Life has been a dream since our arrival in Bermuda. This is what people have in mind when they look at us with envy and think that our life is full of rum punch drinks with umbrellas in them. As Paul rightly pointed out earlier, we have not had a vacation since our wedding, which was in July. We've been going, going, going from early morning to late at night, every day of the week. So we are both looking forward to slowing down the pace a little bit here. That said, we have managed to create a pretty long to-do list that must be addressed before we leave, and our days are increasingly filled with preparation and repair work. Compared with our previous pace, though, living is slow and easy.

After checking into customs, we sailed out of St. George's to Hamilton where Paul's colleagues and friends from the Sedona Conference were gathered for their annual meeting. On our way out, we passed by a rather choppy anchorage, Murray's Anchorage, where Alexander Robertson spent many days at anchor, some 200 years ago. I acknowledge that the Navy folk must have been a little tougher than me, but I cannot imagine spending entire seasons out there, as it is very open to all the swells coming in from the ocean. Yes, the reef must provide some protection from the real high seas, but it is still rather active.

Going through the channel into Hamilton, we were able to spot the Fairmont Hotel where the conference was taking place. Marty Jaron, who had hosted us in his summer home in the Outer Banks, was at work again, to ensure our comfort. He had talked to the dockmaster at the Fairmont, Alan, and secured a dock for us while the conference went on. When Paul called the hotel, not knowing about these arrangements, Alan was quick to invite us in to use the dock and the facilities for as long as we needed. Free dockage at the hotel and use of the facilities? Life is indeed slow and easy.

Approaching Hamilton, we had to do a spin around the part of the Harbor with the hotel as we couldn't decide whether we were to go to the pastel pink building that looked like a hotel or its neighbor the yellow one. In the midst of our high tech talk of AIS, Radar, GPS and such, I find this rather amusing. It turned out that the pink building was the one we wanted, and we tied up to the concrete dock without trouble. We joined the cocktail reception for the conference in the terrace, not entirely blending in our shorts, t-shirts, ruffled hair, salt-covered skin, and sandals with the business casual dress code of the rest of the folks. It was very cool to be sharing the story of our trip with folks and seeing their reactions. It was great to see Jim Daley, Richard Braman, Steve Barrett, Janet Lambert, Amor Estaban, Moze Cowper, Ken Withers, Tom Mueller, Andy Cohen, Dan Regard, Sandra Potter, Jim Shook, Judge Waxse, and the many others we've come to know through Sedona. After cocktails, we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant with a small group of friends. Good wine and good food, plus good company made for a great evening. It helped that Chris, Paul, and I were ravenous from days of eating very little and devoured everything in sight.

The morning light revealed a beautiful hotel with gorgeous grounds. While Paul joined in the discussion in the morning session of the conference, I took in the scenery and hung out in the big lawn chairs overlooking the harbor.