Bermuda: Day 2

Apparently, there's a time change when one goes to Bermuda. One hour, to be precise. The time change is also a lot harder on animals than it is on humans. Which explained why Billy Bob ended up jumping on my snout at 7 AM in the morning when it really should have been 6 AM. It also explained all of the grogginess I felt. But an enthusiastic hippo was not a hippo to be ignored. Billy Bob explained excitedly to Sparkle, DonDon and I over breakfast that he'd found this amazing beach called Horseshoe Beach, and that it had pink sand. As he put it, "PINK. SAND." We got off of the boat and onto a bus that would take us directly to the beach. Another day of crazy driving. I was starting to miss the stoplights at home. When we got there, there was already a good amount of people, but we put up our umbrellas and proceeded to have our fun. 

"Is that the pool for hippos?" -Billy Bob

He had to be convinced that, no, this was not for hippos, this was where everyone did their snorkeling. Seeing as we did not have our gear (not that gear would fit our snouts anyways,) we dragged him over to our umbrella, where he was content to examine the sand. He then proceeded to bury me in it. 

"NOT FUNNY BILLY BOB!" 

I would never admit this to Billy Bob, but I really was a fan of the pink sand. It was so pink. I'd never seen pink sand before in my life. I'd never be able to go to a beach again without being disappointed by the lack of pink sand. It was so soft, too. Who knew that sand could be soft? But I had to get back at Billy Bob. It was only when I heard the contented sighs of Sparkle that I knew that Billy Bob had buried him as well. 

"The sand's so pink...and soft...I think I'll just take a nap here..." -Sparkle

DonDon was the only one that still retained any sanity, and managed to get back at Billy Bob for the rest of us. Too bad, though. He didn't know what he was missing. Sparkle and I tried to convince DonDon to bury himself in the sand as well, but no go. DonDon is not a big fan of sand. He's a bigger fan of the surf. DonDon managed to dig both of us out, to our protests, and buried Billy Bob instead. There's only one way to get Billy Bob to do what you want, and that's with food: "Billy Bob, there's a hot dog in here!" **Billy Bob dives in, DonDon buries him** We went out to the ocean, leaving Billy Bob to dig himself out. Pig power! 

"I can see the bottom of the water! I've never seen the bottom of the water!" -DonDon

The waves were growing pretty big when we were out there, so we ended up having to go back to the umbrella. Billy Bob had dug himself out by then, and was attempting to get the sand off of him by using the spray-bottle/fan we'd brought with us to the beach. It wasn't exactly working well for him. Sparkle stole the fan away and used to it dry himself off instead.

"That's right. The spray bottle is mine!!!!! Hehe" -Sparkle

I pointed out a mountain that a bunch of people seemed to be climbing. How were they getting up there? Could they even get down? Were they just appearing on the top of the rock? Was it magic? I hadn't realized that I'd spoken 'magic' out loud until DonDon gave me a weird look. I just pointed up at the mountain and he seemed to get what I was thinking. "No way, Perky. You can go up there by yourself." Billy Bob and Sparkle just nodded in agreement. Well, if no one was going to go with me, might as well go by myself. Although, how was I supposed to get up there...? It turned out that I had to scramble up the side of a ledge with a lot of footholds, then walk through a narrow pathway, and eventually, I came out onto this stretch of rock. Now I could see why people wanted to come up here. It was beautiful!

"Wonder why the water's different colors?"

I really do wish that Sparkle, DonDon and Billy Bob had been there with me, but they'd said it before. I'd had to go alone. I noticed that a lot of people had carved their names into the rock, but I didn't have the tools that I needed to carve my name into it. 

"BAA? What's that mean? Oh, look, there's a heart!"

I climbed down from the rock, smacking my leg on some rock on the way down, and got back to the umbrella to find Sparkle, Billy Bob and DonDon asleep on the towel. I took this as a sign that it was time to head back to the boat. We caught the bus that would take us back to the boat, and went to go get ready for dinner. That night, we were to eat at the Garden Cafe, and we were going to go back to the room when we were done. When we got to the room, we saw an animal made from a towel! Sparkle, DonDon and I were especially excited, because it was a pig. Billy Bob went about muttering "What's with tonight and pigs?"

"We have found a piggy and we shall name it Piggy. It's our piggy and we shall name it Piggy."

After freaking out over the presence of the pig, we went to the Chocoholic buffet, and proceeded to eat as much chocolate that we could. There was chocolate cake, slices of pie, a chocolate fountain, various chocolate desserts, and chocolate ice cream! Everyone's dream--to be in chocolate wonderland. 

"OH MY GOODNESS! CHOCOLATE ALL AROUND!!!!" -DonDon

Sparkle proceeded to eat his way through all of it, and had a chocolate mustache halfway through his dessert. He was intent on washing it off with chocolate milk. He wasn't all that successful, and three minutes later, an empty glass of chocolate milk next to him, he wiped it off with a napkin. We caught 9:00 show of Tim Kaminski, and we would not stop laughing. I'm pretty sure Billy Bob almost fell out of his seat from laughing. We had to carry him back to the room because he wouldn't stop laughing. We had to drop Billy Bob back in the room, then backtrack because DonDon had lost his room key. We finally found it on the floor of the theater, and trooped back up another four flights of stairs. Exhaustion overtook us then, and I went to sleep. Sparkle took a shower first, though. 

Love, Perky :D

Street Pianos!

As a pig that has four hooves and absolutely no fingers at all, I am fully prepared to admit that I have absolutely no idea on how to play a piano, let alone one in the street! But they're pretty, and I like pretty things! So I decided to go visit them, wherever they were. The first piano I went to visit was on the Greenway. I wonder how they got the paint to fall like that? While we were there, there was someone singing some Katy Perry, and Billy Bob decided to sing along. Let's just say that's not the best decision he decided to make.

"Do you think they let that paint drip on purpose?"

Consulting a map, it was determined that our next stop was at the Children's Museum. We had to cross over a giant bridge to do so, and Billy Bob hates heights. I had to convince him that we wouldn't die. And of the fact that they were giving out ice cream on the other end. Which was partly true. Halfway across, I saw this seat that was actually pretty cool. It was part of this contest to try and make benches that reunited with nature. 

"Perky, I know you're not thinking philosophical thoughts! Time to get off of the chair!" -Billy Bob

I wasn't thinking philosophical thoughts! I wasn't really! I was just thinking about how the sun hit the water and how it made the background line of the city look really pretty! I was also thinking about how cold it was. Billy Bob had a coat. Lucky hippo. At least I wasn't lying about the free ice cream. Well, I sort of had been--because I didn't know if it had been true or not. I was right, thankfully. The piano there had someone playing on it, so I didn't want to take a picture. But in the piano, there were dolls dancing every time a certain key was hit! Billy Bob finished devouring his ice cream and came over to watch in awe, so. The guy on the piano was playing some jazz tune, and there was a lady next to him singing. They sounded good. We left after a while when it was clear that no one else was going to go, and crossed back over the bridge. We spotted another piano, only it was covered up. We grabbed the tarp off of the piano (and it's heavy. Not an easy job for a hippo and a pig.) and look what we found! Fish! :D

"Perky, how do these fish breathe if they're not in the water?" -Billy Bob

Believe me, Billy Bob tried many times to crack the lock on the piano, including the word "play". But none could do, so we were slightly disappointed. But I perked up--my name is Perky, after all--when I saw another bench. I gotta tell you, these benches should all have won the contest. I would have kept on sitting there, too, if I wasn't afraid of falling through the cracks. 

"If I had a pillow, I'd probably sleep on this through the night!" -Perky

Billy Bob ended up having to forcefully pick me up off of the bench, dragging me across the brick ground, and to the next piano--which, I must add, was a long way from the museum. It was at the Old State House. But Billy Bob had to take a break first--he took a tanning on a piece of concrete. Sometimes, I don't even know what that hippo's thinking. I mean, who tans on concrete? Wouldn't they want to sleep on a beach?

"The sun hits in all the right places...including my nose!" -Billy Bob

Laziness ended up kicking in for the blue-nosed hippo, and Billy Bob ended up sleeping there until the sun went down. Now I was the one who had to drag him all the way to the Old State House--we were running out of time, and there were still so many pianos for me to see. There wasn't anyone playing this one. I think it's because it looked a bit like Halloween...

"DUN DUN DUN DUN...DUN DUN DUN DONDON!" -Billy Bob

There was a large amount of confusion as to why Billy Bob decided to mention DonDon at that point, especially since DonDon hadn't been there...oh well. I guess Billy Bob has more musical talent than I actually thought he did. We hiked on to Boston Common, where there was a piano with a mustache on it, but it was dark and my flash decided not to work at that moment. However, there was a large collection of globes made of different things. Billy Bob and I decided to climb up onto the light bulb one. Sparkle was afraid of falling...

"Why isn't this light bulb turning on?" -Billy Bob

Billy Bob decided to jump from the light bulb, thankfully landing without a faceplant. I was the one that decided to edge off of the lightbulb, but still landed ungracefully on two legs instead of four. Sparkle took that as a sign as time to go home, and we were herded back onto the train to go home. Not that I wanted to go home. I mean, I'm a curious pig! Who wouldn't want to see more of the pianos? Although maybe that was for another week...it was kind of cold...

Love, Perky :D

Bermuda: Day 1

I woke up this morning, thinking that I was in for another day of sea, sea, and more sea. Not to mention somebody's seasickness. Hopefully, there was something interesting to do on the boat today. I didn't want to spend my day eating or sitting around. A pig's got things to do on a cruise! But I was saved, for when I looked out of my balcony, we were in Bermuda! :D

"What is that? Is that a field? Is it a house? Everything's so different in Bermuda!"

Sparkle, DonDon, Billy Bob and I immediately scrambled off of the boat to get onto the island. We got caught in some rain that never seemed to end--one minute we'd be in it, and the next minute it'd be gone! It happened to us three times! At last, though, the rain stopped--but by then we'd made it to the customs checkpoint anyways. There was a small problem with DonDon and his passport, which resulted in the pig running up about 10 flights of stairs to get his passport, but we were soon on our way. At once, I saw the telephone booth, and for a moment, I thought I was in England. 

"Does anybody have any change I can borrow? I need to call someone!"

This might make me look bad, but Billy Bob, Sparkle and DonDon ended up having to drag me out of the booth... No one would lend me any change anyways, so might as well move on, right? We caught a ferry that would take us from the dock to one of the towns, Hamilton. I didn't think the ferry would move that fast, so I ended up going inside so I wouldn't fly off of the deck from the strong winds. 

"Why does it look like we're moving so slowly from the inside?"

After we got off of the boat, we decided that we'd explore the place. In Bermuda, everything's closed on a Sunday because everyone has the day off. So there wasn't a lot of shopping to do. We should have come tomorrow, but we really wanted to look at the nature. You could go shopping any day. "But not in Bermuda!" Billy Bob decided to argue with us. In the end, though, he came along on our little nature walk. I saw palm trees--actual palm trees!--and had to take a picture with them. Somehow, DonDon ended up butt-bombing my picture...

"SURPRISE BUTTBOMB!" -DonDon

I'm usually a nice pig. But when some other pig tries to get into my pictures, (ahem, you know who you are coughDonDoncough) that constitutes revenge. So Sparkle got a taste of what water from Bermuda tastes like. You should probably know that DonDon isn't the biggest fan of water. Half the time, he's afraid he's going to get swept away. So we had to fish him out (pardon the pun) before he had a full-scale panic attack and embarrassed us. No one was around, but you could never be sure. There was this beautiful flower that we saw on our walk. Sparkle and DonDon were too small to wear one in their ears, so they settled to posing next to one instead. 

"Hey, is that an ant?" -DonDon

Sparkle wanted to sneak the flower back onto the ship, but the ship rules prohibited any sort of nature that would be found in Bermuda back onto the ship. This meant that Sparkle wouldn't be able to have his flower. He broke down a little further when he realized that this meant he wouldn't be able to get sand back onto the ship, either. Too bad. He'd heard that the sand on the beaches was pink, and was looking forward to bringing some home as a souvenir. "On the other hand," he reasoned, "at least there are these really cool leaves!" When we broke the news that no, he couldn't bring those back either, he insisted that DonDon and I take a picture on it so that he would remember it too. I think Sparkle's eaten something funny...he's never this enthusiastic about nature. Maybe it's just the Bermudian air.

"There there Perky....it's okay, you're not gong to fall from this leaf..." -DonDon

It was at this point that Billy Bob realized that I hadn't taken a picture with the special flower we'd found. To be honest, I'd been hoping that no one would have noticed that I hadn't taken a picture with it. But, Billy Bob, being the observant little hippo he was, managed to get a flower on me by putting it into my necklace. Although I do have to say that it smelled really pretty...

"I TOLD you that you'd love wearing it!" -Billy Bob

It was time to catch the bus--if we missed it, we'd have to end up walking back to the dock where the boat was. In Hamilton, the dock is about....ooh...I don't actually know. But I know it'd take a long time to get back to the dock, and we'd most likely fall over from exhaustion halfway through the trip. So we had to catch this one, but on the way, Billy Bob saw a building with the words "pickle barrel building" on it, and honestly wondered if there were pickle barrels.

"Can we go in there and look for pickle barrels? Can we? Pleeeeaaase?" -Billy Bob
"We gotta catch this bus! We can't stop to look for pickle barrels!" -Sparkle

If you ever get onto a bus in Bermuda, here's a bit of knowledge for you: a) the people in Bermuda drive on the left side of the road, b) there are no seat belts on a Bermudan bus, and c) there are no stoplights in Bermuda. You can imagine that the last one would be just a tiny bit disconcerting. I was pretty much holding onto the bus rail for dear life as the bus lurched to a stop, opened the doors, and sped off again all in the course of about ten seconds. I'd also like to add that Bermuda is full of steep curves. The bus driver likes to lean into all of them. At more than one point, the tree branches hit the window. That's how close we were. It's considered an accomplishment to survive a Bermuda bus ride...I consider it one anyways. DonDon stuck his head out the window the entire time. When we got back to the dock, Billy Bob still stuck to his insistence on shopping, so we stopped by the Clocktower Mall to do some shopping. We went into this shop where there was a fish-shaped bag, and Billy Bob was extremely excited to play inside of it. You can't see him here, but...

"I can see you, but you can't see me!" -Billy Bob

I picked Billy Bob out of the bag, despite his protests, and we all went back to the ship. Because let's face it--if you put three pigs and a hippo on a bus that never stops, the nervousness of crashing is definitely going to take a toll on your energy. We were definitely tired, indeed. Food was a necessity, so we went to the Garden Cafe for dinner, which is a buffet, and ended up pigging out. Excuse my pun. I couldn't think of anything else to say :) After dinner, we went to the theater on the boat. It's called the Stardust Theater. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures--I'd get arrested, and staying in boat jail isn't any fun. We watched a show called "Pure Variety", which had these people on hoops, and bad comedy, and even an a cappella group! It sure did tucker us out, so we trooped up to bed right after the show :)

Stay tuned for my next day in Bermuda! 
Love, Perky :)