Today is Friday and as no ships are in today we decide, that this would be our Charlotte Amalie day.

We go to town, get on the 11:00 ferry, which by the way doesn't leave until 11:25, and enjoy the ride over. We are joined by Tracy and Debbie from the day before with 6 Paq. We walk up and down the street, and I'm struck by how much Charlotte Amalie has changed over the years. Gone are the "gold change by the inch" kind of places that have been replaced by the kind of stores I see on 5th Avenue in NYC. I'm not sure I like it. There are still some interesting shops and I have never shopped at Havensight, but gone are the truly unique ones like Irmela's Jewel Studio (Who btw made Hippolotta's engagement ring 20 years ago.) I understand she still has a studio on the island, but every time I've called her assistant has told me she is off island. And I am beginning to question just how much of a bargain things are. For example a mini I Pod at Boolchand's was $239 where mine was purchased at a local department store for $199.

I told the kid's at the beginning of the trip that each of them had $100 to spend on anything they want, and if they don't find anything they want, it is theirs to take home. So make sure you really want it! I'm doing this in an effort to curb the impulse purchase. We gravitate over to the tents and walk around a bit. Hippolittle picks up the native wooden carved man in the barrel, (Ladies if you don't know what I'm talking about ask your husband about this or e-mail me) I tell him "lift up the barrel" He does...schwinggggggg! PANIC as he quickly puts it down. Me and the vendor are laughing.

Although there are no cruise today the taxi drivers are still working?"need a ride back to the hotel?" "Want a tour of the island?" One in particular has approached me a couple of times (mostly by accident as we are walking somewhat in circles). He was a little older, well dressed, very professional looking. On approaching me the third time, he recognizes his mistake, but follows through with "Isn't there anything I can do for you?" I reply pointing to Hippolita "Got any tips for raising one of those?" as she is walking into a store. He broke into a broad grin, and said "I do! I've raise nine of them! And this won't cost you nothin" Incredulous I stammer "nine girls!?!" "Yes" I say "I need to buy you a drink!" He says "Can't I'm working" Then he puts his arm over my shoulder and says "It's kind of like fishing but you will never reel them in. That's not the point. It's keeping them on the line 'til they big enough to swim on their own. You keep the line too tight the line break! So you've got to give them a little slack!" Wow! Parental wisdom comes in all kinds of ways. Even St. Thomas cabbies! About this time Hippolita comes out of the store and he approaches her from behind and throws an arm over her shoulder. Her eyes get as big as saucers and she nervously looks at me. I tell her "It's OK we're old friends." She relaxes and he gives her a little fatherly advice.

We decide to stop for lunch at Gladys's. What a great STT treasure! I have the conch fritters which as most of you know are very good here, with the gazpacho. I ask our waitress about Gladys's hot sauces. There are three and are only differentiated by their color. I ask "which is hottest?" She replies, "They all hot it's just how they're hot. This one starts slow and grows, this one you doan feel til later, after you swallow, and the red one jes jump right out at you!" Perfect! There is a pretty neat antique shop just up the ally from the restaurant. It's fun just to look around. For $10 I bought a tiny leather bound book of Shakespeare. This and a bottle of bay rum for father in law/airport transportation are only purchases. The kids still have their hundred bucks. We get back in time for significant pool time.

Hippolotta decides she wants to cook tonight. We had stopped for baked spaghetti supplies. Now, only the bedrooms of our villa are air conditioned, and she is using a gas oven for the first time in many years. By the time the baked spaghetti is cooked....well let's say over-cooked, so is Hippolotta! We sort of push it around the plate a bit and concentrate on our salads and garlic bread. We clean the casserole dish as best we can, and then I put it outside to see if there is any truth to the legend of "pot scrubber crabs"! Hippolittle is juiced about the concept.

The next morning, (Saturday) produces no evidence that the crabs have arrived, but heck land crabs aren't the fastest critters in the world so we decide to give it another night. I go to the Simple Feast for my sausage muffin thing. While it is cooking, the manager is filleting a huge piece of Mahi. He then told me about the fishing conditions (see part 1), and that a charter operator had brought him this one from STX. I tell him I hope this is for public sale, it is, and I buy two good sized pieces for $12, (about $17 per lb.) He tosses in some marinade for free. Today we go to Cinnamon Bay. Great beach beautiful day! The snorkeling is pretty good, and great on the back side of the cay.

Hippolita and Hippolittle limin' at Cinnamon Bay

Cinnamon Cay

I get the kids chicken fingers from Woody's on the way home. I then marinate, Cruz Bay grill rub, and grill the Mahi for Hippolota and myself. We had something else from the Simple Feast, but I can't remember what it was because the Mahi was so good. It was probably the third best meal we had while I was there, (behind Ten Tables, and Tage) There is such a huge difference between "grocery store fresh" (not frozen) and "I was swimming in the ocean a few hours ago fresh"! I'm not going to make people dig through the archives, but after the Neat Sheet, the best tip I can leave you is to make the Simple Feast your first stop, introduce yourself and leave a piece of paper with your name, villa phone number, date of departure and the words "Fresh Fish" on it. You'll be glad you did.

As I sit back, on the deck, smoking a cigar, and enjoying a very fine port that was left by a previous visitor, I hear a sound that is in contrast to the nighttime sounds I had grown accustomed to (the water slapping gently on the rocks below, the soft rustling of the bushes in the warm Caribbean breezes, the soft music from my I Pod)?sorta like porcelain scraping against rocks? I look over the edge of the deck and YES! The pot scrubbing crabs have arrived! There are three of them engorging themselves on burnt baked spaghetti! I go get Hippolittle and he grabs the video camera.

Sunday we wake and the spaghetti dish is nearly clean (not dishwasher clean, but they ate a bunch of the stuff).

We drop a few Rolaids in it, and head off to Salt Pond. On the way out there on Centerline road, a car starts following us way to closely. I'm not the road rage type so I start looking for a place to pull over. We are going down a hill, and around a curve, I look in my rear view mirror, and he's gone. I'm thinking "Oh no!" Yep he's passing right as a car coming is the other way. Folks this guy has to stand on his brakes. Smoke is pouring from his tires. I speed up as I know the only way to avoid a very, very bad wreck, is to give him enough space to get back in our lane. He made it by inches! It is difficult to deconstruct a wreck that didn't happen but I would wager the folks in the oncoming car and the idiot would be dead. At the next straight away I take my foot off the gas and he flies around me, Hippolita offers a single digit salute, and Hippolotta vents a pretty healthy dose of road rage, he doesn't even look. My purpose in telling you all this, is, if you see a white 1978-80 Toyota Celica Supra, let the air out of his tires if you can do so safely!

It's about lunch time and we stop by Miss Lucy's

to look at the menu. As it's Sunday they are serving their brunch, which isn't what my kids are looking for. So we double back to Shipwreck Landing. There is a chicken pacing the floor inside, foraging for things dropped. I suggest to Hippolittle "go ahead give him a french fry". Now chickens for those of you don't know, don't "take" their food daintily. As he extends his hand with the french fry BAM!!! He jumps about four feet but thinks it's pretty cool. I tell him not to give the chicken any more, so it will leave us alone. As we get up to leave another family is taking the table next to ours. A girl about 14 notices the chicken and makes a comment to her mom. Hippolittle takes one of our remaining french fries, hands it to the girl and tells her "it likes french fries". I just shake my head thinking "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!" We hear the scream as we get in the car across the street.

Attack Chicken!

Hippolittle at Shipwreck

We head out to Salt Pond, make our way to the beach. There are only a handful of people there and we go snorkeling. We were a little underwhelmed. I don't know why but there wasn't a lot to see. I have been here several times and this was unusual. We did see some cool squid though. We stayed a while and then headed back to the villa. Tonight we grilled shrimp, chicken and hot dogs.

Salt Pond

Tomorrow the Reef Bay Hike, with Petroglyphs. (Note this won't be posted tomorrow)