SHOPPING AND SHOPPING IN ST. THOMAS

Wednesday, January 18, 2017                       mid 76 F, sunny

St. Thomas USVI / ms Oosterdam

It was a beautiful day in St. Thomas, sunny and warm. Someday I may be less interested in window shopping in this seaside town, but that has not happened in the past 26 years. There are so many small shops and big name shops, jewelry, watches, cameras, souvenirs, clothing, it all is just irresistible to me.  For some reason TK still likes to go with me. We try on a watch or a ring or earrings, most times not buying.

We had lunch at the Green House, where we always go-and this is one reason it is hard to make the blog exciting. We do the same things! St. Thomas (the old port) is easy to get around, level sidewalks and streets, the vendors do not push too much, there is so much variety, so many items to choose from, e.g. styles, colors, gemstones, watches. We never see this many choices in any mall we have been to, even the most exclusive. With at least 4 ships in port today that would translate to at least 8,000 visitors. Even if only a small percentage shopped, that is still a lot of people who want lots of choices in one day.

So what was different today? Today I met a designer of wooden framed sunglasses which were very beautiful. He does not use maple or willow though. TK made the first purchase-he really likes the bamboo fabric shirts, cooler and lighter. Green House Internet was not very strong and I could not download the Windows 10 update. We were back on the ship earlier than usual.

Upon our return to the ship, I had an invitation from Guest Services desk to see them about the Internet and they gave me 70 extra minutes without a hassle, thank goodness.

Dinner tonight was very tasty—chilled coconut soup, Wiener schnitzel, and rhubarb crisp. 

What I learned tonight from Mariyadi: He told me that at his home in Indonesia the family has many coconut trees. There are red, green, and yellow coconuts. He said the best were the green ones-they are sweetest. The yellow ones are very small as are the trees. He continued that his father finds a bud on a tree, slices it, then binds it to a bamboo stick and drains the sweet coconut water for several hours. Then they boil the sweet water for 3-4 hours to make a candy. Each day his father makes another slice and repeats the process for a month per coconut bud. I told him this process sounded somewhat like making maple syrup. He told me he knew what maple syrup was and that the process was indeed similar. 

After dinner we strolled the ship and enjoyed the music in various bars.

This afternoon when the Disney Fantasy (playing Disney music like “It’s a Small World” and “When You Wish upon a Star” with their air horn) and the Aidavita left port ahead of us, they turned just by us and were so close to our balcony!

TK’s Takes: The ship’s pool temperature is higher by 5 degrees today. Now we are on the Caribbean Sea headed to St. Maarten. Janie won an Effy key chain at the store’s raffle today.