Yep, still here in beautiful St. Thomas, USVI...
Today, we decided to steer clear of the water.
I awoke around 7:30 AM and checked e-mail, voice mail, etc. The rest of the crew slept in.
Around 10:00 AM or so, we finally got out the door and headed into town for a day of shopping - the great American pastime.
So, he decided to drop by the walk-in clinic in Red Hook. While Bob was getting his elbow examined, Wendy, Jeanie and I had breakfast at the Grateful Deli. Yes, it is a Grateful Dead themed island restaurant - calling it a deli is a bit of a stretch. Jeanie hit the jackpot with her breakfast order - the french toast made with, yes, you guessed it - nice thick slices of their special - Grateful Bread. Wendy had a bagel and cream cheese, and I had a breakfast burrito, the contents of which I am still trying to ascertain. But, it wasn't horrible, and it was large enough to feed a small family.
On the way into Red Hook, we noticed that the "check engine" light had come on on the rental car. After breakfast, we stopped at a service station to fill up the gas tank and check the oil. The rental Kia Rio from Avis had a little over 10,000 miles on it - and apparently, it had neither ever had the oil changed, nor even had it checked! When we pulled the dip stick, it was covered with black sludge, and didn't indicate any oil in the crank case! It took two full quarts to get the reading back up to "full," but the color of the oil was still about that of fudge. Even after topping off the oil, the "check engine" light remained on, so we decided to return the car to Avis and ask for an exchange. The agent readily agreed to exchange the car, although she did scold us for adding oil rather than calling the rental company. And, she didn't even offer the slightest apology for our inconvenience or thank us for probably saving their engine from destruction. Not exactly what I'd call good customer service. We did end up getting a Toyota Echo, which believe it or not, is actually a step up from the Rio.
Next, we drove to Haventown and it's plethora of shops right next to the cruise ship docks. Nothing caught our fancy, so we decided to head in to Charlotte Amalie. We had a pleasant walk through the little square where the vendors set up their tent shops, and then wound our way down the narrow streets of the shopping district filled with jewelry, perfume, and liquor stores.
We took a break from our shopping to have lunch at the Green House.
Then it was back to the shopping grind.
We ended up making only one purchase - an 18" white gold necklace which Jeanie wanted to host a white gold pendant she has.
All of the shops close at 5:00 PM sharp. I'm not sure if this is because that's when all of the cruisers have to return to the ship, or because of law or tradition - which causes all of the cruisers to return to the ship. Anyway, with all of the shops closed, there was nothing else to do downtown, so we headed back to the condo.
For dinner, we thought we'd go to the Banana Grille at Bluebeard's Castle. After much searching, we finally found it, but after looking at the menu / prices, we decided to go elsewhere. We headed off to French Town, adjacent to the harbor in Charlotte Amalie. We decided on the Hook, Line & Sinker. ld out of everything except cheesecake. None of us were too excited about cheesecake, so we decided to go to the Stone Cold Creamery at American Harbor in Red Hook. Afterward, we all agreed that we had made a good decision - yum yum!
By the time we got back to the condo at 10:30, we were once again beat, so we all headed right off to bed.
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Posted by David at August 08, 2004 08:20 AM | Categorized under: A day in the life