The Severed Cortex

Nancy was up early to do yoga and I, as usual, stayed behind and wrote. I also cleaned up for our day in St. Thomas. Once Nancy got cleaned up, we went to load up on breakfast. I ate a ton of stuff today; even junk I don't normally eat like cold cereal. The view of the harbor in St. Thomas was spectacular from the Windjammer Cafe.

The weather was not so great however. As soon as we leave the boat it starts raining again. That's four days in a row we've been on this tub and not a single ray of sunshine. People are going to think we didn't go the Caribbean.

We hit the dockside shopping first which mainly consists of jewelry stores and jewelry stores. Yes there are a few liquor and perfume stores, but there are some jewelry stores too. Tons of them. There are so many of them you wonder how they all stay in business. There are also a few t-shirt and hat stores, which come in handy for me because I'm tired of wiping rain off my glasses. Nancy picks a hat out for me and although there was no mirror for me to judge, she swore it looked cool. It must have because I got stares from a lot of people all day. I think it also drew attention for others too, which I will elaborate on shortly.

After hitting all the dockside shops, we decide to take a ride up the hillside tram. It was expensive at $18.00 each, but the view was great. We took several great pictures and I got to use my binoculars to check out a ferry that had recently run aground. Someone lost their job.

We headed down the tram and at the bottom we were met by a taxi driver offering to take us downtown for $4.00 each. It seemed fortunate, but as it turns out St. Thomas has a glut of taxi drivers. In fact, it's apparently a running joke because we saw t-shirts that read 'No ... I don't need a taxi'. Our driver dropped us off downtown next to an open air market. Nancy quickly started looking at the dresses and bought one. She then started looking for more. I became bored and waited on the edge of the market for her. A red-eyed local sidled up to me and asked if I wanted to buy some pot. I told him that I didn't. It must have been the hat and the sunglasses because he said I looked a little guilty like I wanted some. I told him I did, but couldn't. He asked me why not and I said I had to get back on the cruise ship. He assured me that they do it all the time, but I told him that I couldn't. I bet he had some good stuff too like The Frankenstein or The Bling-Bling.

We walked around downtown which consisted of pretty much the same thing as the dockside shopping; lots and lots of jewelry stores only this time they had their own barkers out front. I felt like I was in New Orleans at the strip clubs on Bourbon Street. We stopped at a little outdoor cafe in an alley and I had another Presidente. Nancy had a bottled water. The guy at the table next to us was a local and he was hammered. He was entertaining a couple from Canada. They seemed amused and watched him swill more Coors Light while listening to him slur his words. We wandered around some more but eventually grew tired of the whole thing. We walked back to the ship which took about thirty minutes or so. By the time we got back we were sticky from the humidity.

Once back on board and in plenty of time before we sailed, we both took showers. Not at the same time of course because the shower is barely big enough for one. While Nancy showered I filled out the form which allowed them to print our boarding passes and move our luggage to the airport for us when we got back to Miami. No muss, no fuss, and only $10.00 per person.

We dress for dinner and take the forms down to the purser. After that we decide to head back up to the Cosmopolitan Club to have a drink before dinner. We lounge and listen to the slow drawling Texans sitting next us talk about whores. Of course they say it more like whor-rus. I love how we southern talkers make one syllable words into thirteen syllables and vice-versa.

When we arrive at the dining room the rest of the family is already there. We exchange stories about our day and it seems like everyone had fun.
For dinner I had:
Potato Jalapeno Soup
Corn Dusted Tilapia with Garlic Wasabi Aioli
Coffee
Sugar Free Custard with Berries
Pinot Grigio

I have to say that tonights dinner was the least appetizing so far. The food was good, but not exactly what I'm really into.

After dinner Parker and I watched Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby. They cut the movie a lot so it would be suitable for kids and it was still absolutely hilarious.