It is important to understand that St. Thomas is basically built on the side of a hill. One of the main tourist attractions is the famous 99 steps that lead up to all the things we wanted to see. The shopping district is at the bottom of the stairs. Since we are both fairly intelligent people with physical considerations (his back, my baby belly), we decided to start at the TOP of the stairs and work our way DOWN. When we told the taxi drivers we wanted to go to the TOP of the 99 stairs, they started bickering and arguing. There was a big power struggle going on. The boss even fired one taxi driver for refusing to take us. Wow! Finally, someone told us to get in a taxi (a minivan) with 4 other people. After all that, the taxi wouldn’t start. So, we got into another vehicle – a pick-up truck with benches welded into the back of the truck and a transmission on its last leg. Finally, we were leaving, and I am certain this taxi driver learned to drive in NYC. Very aggressive driving coupled with the fact that they drive on the left side of the road and the transmission was shot led to quite an adventurous drive up very steep, narrow roads to Blackbeard’s Castle.
We made it! Blackbeard’s Castle was not built by Blackbeard, but legend claims he occupied it for a period of time. The views were fantastic. When we got there, we learned that the area was called Blackbeard’s Complex. They had their very own rum making facilities and provided tours and tastings. There were also 3 historic homes along the tour. One of the docents was a very traditional St. Thomas resident who was very angry about the way American women treat their men. She doesn’t think we show nearly enough respect. She started shouting at us (and the other tourists) when we entered the house and didn’t stop yelling at us until we were out of sight down the hill. The other docents (and most of the other shop owners and customer service people we encountered) were from the American mainland and were very pleasant. The tour also included the Hotel 1829 and the famous Amber Museum. Because we were criss-crossing down the hill through the houses, etc., we only went down part of the 99 stairs. Dallas felt like he was missing out, so he walked all the way down the stairs and back up to meet me. He counted 105 stairs.
The last stop on our planned walking tour was another fort. When we got there (in March of 2010), the fort was closed for construction. The St. Thomas website noted that the fort was closing in 2005 for repairs and would be closed for about 18 months. A local fireman told us that the fort had, in fact, closed down in 2005. That is government efficiency at its best!
We hit the shopping district for lunch. Unlike San Juan where the shopping consisted of upscale outlet stores like Polo, Coach, Armani, and others, the shopping in San Juan was street upon street of jewelry, electronics and t-shirt/tourist stores. I can’t imagine that there are enough people on the cruise ships to keep that many jewelry stores in business! The whole area consisted of rows of buildings full of these shops with narrow little alleys in between. In one of those little alleys, we stopped for lunch at Calico Jack’s. As we were leaving Calico Jack’s and walking down the alley, we saw 4 or 5 huge iguana’s hanging out on the wall – in the middle of all the shopping. They were 1-2 feet long. Dallas, of course, wanted to get up close and friendly with these monsters. Fortunately, one of the locals warned him that they could be quite dangerous. A few of the local restaurants dump their lettuce and other scraps out, and these iguanas just live there and eat for free.
Fortified by lunch, we started searching for the one t-shirt store we were interested in finding – Harley Davidson. We saw the signs and walked up and down and around the building where it should be. We finally asked for directions and learned that it was closed. How can a Harley t-shirt shop not stay in business when all 4 gazillion jewelry stores were thriving? We decided to call it a day and risk our necks in the taxis to get back to the ship.
After checking the scheduled activities for the evening, Dallas discovered a new favorite on-board activity…team trivia! He headed to the Explorations Café, but I chose to relax my sore back in the spa. Dallas joined me soon thereafter in the thermal pool excited to have won (is anyone surprised???) team trivia with the assistance of his new trivia buddies Peter and Dick. We were only halfway through the cruise, and Dallas owned pretty much the entire HAL logo clothing line given as contest prizes.
We arrived for our scheduled appointment with Miki, the black and white photographer, determined to purchase one picture. As much as we loved these photos, we couldn’t justify purchasing a ton of photos with our family not quite complete. We started with our top 34 favorites and narrowed those down to 5. We couldn’t agree on our favorites and the photographer made us a great deal on 5 pictures, so we got them all.
We had an early dinner on the Lido deck. Dallas went to the gym, and I went back to the spa to relax on the thermal loungers. We also attended the superstar Karaoke competition (apparently we missed the prelim rounds earlier in the week). The contestants ranged from exceedingly bad to exceptionally good. The “judges” became more obnoxious as the show progressed. Finally, we went back to the theatre to watch “Up in the Air,” but it was standing room only. Dallas was able to snag a bag of popcorn before we headed to bed.
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