Tuesday, January 11, 2011 – Our first day in Paradise St. Croix:
Wasn’t up too awfully early today – 7am. Gerald stayed in bed for a little while longer. I made some coffee and tried to get on line to check mail etc. So far I had been just using my iPhone. We’re in the US so it’s not international (no roaming fees). Initially I had some problems with getting on line and setting up my computer. I contacted Kirby, but once I read the information they gave me and told me to read…it was easy. (Go figure!)
Took a few pictures of the view in the daylight this morning.
Views between the two rows of condos:
Not to bad a view. Unfortunately I’m short and not at the ideal height to easily gaze over the banister so I’m either craning my neck up or squatting down to view between the rails! Not even platform shoes would help me now…need a few extra ribs! The weather is warm but humid, with the occasional rain shower and lots of wind. Oh yeah! Much better than 8” of snow for sure!
I finish unpacking the kitchen gear, reorganizing a little to ease in working in the kitchen efficiently, then tackle the toiletries and clothes. We also need to head to the store to get provisions…can’t afford too many of those $3 Cokes! So I finish up what I can and get ready to head to the store.
We go down to the front desk to check-in and call a taxi to take us to the store. Since this will be our first trip to get provisions…it’s going to be ugly…so we definitely need a cab…or a dump truck would do as well. We can always walk to pick up smaller items later but for this first time…we will definitely need something to haul it in. Our taxi arrives and our driver is John. I’ll affectionately call him “Big John” because he looks to be about 7 foot tall and his hands look as if they could wrap around the circumference of a basketball and almost overlap. So we make nice with Big John on our short journey to the store. He really is nice and we have a great conversation. He is informative, funny and no nonsense too.
In fact, just before we got to the store, we saw a young man cross the street. This young man is no doubt of the generation where belts are apparently illegal. His shorts are so big and hang down so low that he has to hold them up with his hand, lest he show the entire island his family jewels or potentially trip on them like a scene from a Three Stooges episode. Even with manually holding up the pants, the back of his waistband was barely half way above his knees to the bottom of his hiney. Seems to me that smaller pants and a belt would be more efficient, but what do I know. I’m 50, so a comfort fit and safety are priorities. Anyway, seeing this young man sends an uncontrollable surge of incensed anger through Big John and he begins to loudly vocalize his fury and disapproval at the young man’s apparel, to us and out the window! At one point, I thought he was going to stop the van and get out! I gathered from the albeit one-sided exchange that Big John had a daughter and such a young man had the audacity to come to his house to attempt to pick up his daughter for a date wearing a similar outfit. I also surmised that Big John had a quite vocal tête-à-tête with this young man and “politely” (with a few F bombs sweetly scattered here and there!) told him to go home and change his clothes if he wanted to try to date his daughter again upon pain of injury. Not that I don’t blame him mind you. But it was a little funny…once I realized that he was not going to get out and beat the pants off this boy (no pun intended!).
Altercation avoided, we pull into the store parking lot. It’s not too far away really. Definitely walkable, with small light items of course. It’s not a huge grocery store, but sufficiently large enough. The good...most everything you want is here, the food doesn’t smell and it’s not expired either. The bad…it’s expensive. Not as expensive as Belize (ie Ritz Crackers in Belize = $7, Ritz Crackers in St. Croix = almost $4.5). Although I believe we may have spent less money on food in Belize as a whole, because we were restricted by what we were able to purchase - like tortillas, chicken, beans and rice! Time (and my waistband) will tell.
So…$400 later (which included a $12 bottle of Malibu Rum – that would have been $45 in Belize, and yes Dr. Pepper too) packed into 1000 bags, we loaded up John’s taxi van and headed back to the condo. Gerald and I are already dreading hauling of all this stuff up to the third floor. Funny…on the way back I hear the springs and shocks on this van popping and grinding…I didn’t hear that before? Could it be the 2 tons of stuff we have just packed in the van? (which includes 100 lbs for my purse) I just hope it gets us back! No way can we walk with all this stuff!
We do get back, thankfully, and unload the provisions to the sidewalk, pay John the $10 taxi fee (plus a $5 tip for waiting for us) and begin the arduous task of heaving our bounty up the 3 flights of stairs. OMG…between the baggage and groceries we’ve gotten a lot of weight lifting crammed into the last couple of days! (You would be proud Scott! Get a program plan put together for vacationers!) Anyway…now I have to get the stuff put away before it thaws and melts. It all fared pretty well…except for the bananas. They got squished under the cans of vegetables. I’d make a loaf of banana bread, but I didn’t get flour. Guess I can put that on my list for our next trip!
After that excursion I’m beat! So I lay down to rest and work on my blog a little. Gerald wants to go walk the beach…but my hips and legs are killing me. I’m going to rest. I didn’t sleep, but laying there definitely helped. After about an hour I got up and we then took a walk down to the beach area to see where to go to get to the restaurants along the beach that we have read about.
The grounds of this complex remind me of where we stayed in Hawaii, in a "U" shape, only not so far apart. This allows each condo a decent view of the ocean and a nice garden in between. The pool is nice and there are both a gas and charcoal grill for residents use. You get to the beach through a locked gate at the pool. It’s not the best beach. Some of the sand was probably sucked out from the seasonal storms that came through this year, but it looks like a great place to look for flotsam and jetsam. I’d rather be at the pool anyway.
We walk to the west towards Smuggler’s Cove. (…yes I’m like my Mamaw now, saying a direction instead of left/right. I used to hate that, but my genetics have taken over. Oh…FYI - for orientation purposes, we are on the north side of the island and our view is towards the Northeast. =) Anyway, Smuggler’s is a small condo complex with a pool, bar and restaurant. It comes recommended. We walk up to take a look around and I recognize the building from when I had looked at property for sale on the internet last summer. I recall that several of the units in this complex are for sale. We nose around the bar/restaurant and then head back EAST towards Breezes.
Breezes is another recommended bar/restaurant which is part of the Club St. Croix complex. It’s all the way down the beach, but we’ve got nothing else to do. The walk was pleasant and you could see the thousands of conch shells that they have used to shore up the beach. The sand was rough, full of broken shells and coral. Which reminds me, I need to pick one up for my collection. We also saw someone netting for baitfish…so Gerald was already contemplating his fishing strategy. It will be a nice walk in the mornings for sure. We go ahead and go into the bar and sit down for a drink only. We have $400 worth of groceries at the condo that we need to eat! It’s happy hour at Breezes. Bonus! So both of us have a drink and it only cost us $6! Good information for our limited-retiree-budget! We'll have to start scheduling our days around happy hours! The food looks good too, and the wait/bar staff is very friendly. The bartender invites us to another place he works in Fredericksted. Hopefully we'll find a way to get there.
It’s getting dark and we want to get back to the condo before we risk getting lost in the dark! That would not be good in strange territory! We walked back via the road to orient ourselves. It’s strange walking along the right side of the road and seeing a car heading right towards you! Remember, they drive on the left side here. Guess that will take a little getting used to.
Back at the condo, we make a light dinner and eat. Gerald watches TV while I work on the blog. It takes me till 3am to finish and download the pictures so it’s been a long day. Talk to you tomorrow!
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