Dec 5 - St. Thomas

We are docked at Crown Bay, which I prefer as it is not so crazy.  Not sure what we are going to do today.  We love going over to water island but it is a little overcast, but that can change very quickly.  If you want to go into town you just have to get on the open air buses and it is $4 per person one way.

The skies open up and the rain comes down, guess the island needs a wash.  But this makes us reconsider our option of heading to water island, even though we know the rain will pass and it will get very hot we feel we would rather go into town and check out the lens for our camera that we have been thinking about.

We catch the open air bus and get off in town (at the driver’s recommended store) and head straight for our camera store.  Now we did go to the same store in Aruba but they were wanting $959 and we thought "are they crazy" it is much cheaper at home.  So in St. Thomas we were expecting similar but they quoted us $799 for the same lens, but when we said we could get it cheaper at home he said oh what store so we mentioned Kerrisdale Camera and they went to their website and sure enough it is $749, now sure we won’t have to pay taxes here but it is in US dollar which is still higher than Canadian and then there is the 1.5% conversion fee that our credit card charges, plus we wouldn’t have a warranty here.  So for basically the same price in the end we decide to purchase the lens at home with a store we know and have done business with numerous times.

 

We do wander the streets and stores of Charlotte Amalie but it just isn’t our thing, we quickly tire and then look at each other and agree lets head back.  We just are not into shopping and the hard sale and the constant “come to our store”, “we have a great deal” etc.  This time we opt to walk, we love to walk everywhere and since we won’t get to the gym today we feel this will compensate.  The walk back to the pier is about 30 minutes for us, about 2.5 miles and there are sidewalks the whole way. 

Bernie, Ciska and me

 

When we get to Crown Bay we run in to Al Katz and chat with him, then we see Ciska and catch up with her.  We are back on board the ship at 12:30 and a quick order of room service and then reading.  Of course neither of us can’t keep our eyes open so we nap for 2 hours.  Again I swear there is something in the air on this ship, we are sleeping so much and it feels great.

We meet up with Deirdre for drinks in Vines, she is off to the Star Princess at the end of this sailing, but she will be off the ship before we got on L.  We have a nice visit but I need something to eat.  We need to eat rather quickly as Al Katz’s show is at 9 and it is currently 8:05.  We head to the dining room and sit in Eduardo’s section, tonight’s theme is the Chef’s dinner, not one of our favorites but we once again find something to eat that is great.  I start with the goat cheese soufflé, then the mushroom soup, then the scallops for my entrée.

We make it to the theatre with five minutes to spare and laugh our heads off with Al’s show. It has been a while since we have seen his show and it doesn’t disappoint.

 

Jasper takes a seat and meets the nice man next to him

Al up on stage doing his thing

Another great day, and amazingly I am out like a light at 11 pm.