, Sam and I decided to join the rest of America going camping for Memorial weekend. We rounded up 7 friends who were going to camp at Marblehead, OH and convinced them to come to Allegheny Reservoir in PA. We camped along the reservoir at Red Bridge campground, which was a well run campground.

James, Sam, and I stopped by the Kinzua dam on the drive up. The dam also provides hydroelectric power. What was really cool was there was a giant water battery above the reservoir. During low demand periods, the excess power generated is used to pump water from the reservoir to the top of the ridge. During high demand periods, this elevated water returns to the powerhouse to provide the extra energy needed.
The water battery is back a few forest service roads lined with some of the most redneck campsites I have ever seen. They beat the ones in West Virginia!

Water battery

We reserved walk-in campsites because I can't stand camping next to a generator. The biggest downside to the campground was all the parties. There is no alcohol policy because it's a national forest so people got pretty rowdy.

Cross-country ski to your tent!

Even Emrys is surprised he's doing dishes.

We had a lot of fun swimming in the reservoir and playing with the aerobie. We lost one in the water, but had a spare to keep playing.
We hiked up a waterfall near the dam. There wasn't one big drop, mostly a lot of cascades. Kevin found a great natural waterslide, though.

The weather was perfect until our drive home. It rained in sheets as we drove through Oil City. Fortunately, it was nice and dry at home.

Homeward Bound

Day 9: Bayonne, New Jersey

After a rough night at sea leaving Bermuda and a chilly day, we arrived in the New York harbor. It was total pea soup just like the last time I was in Newark, NJ (at the airport). Sam was very excited to be sailing up the Hudson. I'll admit, it's pretty cool, but not at 6am when it's cold and rainy out and I just spend a week in the Caribbean.

This picture was taken from our stateroom balcony. I've only ever seen New York City almost completely obscured by fog.
This is the stern of a smaller cruise ship that appears to be heading for the Manhattan cruise terminal. I'm very glad we didn't disembark in Manhattan.
The Bayonne cruise terminal is pretty new and wasn't really setup to handle passengers in the rain. We were bused from the ship to our luggage warehouse. Due to some mixup with taxis, we took another charter bus to the airport.

We had layover in Detroit and laughed that our layover was longer that it would have taken to drive from Detroit to Cleveland (our final destination). By the time we reached Cleveland, I wanted nothing more than to be home and go back to work. The perfect vacation.

Bermuda

Day 5: At Sea...Not much to talk about.

Day 6 & 7: Kings' Wharf, Bermuda

We arrived in Bermuda around 1pm after traversing Bermuda famous reefs. Most cruise ships now dock in Kings Wharf, which is at the north end of the country and, as described by a local, "the ugly part". Sam was very excited by the maritime museum in the old British fort, so we had to visit.

The fort and original wharf were build by convicts (i.e. the Irish). The original wharf is still used and as been expanded to accommodate cruise ships. The fort seemed pretty robust especially given the island is surrounded by reefs. No wonder the British used Bermuda as their Atlantic naval headquarters until very recently.
The magazine was underground near an inland underwater cave. The magazine was definitely built for smaller people.
The upper portion of the fort had cannons laying around everywhere. Here are a bunch of 18th century cannons, but they also had a variety of more modern cannons as well as some WWII guns.
Unfortunately, there really wasn't much about maritime history at the fort. It was mostly as history of Bermuda, which was interesting but not what Sam was looking for. Probably the oddest thing was the dolphin experience inside the fort. Pretty weird, but you could swim with dolphins.

The next day we decided to see the pretty part of Bermuda, so we got up early and headed into Hamilton (the capital). It was refreshing to be in a city where people are just going to work in the morning. We even saw a few bankers in the classic Bermuda suit (Bermuda shorts, knee high socks, shirt, tie, and jacket). Before heading to the beach, we stopped by the Anglican cathedral. The stone looked like it was all imported!
We took a bus to the south shore, which is basically a national park along most of the shore or tennis clubs. These were definitely the most beautiful beaches I had ever seen. All the beaches were connected by trails so you could walk the length of the park. It was rather odd and British, but the park was mowed along the trail with picnic tables and barbecues. I'm used to national parks in a more "wild" state, but this was definitely manicured and maintained.
Since Horseshoe Beach is so famous, we thought we'd check it out for awhile. It lives up to all the hype and then some! Since it was still spring in Bermuda, the only people at the beach were cruise ship passengers. The water was pretty cold, but it was warm and sunny. The beach was great for swimming because you could walk out really far and still be in knee deep water.
We brought our masks and snorkels and snorkeled around some of the rocks. It is really hard to take pictures while snorkeling, but Sam got a few good shots of parrot fish.

This guy was pretty big

The coloration was pretty crazy

The best part about Bermuda was the incredibly friendly and polite people. It was British without being too stuffy. I was also very impressed with how well the society is integrated. There are a lot of different ethnicities in Bermuda, but it was culturally homogenous. It was a really family friendly place, too. Definitely worth a second visit.