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We woke up at 6 a.m.and made coffee. The cisterns at the hotel must have been empty as the toilets had no water with which to flush. This also would explain the slightly sewery smell which had been coming from the bathrooms the past few days. We had to manually flush the toilets, pouring a gallon and a half of water down per flush.This was the one morning that we were in a rush, and this was the last thing that we needed. Every year, we meet Marty and Tiffany at Marina Market to buy food for the day's boat ride. Marty and Tiff are inevitably ready before we are, and they end up waiting for us. This year we wanted to get an early start so that they wouldn't have to wait. We left the room at 7:05 and drove to Marina Market. Craig parked the car and the rest of us went in to order sandwiches. Craig and I got turkey, cranberry, cream cheese, and mustard. We bought Gatorade, Cheetos, and chips. Marty and Tiff weren't due until 7:30, and we were already done with our shopping. We were proud of ourselves; we would not be a cause of delay this year. Craig went to the convenience store next door to get ice for the cooler. We considered going across the street to wait at the marina when we heard a car horn.
Marty and Tiff drove up in the Jeep. They motioned for us to stay at Marina Market parking lot. We knew something was amiss when we saw Freddy in the car. They said they called Mattheus (of See and Ski boat rentals) and cancelled the boat because of the weather. There were seven foot swells today. Normally, we would have thought that Marty was pulling our leg, but they had never brought Freddy for an Island Hop before. They said they had tried to call us but we had already left the room. So much for our brilliant plan to leave early! We put the ice and food in the trunk and then drove across the street to Molly Malone's for breakfast. There was a drunk Santa statue holding up a lamppost. Craig and I got orange juices with little plastic goldfish floating in them. Craig's was deformed, and we made jokes about Timmy's deformed turkey Gobbles on the South Park Thanksgiving episode that we had seen the night before we left home.. Craig got a Philly Cheesesteak omelet and "O'Brien" potatoes. I got biscuits and gravy with a side of O'Brien potatoes. We had a good time eating breakfast together, and then headed back to the room. We sat inside chatting. Marty and Tiff cuddled up with a blanket in the cold a/c. Ah, these people who are used to the heat! Marty and Tiff suggested going to Hull Beach. It is a beach where locals go, and it allows dogs. We had a trunk full of picnic lunches and it seemed the perfect thing to do. We followed Marty and Tiff to their house. We got to admire Marty's tricked-out Harley with its custom skull paint job, skull mirrors, light-up skulls, etc. We admired the view of Magen's Bay from their deck. When we had come for Thanksgiving dinner the other night it was dark and lightly raining, so this was Gina and Roger's first glimpse of their gorgeous view. We then headed by Drake's Seat. This is the spot where Sir Francis Drake used to keep a lookout for ships, and it affords a beautiful view of Magen's Bay. The bench itself is green now (it was red the last time we were there). We did the tourist thing and sat on the bench and took some pictures. Then we went to Hull Beach, on the north side of the island. The beach was really empty. We settled in the shade. The waves were pretty high and we watched them breaking. We realized that we would have no use for the snorkel gear we had rented; the surf was way too rough. Gina and Roger went swimming, but Craig, Steve, Marty, Tiffany, and I stayed onshore. We were so protected by the shade of the trees that we never even put on any sunscreen. There were a bunch of small fishing boats anchored in the bay. We ate our picnic lunch on the beach. Marty tried to get Freddy to take down a tree. It was really funny to see how determined Freddy was. He would stand up on his hind legs with his teeth clenched around a branch and he would try to pull the branch down. Some other dogs arrived and Freddy was immediately interested. He also chased some tiny geckos around the tree near where we sat. He would fetch sticks from the water, etc. He expended a lot of energy, while the rest of us just enjoyed the solitude. We left around 3:45. Marty and Tiff headed home, and we planned to meet up later for dinner. We got stuck in ferry traffic in Red Hook on the way back to the hotel. We went to the room and found that our bedrooms hadn't been cleaned and neither had our bathrooms. The dishes hadn't been done. The only sign that housekeeping had been there at all was that Steve's sheets for the couch had been folded. Craig called the desk to tell them that our room was not made up and that we had no fresh towels. They said they would send someone right away. We decided to try to get some use out of the snorkel equipment we had rented for the day. We had always heard that Secret Harbour had good snorkeling, but had never tried it. So went out to snorkel on the right-hand side of the beach. There were fish, coral, rocks, a submerged engine block, and lots of black sea urchins. The late afternoon sun was often behind clouds, which made visibility poor. All of a sudden Craig's leg started to itch. He looked at his outer ankle and had four purple spots in what looked like an urchin sting. He hadn't even felt himself touch a sea urchin, but there were some times where we swam close to rocks and he could easily have bumped into one. We continued snorkeling for a few minutes, but we couldn't really see anything too interesting, so we got out of the water. We returned the snorkel stuff in the drop box and then walked back to the room. We were concerned about Craig's sting and called the front desk. They asked if we had lemon, lime, or vinegar. We said that we didn't. She said, "Then bodily fluids, do you know what I mean?" We knew what she meant, and thanked her for the advice. She said not to touch the stings, that they would work themselves out. We took her advice, though we did not see anything actually stuck into Craig's skin. It was just a few purple dots. The woman at the desk said she had sent someone to clean up the room. We said they hadn't shown up. She was mortified and said that they were supposed to do our room and then go home, but it turned out they just went home. While we were tending to Craig's sting, a big bag of fresh towels showed up. We hung out and downloaded pictures on the laptop. When experimenting with Roger's camera, we realized that they hadn't given him an Olympus xd card. The card that they gave him wouldn't do panoramic pictures. We decided that before leaving tomorrow, we would return to the store so that he could get the right card. Marty and Tiff showed up around 7:20. We had made an 8:00 reservation at Blue Moon Cafe. We walked down the beach to the restuarant and got a nice table. Craig and I got bushwhackers. They served us delicious fresh rolls. Craig had seafood chowder as an appetizer. Craig got the filet mignon with spinach stuffed tomato and tomato gorgonzola sauce and three cheese mashed potatoes. I got bbq boneless ribs with island slaw and three cheese mashed potatoes. Everything was delicious. We really enjoyed the company, making the most of our last night of vacation. Then went back to the room and hung out some more. We said goodbye and Marty and Tiff left at around 10:45. |
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