A Bermudaful Labor Day

I love traditions, but when you move to a new place—especially one that’s 600 miles off the Atlantic coast—it’s hard to keep the rituals you love the most alive. But at least I can try. Take Labor Day weekend for example. Every year my wife and I spend the holiday weekend with family in Montauk, N.Y., a sleepy beach town on the east end of Long Island. We drink beer on the beach, eat fried clams at a harbor front restaurant, take long bicycle rides to the lighthouse. It’s always great fun—four days of rest, relaxation, and sun-splashed goodness. Needless to say we didn’t make it to Montauk this year but we sure did have a good time pretending here in Bermuda. Instead of fried clams and chowder at Gosman’s Dock, we enjoyed fish sandwiches at Blackbeard’s Hideout—an open-air beach bar in the shadow of historic Fort St. Catherine—then later, conch fritters at the Blackhorse Tavern on St. George’s harbor. Instead of that bike ride, we took a drive to St. David’s Lighthouse on Bermuda’s east end (see above). Funny, we thought it looked like a slightly redder and albeit shorter version of the one in Montauk. And as for those beers on the beach, well, we had beers on the beach, but this time on a quiet stretch of sand specked with colorful sea glass. All in all a Bermudaful Labor Day weekend, but if anyone feels like FedExing me a lobster roll from Amagansett I sure as heck won’t be complaining.