Doc and I were wandering around after working out at the gym, when suddenly I saw a huge swarm of bees dangling from a pomegranate tree at 21st and Treat.
They were swarming around with at least one queen, looking for a new place to build a hive. It was pretty amazing. They were surprisingly forgiving of my curiosity and sticking my face right up to their swarm, since bees are apparently even more reticent to sting when they don’t have any hive to defend.
I was obsessed with the bees all day, so we went to go check out the area to see if they decided to settle in the pomegranate tree, but they were gone without a trace. Farewell, bees!
Going back to Bermuda was great, and I was glad that I got to see the areas where I grew up and how they’ve changed.
We biked a lot in Bermuda. The idea was that we would bike all around, and mostly use the Railway Trail (a trail for pedestrians and pedal bikes only). This worked, but apparently there had been a bunch of moped thefts a couple of years ago, and the thieves used the Railway Trail to get the mopeds far away really quickly. To combat this, the trail got a bunch of really obnoxious fences installed, so we had to constantly get off our bikes and haul them over the intentional obstacles. So, that was annoying.
You can see one of those stupid trail gates in this photo.
Nonetheless, we managed to do: a 16-mile-trip, a 10-mile trip, and a 25-mile-trip on our bikes.
I also got to see my favourite spider again, the Spiny Orb-Weaver.
Spiny Orb-Weaver Selfie
The southern shores certainly had all be best snorkeling, beaches, and wildlife (Southampton’s and Warwick’s southern shores especially).
Oh, and while we were biking around St David’s, Doc and I found a dirt bike course that appeared to have been abandoned, so of course we rode around on it.
Doc on the dirt bike course
We also managed to eat fish chowder at a billion different places, and have become obsessed with putting black rum and sherry peppers in soup. Doc’s favourite fish chowder was at Henry VIII’s, because it tasted the least like fish; my favourite fish chowder was at Black Horse Tavern, because it tasted the most like fish. Interpret that however you want.
Oh and we saw a huge (~6 feet wide) spotted eagle ray in Harrington Sound from Flatt’s Bridge.SPINY ORB-WEAVER!!!!!
This week, Doc and I went to Las Vegas because of a gig out there (I agreed because I wanted an excuse to climb in Red Rocks), and not long after we arrived on Tuesday, we decided to get married. We made it official and were legally married by Thursday.
We had talked about our ideal marriage a lot; that it would be cheap and that we wouldn’t inconvenience anybody by asking for gifts or even have a big wedding ceremony, so that is why we both knew that we didn’t need to make a big deal about it. Even so, I couldn’t be happier!
And of course, we celebrated by climbing in Red Rocks afterwards! Doc climbed his first multi pitch (Olive Oil on Rose Tower, 6 pitches, 5.7) during that trip. There was a spooky traverse because it had high exposure, but other than that it was a really easy climb with huge juggy sandstone holds. I would highly recommend this and the other classic Red Rocks climbs.
Doc wearing his wedding tuxedo tee, getting ready to climb
While we were climbing Olive Oil, George and Joanne Urioste were making a first ascent on another formation nearby, just across the way. This is the same couple that made many of the first ascents in the Red Rocks guidebook, including Olive Oil!
We also checked out Bonnie Springs Ranch, a sort of tourist trap built out of an old 1860’s ranch that has performers doing shootouts and hangings etc. Bonnie Springs is only about 5 miles away from Red Rocks, so it wasn’t out of the way, and even that was tons of fun. It was kitsch but not too bad, just enough to be fun and light-hearted.
Lots of the rocks looked like bacon
Everywhere in the Blue Diamond area, we kept seeing signs saying not to feed the wild horses or burros, which of course made me super excited to see wild horses or burros. Alas, we never did.
Now Doc and I are back in San Francisco at last, chilling and blogging. Except now, we are chilling and blogging while married.
