Day 2 – Monday August 3, 2015. it ends with Flaming Bananas.

Tzvi set his alarm for 9am, and we were out of bed by 930.

We got up and decided we would go to the gym before having buffet breakfast. The gym is pretty nice. It has water and fruit. You have to go in through the spa and then they ask you for your room number. Its $15 a day to go unless you are a member of the President’s Club. The kicker? Joining the President’s club is free. After the gym we went to Windows on the Sound for breakfast. It’s a huge round restaurant and a lot of the windows look out on the sound. We got a view of the utility staircase and the sign pointing to the bike shop.  Oh well.  They have a la carte as well as buffet, and we chose the buffet. Good choice. We had eggs, muffins, pastries, a Portuguese donut (just a large fried donut with cinnamon and sugar), scones, waffles, pancakes (with fruit, whipped cream etc), fruit, granola, cheese (tzvi), coffee, and this great fruit juice that I think was orange, mango, pineapple, something, who knows, but delicious.

After breakfast we came back to the room to change for the beach. We hadn’t heard from anyone else at this point so we just left on our own. You have to take a short shuttle ride to get from the front of the hotel to the private hotel beach. They come every five minutes or so. We found nice seats and had a guy set up an umbrella. It was so hot. We stationed ourselves there for about 5 and a half hours. Around 1230 I got a Whatsapp that mama was awake. I think they made it to the beach around 230. There is drink and food service at the beach. We got a Dark and Stormy, which is one of Bermuda’s signature drinks because it has dark rum and ginger beer, whatever that means. Around 3 we ordered food, which didnt actually come until 330. We shared chips and guac, fruit plate, I had a chickpea burger (which was a little spicy) and tzvi and pop pop had some fish wrap. The boys got Hagez Daaz pops. 

Again we made friends, except our new friends were from D.C. instead of New York, which was actually surprising since everyone here seems like they’re from New York.  And Jewish.  It’s a lot of New York Jews.  Except for the people next to us today, who were D.C. Jews.  They were a family of lawyers, and apparently there’s an ABA conference here this week as well.  So yeah, it’s a hotel full of Jewish doctors and lawyers.  Oy vey.

After lunch we went in the water again.  The water here is so clean and blue and it’s not too cold.  It was just so nice and we stayed in for a long time.  Around 5:15 we finally got ourselves together and went back to the hotel, where we showered and changed for dinner.

We all met downstairs at the radiology conference symposium.  It was very nice and had an open bar, but of course the drinks were weak.  Austin got a bottle of Heineken and told mama that it was a sparkling water.  We’re really not sure if she believed him.  We stayed for a few minutes at the reception, met a woman who works in pop pop’s office (his old office, not his current one on the third floor of the house), and then headed out for dinner.

Dinner was at the Waterlot Inn, which is part of the hotel, but it’s down the road and you need to take another shuttle.  The restaurant is in a house that was built in 1670 and was really nice.  When we came in the hostess sat us down in the waiting area, and almost as soon as soon as we’d sat down, the maître d came over to take us downstairs to our table.  The maître d was very nice and gave us some history of Bermuda, including the fact that the bay where the restaurant is located is called Jew’s Bay, because the Jew’s used to live there and trade there. Then he proceeded to give out white napkins to the people wearing light colors and black napkins to the people wearing dark clothes.  Fancy. The restaurant was supposed to be “resort elegant” so we dressed nice and all the men wore jackets, but it turned out that most people did not wear jackets.  Then again, most people aren’t as classy as we are.

Our waiter was Michael, a very boisterous, friendly and funny guy.  To start we got an order of zucchini fritters that my parents and Tzvi had (it had goat cheese in it), and Tzvi and my mother also shared a Caesar salad that Michael made tableside.  For our mains, pop pop had a tuna steak with mango salsa, I had a tofu steak with mushrooms, and Tzvi and mama each got the tasting trio which had three small pieces of tuna with mango salsa, grouper with guacamole, and salmon on a wood plank.  We also shared a bunch of sides including kale and brussel sprouts.  Everything was delicious. Boys had kosher meals, but this time it also came with soup and dessert. For dessert I had a date-tofee pudding, and Tzvi and my mother shared the banana foster, which was flambéed tableside.  The thing flamed up almost to the ceiling and was quite impressive. We also tried to order a cappuccino, but like last night, they said the machine was broken.  I think its some kind of conspiracy and they just don’t make cappuccino on this island. Overall a delicious, elegant dinner.

            After dinner we took the shuttle back up to the hotel, and now here we are getting ready to go to sleep. Good day.