Bermuda - Part Two

In May of 1974 Peter was able to help out another hotel, The Mermaid Beach Club, in Bermuda.  They had staffing problems in their kitchen and were looking for people to work part time to help out.  It was all cleared by Immigration, so he took on the the job.  After he had been there for a month or so, they asked him if he would like to take on the position of Executive Chef for the company.  The pay was good and the position came with a House!!!!!  WOO HOO!!!  Our own little cottage in Bermuda!

We were so excited about the move.  The cottage was adorable. It had 2 bedrooms, a little efficiency kitchen, living room and bath room.  But it was like Heaven.  It had a fireplace too!  They had to do some upgrading of the kitchen, so we couldn't move in right away.  They put us up in one of their other hotels, until it was finished.  

In early July of that year, Bermuda was hit by Hurricane Alice.  We had just moved out of staff housing at the Sonesta Hotel and were staying at Pink Sands Beach Resort waiting for our cottage to be ready.  I was at work when we received a call from Horace, the manager of our factory saying there was a hurricane coming our way that night.  (This is letting you all know how old we are when there was no "warning" time with hurricanes!!!!!)  Mr. Gaade, my boss, told me to wait for him to secure his sail boat then he would drive me home.  He didn't want me on my moped with the winds that were blowing.  

So we spent the night with the hurricane raging.  Pretty brave of us wasn't it?  Actually not, there was NO way off the island at that time, so we didn't have a choice. Fortunately, there wasn't too much damage to the Island.  

We flew home to Connecticut in early July.  We had a great time.  We spent one week at the Sonesta Hotel  in downtown Hartford, gratis......and the second week with family, gratis........It was nice getting off the island, but couldn't wait to get back to start living  in  our little house.

Now, don't forget the reason we moved to Bermuda.  Remember, Peter wanted to be able to work in Europe.  So, even though we absolutely loved living in Bermuda, we were looking to move on.  So we kept ours eyes open, read the Swiss publication, Union Helvetzia Newspaper every week, and looked for an opportunity to get Peter a job in Europe.

 

A position with the Sheraton Hotel in Stockholm Sweden, came available, and Peter applied.  The hotel was interested in him, however, once again we had to wait to see if we could get a work permit.  While we waited, we had a great time living in Bermuda.  We had dinner guests constantly in our little cottage, we had family visit all the time.  One of our best visits was when my Mom, Aunt DeDe and my Nana came to visit.  It was so much fun showing them around the island.

Christmas in our little Cottage was delightful. Just before Christmas, I received a letter from the Sheraton Hotel with his permit enclosed. I bought a "tourists" book about  Sweden and put the permit inside.  He was thrilled...............another new adventure....................... Sometimes I wonder why we left Bermuda.  I know, there was so much adventure ahead of us, but it sure was joyful living and working in Bermuda.

We had to face some difficult decisions with this trip.  We still had our dog, and could take him to Sweden without him having to go into quarantine as Bermuda was a rabies free island.  However, that meant we couldn't go to the states to see our families before we flew to Sweden.  Yikes, that was a tough decision.  Family won. Dog lost.  We found friends that would take the dog for us while we were in Europe. There was no way we were going to put the dog in quarantine for 6 months.

So now it is time to leave, on yet another adventure.  This one was a little bit scarier than the last.  A real foreign country with a different language.  Ah, what the heck, we were young and carefree.  We could survive, and did !!!!!!!

The Merry Month Of May

When  you live in one of the world's greatest vacation destinations, you just have to take it all in. 

Its not as though we haven't been to the theme parks in the past, but the month of May turned out to be the "Theme Park Vacation Month" for the Schrolls.  We took many visits to the Disney Parks as well as Universal Studios. 

We went to The "Fantasy of Flight" Museum.  It was incredibly interesting and very well presented.  They have a nice little cafe there, so we had lunch and then spent the afternoon in the museum.

 One evening we drove to Disney just to have Dinner and watch the Fireworks.  We ate dinner in France, of course, and lingered so long over our dinner and wine, that the fireworks were finished by the time we left the restaurant. C'est la vie.

 Claire spent many a "sleep over" with Mormor and Papa during May.  One of her favorite past times was to feed the ducks at Mirror Lake in downtown Lakeland.  Of course that meant having an ice cream cone before hand.

 I had a wonderful Mother's Day.  We Met Erika and the kids at Bok Gardens and Tower.  We had a little picnic lunch and listened to the Clarion Concert.  It is a beautiful setting, and as you can see by the photo, not terribly crowded!!!!!  Would love to do this again when the weather is a little cooler.     

We took a day trip to Indian Rocks Beach for lunch and some walking on the beach.  It was a beautiful day.  We miss seeing the Ocean.  It was part of our daily drive to and from work!!!!                                                                                                                                                 

As the month was coming  to an end, we started getting Carefree ready to travel. The Park was nearly empty as all the "snow birds" had gone home.  It was quiet and peaceful.  We said good bye to all the new friends that we had made in the park and at our Church.  We look forward to seeing Father Wally at First Church again in the fall.   

During our last two weeks in Lakeland, Peter started going to a Chiropractor.  Dr. Merrick was wonderful!!!  He helped Peter so much with the pain in his back and the numbness in his hand.  Now he is definitely strong enough for this big adventure that lies ahead of us!!!!!                                      

We left Lakeland on Friday, March 24 and headed to Sebring Florida to camp at Highlands Hammock State Park.  Peter drove Carefree & Paul took his 5th wheel camper straight to the campground to get set up. I took the car to Erika's house and waited for her to finish work.  Then she and the kids came with me to the campground.  It was a lovely spot.   Side by side camping is so much fun.  The weather was rather warm and muggy, but cooled off a little on Saturday. 

Sunday, Paul, Claire, Peter and I took a tram tour of the Hammocks.  It was a long hot ride, and Hammocks are not one of my favorite things.  When we returned to our campers, Paul started to feel sick.  After dinner, Peter & I started getting sick.  OMG........the dreaded food poisoning had reared its ugly head.  By morning Erika had it too!.  Not the best ending to a wonderful weekend of camping!!!!!

From Sebring we headed to Hallandale, and  back to the campground we had stayed in for several months while we finished working.  The next three days were Doctor's appointments and tests for Peter.  It was his one year anniversary of his Stem Cell Transplant. 

We also had a chance to visit with some of our dear Miami friends.  It was good being back in Miami as there are many truly wonderful people there. It was great to visit with several dear friends however, somehow, it just doesn't feel like home any more!!!!!