THE Girls missed the gym and track and it was
all anyone could do to muster in the American Icon Dining Room at 8:00AM.
We were met by a delightful hostess who was
expecting us [OK, so they must have checked our accounts for facial
recognition] because she knew who was missing and when Lydia and Helmut
arrived, she said, “Ok there they are,” and handed us off to Bashir who
magically appeared. Then it was a trek
through the dining room to find a suitable table, where we were seated with the
Charming Shirame.
Immediately there was a flurry of activity
around the table as if Shirame couldn’t handle a simple party of 6 [Mark was
still in Quarantine].
As it turned out, she could, the back of the
house couldn’t.
We understand the word
was out on our party and they were trying their hardest to please, to the point
of getting in Shirame’ s way. The orders
came out fractured. Poached eggs were served as Eggs Benedict, minus the
Hollandaise sauce, which had to be corrected.
The Cheese Grits that was ordered with Lenny omelet, which he wanted to
pour over his omelet, almost never made it until we reminded Shirame, who got
the order right, the fellow running from the kitchen dropped the ball. The same for Chucky’s Grits, coming after he
nearly finished his 2 eggs over easy.
Donna’s Eggs Benedict almost never made it as the kitchen confused the
previously mentioned Eggs minus Sauce for her order. The only orders that came
out on time and correct were DL’s veggie omelet and Helmut’s 2 eggs sunny side
up. The rye toast was overdone dry multi
grain, but the coffee was good.
Irfan and the Food and Beverage Director Quiran made their appearance to
“Check on it all” effusively complimenting Shirame as “The Best”. We already knew that, it just seems they
didn’t trust her to handle the table alone.
Time to head to the gangway to see what we
could find to do in Charlotte Amalie.
The immediate plan was for the ladies run up
to the pool deck to grab beach towels and we would hustle a ride to Magens Bay once we got off the ship.
Amusingly, we found on exiting the gangway, a
beach towel station, but the girls got their exercise.
Outside the port entrance with its usual flea
market, International Diamonds, tchotchke shops Etc., we were approached by Patrick,
an “Authorized member of the St Thomas Taxi Association” to take us on a scenic
tour, a trip up the mountain to the Mountain Top Mall, a ride above and down to
Meghan’s Beach and drop off in town for shopping. All for the low-low price of $25 pp. it would
cost another $8 for a cab back from the beach and what the heck, might be a
good way to see the island like a native.
The Cab turned out to be a Ford F150 with a
three row 12 seat rig in the back, 2 seats up front and 4 in the crew cab.
OK now, this should be fun.
And it was for the most part as Patrick ate
the mike for a scratchy running spiel on this area and that, this plant and
that, etc. up a verrrryyy steep and
winding road to the Mountain Top Mall which overlooked Magens Bay and
much of St Thomas. Patrick slid into a very tight parking spot half-way down
the entrance driveway trying to be nice to the ladies keeping them
from the long narrow steps down from the main parking area. This would prove to be a mistake later.
He led his little band of tchotchke shoppers
through the “Mall” which was nothing more than a large shed, similar to a mini Bass
Pro Shops, to the overlook patio and lined them up in front of a map of the
island and surrounding islands for a brief spiel and then offered to help take
pictures.
He then turned them loose to shop and line up
for “The World Famous Banana Daiquiri”,
“$11 please”
Very good, worth $11, Uhhh… no.
With 25 minutes to shop, 10 of which taken up
standing in line for “The WFBD” they looked around, and got back on the bus,
all but one that is, who got lost and Patrick had to go looking for her.
While he was doing that, another van slid
into the space that had just opened up in front of us at such an angle, it took
Patrick 45 minutes to try and jockey out of the spot with the help of other
drivers as no-one could find the driver in front and back to make it
easier.
Additionally there was now a steady stream of
taxi/trucks making it impossible for him to use the roundabout, so he was
trying to back up and out with limited success.
Finally at the top, it took another 20 minutes to get out of the parking
lot as more were coming in and several trying to get out.
Had we parked up here, stairs
notwithstanding, we would have been out of there long before the rush.
In all, we spent an hour more on the Mountain
Top than planned which cut into any time we planned for Magens Bay and which made the decision for TE6 easier.
It was now 12 noon, with all aboard at 4PM and by the time we got to the
bay, with the additional costs for entrance umbrellas and chairs etc., and
with 2 hours max before trying to find a taxi back it wasn’t worth the effort.
Lenny and Donna elected to go back to the
ship while T2 + Chucky and DL opted for being dropped off in town.
By now Patrick was hustling a new load for
one last “Scenic” tour and arranged for them to ride with an associate into town
for $4pp in and $4pp out.
Once back in town and dropped at Drake’s
Passage [a mini-mall alley of tchotchke and jewelry shops] they strolled
looking for bargains and then headed to the RADO watch shop so see what Chucky
needed to do to get his chipped crystal repaired.
That took sending it to a local center for
repair and he received instructions to find the closest one to him and how to
get it done.
Time for lunch. A stop at the Tourist Information desk and
the lovely Miss Penny sent them to Gladys’ café
“Up the street, to the Drunken Clam, take a right down
the alley, follow the signs.”
And just like that they were settled in for
some Great Island Cuisine and the Best pan fried Grouper sandwich Chucky has
ever had. Helmut’s curried goat was OUTSTANDING [according to him], Lydia ad
DL’s spicy Wings were just that, SPICY but Great Flavor. An order of Conch
Fritters for the table drew “ohooo’s and Ahhhhh’s” and Miss Pauline’s service
was way beyond gracious and spot on.
Then it was time to find a taxi back to the
boat and on the way to the “Green House” as directed by the last driver, they
were hustled by a driver that ushered them to an air conditioned van, and then went back to find a few more fares before returning 30 minutes later to
drop them off at the port of Crown Bay.
Feeling bad for Mark, still in Quarantine,
the girls decided to find him a nice Shirt as he had been anxious to get a
souvenir from each port. Most of the
shirts in his size were hideous so they opted for a nice hat with a St Thomas
Logo
Back on board the ship, after dropping the
unused beach towels at the dock side drop off, they all headed to their cabins to
refresh before happy Hour.
We'll cover Wonderland’s dinner in the next
post, this got Waaaay outta hand.
But Chucky’s Remy did help get it this far.
Ciao 4 Now
Uncle
Chuck & The
hot, tired and sticky,
Dragon
Lady
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