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We woke up at around 8:00 a.m., made coffee, ate cereal, etc. We saw a rainbow over the ocean. The phone rang and it was Marty. It was raining at their place so he wasn't going to ride his motorcycle to work. Tiff would drive him instead. He would get out at 3 wanted to know if we could pick him up. We said that would be fine; we planned to be in town shopping this afternoon anyway. We told him that we wanted to eat at Charlotte Tamales at some point today. He said that he'd like to go with us, and asked if we could hold off until after 3 pm. That was fine with us, and we left it that we would meet Marty at his information booth in Charlotte Amalie at 3. We showered and had a leisurely morning.
At around 11:15 we left the room. We noticed that one of the houses near the hotel had put up a very nice stone wall since last year. The stones were interesting shades of brown and gray, and were interspersed with pink conch shells. It looked really pretty. We drove to Paradise Point. This is an observation platform which overlooks Havensight, the cruise ship docks, and Water Island. There is a tram that you can ride up to the mountaintop for a fee, but you can also drive up and park for free. We looked at the gorgeous view and then went into some of the shops. I bought a $15 wallet from Ibrahim at Afrocaribe that matched the map pocketbook that I bought here last year. Then we went to visit Marty and Tiffany's friend Sean, at his store, The Pirate's Chest. We introduced ourselves and he immediately remembered us from last Thanksgiving. He apologized for not making it to Thanksgiving dinner this year. We chatted and introduced him to Gina and Roger. Gina bought a few items from his store. I took a photo of Sean, and said I would put it on our web site. He said "Are you guys the ones who have the web site where my cousins saw a picture of me last Thanksgiving?" We said that we were indeed, and that his cousin had left a note in our guest book. There was an outdoor bar/restaurant at Paradise Point (this is where we first met Marty all those years ago). We decided to get a quick lunch here before heading into Charlotte Amalie to do some more shopping. We ordered bushwackers to drink. Steve got a Caesar salad, and the rest of us split potato skins and chicken strips with honey mustard. At around 1:30 we headed to downtown. We parked in the municipal lot (being a Saturday it wasn't full of city employees and there were plenty of parking spots). We walked through "tent city," an open air marketplace where you can bargain for your purchases. People bought various items and managed to get some good deals. We then went to Litle Switzerland. As usual they had some great stuff but the prices were way too high. We went to Royal Caribbean to check out the Olympus Stylus 600. I was wondering whether it was time to upgrade my camera, and I wanted to see what features it had. I didn't end up buying one, but Roger did. We laughed saying that I would be able to test it out and see if I really wanted one. Craig and Steve and Gina went in search of Tevas while I stayed with Roger. After he paid for the camera, we met up with Gina and then Craig and Steve. Steve got Tevas at Caribbean Surf. We met up with Marty in his little information booth. He was just getting off work. As Marty finished closing up, we went to A.H. Riise to buy some booze. Marty took Gina to a couple of stores to look for diamond earrings. We ended up at House of Rajah. The salesmen there gave us some 7 Up, which was refreshing after being in the hot sun. On the way out I saw the Citizen Ecodrive watches. Marty used to sell them so he knew all the stats. I found one I really liked and bought it for Xmas. Gina bought one too, having not found the earrings she was looking for. I had been looking for a watch and finally broke down to buy one. Gina, the self-proclaimed person who doesn't wear watches, got caught up in the moment too. We got a lot of laughs about our previous inside joke about the big push to sell watches on the island. We went to a couple more stores, and at around 4:30 headed over to Charlotte Tamales for some Mexican food. Although 5 of us fit in our rental car without a problem, 6 was a bit of a stretch. Marty ended up laying down on Gina and Roger's laps. When we arrived at Charlotte Tamales, we noticed that they had a new sign, and proprietor Biker John's Harley was still in the window. We ordered at the counter and our order was taken by John's wife (we realized afterwards that we never learned her name). There was a photo of Biker John with Santana in Puerto Rico at the Hard Rock Cafe. We had been craving this food since last year, and Marty assured us that the portions were even bigger now. We found that hard to believe. Craig asked about the pork verde and John's wife gave him a little taste. Craig ordered the pork verde "brorito". I got the smothered burrito with ground beef. Craig got a Blackbeard's Ale and I got a sangria. We ate our dinner and it was delicious. The brorito contained one pound of meat and was so huge that Craig couldn't finish it. I had a little bit of Craig's once I had finished my own (smaller) burrito. Biker John came over to the table to ask how everything was. He is a very friendly guy and we were glad to be able to give him our compliments. Marty had a few errands to run, and the six of us really didn'tfit in the car well. So he got a ride from a friend and said that he might meet us back at the room later. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a new grocery store and got some water, Fruity Pebbles, beer, and Smirnoff Ice. Roger got bandaids for his nose and Gina got her beloved pepper jelly. We missed sunset but got back to the room and relaxed and experimented with Roger's new camera. Marty called, and once he had picked up his dry cleaning and went home to feed Freddy it was 7:45. He needed to pick up Tiff at 9, so he sent his regrets. We hung out on the patio drinking, eating cashews, pistachios, and Nutter Butters. It started to rain a little bit so we pulled the chairs away from the edge of the patio, so that we were all safe under the roof. We came inside around 11:30 and I typed up the journal. We heard hysterical laughter from the other room, and realized that Gina had found a baby gecko and a millipede in her bathroom. |
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