According to the dictionary, adventure “is an unusual, exciting and possibly dangerous activity, trip or experience”. A perfect description for this adventure!
The day started off slowly, but by noon Jim and I were on the dock taking a paddle boarding lesson. Our instructor was a twenty-something young woman without an ounce of fat on her, and I knew immediately I wanted to do this everyday for the rest of my life!
Katie was very energetic, and positive and kept telling us what a good job we were doing. First some basic lessons on the beach and then into the water went the boards and she helped me get positioned on my knees until I felt steady enough to stand.
I was getting close to the end of the pier and Jim was standing up so I decided I should try too. I stood for a while but when I tried to turn to go back, I hit the water with a SPLASH. Several problems came next: first my life vest was not tight around my waist so it was floating up around my face, then my sunglasses were off to the side creating a vision issue and finally trying to hang on to the board and paddle while all this was happening. To make it more interesting, there were several people on the dock waiting for the ferry to Downtown and even some on the floating raft, all watching. Later on, Faye told me they were cheering me on but my focus was in the water. Katie got to me and started instructing me on how to get back on the board. Her first instruction was to put my hand on the opposite side of the board. Are you kidding me! This board is two feet wide and my arm, on it’s best day, is not that long. She finally settled on the handle in the middle of the board and told me to kick my legs up on the board, but the current was causing my legs to flow under the board. Eventually, I got back onto the board and stayed on my knees out toward the cove. Meantime, Jim is cruising along standing tall like there is no issue.
Katie was showing us two old ruins on either side of the channel and said back when the Danes had possession of the Island, they maintained a big chain across the channel and when an enemy ship tried to come into port, they would pull the chain and bottom out the boat. Pretty interesting!
I finally got back on my feet and was doing pretty well until the wind kicked up making it hard to turn and back in the water again. Since I was experienced at this part of paddle boarding, I was able to get myself back up again without too much trouble and actually came back into port standing like I knew what I was doing. Just for the record, Jim made his own splash at one point and came back into port sitting.
After lunch, we decided to take the ferry into Downtown St. Thomas to see the local sights. It was pretty hot and many of the shops were closed because there were no cruise ships in port.
At a point where I couldn’t get any hotter and not faint, we came upon Magic Ice touted to be the #1 attraction on TripAdvisor. For a modest fee you can walk through some ice sculptures in a room maintained at 23 degrees. Sounded good to me and it reminded me of a miniature Ice Show at Gaylord Palms in Orlando. There was even a short slide that was fun.
We continued our walk toward French Town because we had dinner reservations at a restaurant named Twisted Cork and we were told we could walk there from Down Town. The area looked much like you see in most of the Caribbean Islands and back home you would probably be afraid, but we kept walking. The directions said it was behind the McDonald’s, but Mickey Dee looked very different and we almost missed it.
Still no Twisted Cork. We called again and decided if we can’t find it soon, we take a taxi back to the Marriott for dinner. Suddenly there it was.
New plan. Get something to drink and appetizers and make a decision whether or not to stay. We ordered fried calamari in a sweet chili sauce, stuffed mushrooms, and crab Rangoon and all three were fabulous. We were decided to try desserts and based on the appetizers there was no reason not to. How does peanut butter mousse with stout chocolate ganache and Cracker Jacks pie, and bourbon maple homemade ice cream sundae with chocolate crunchy things sound? They were better than the appetizers. Now that’s my kind of meal and not a bad way to end a day.
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