Day 3 - Monday

After an amazing dinner on Day 2, I slept like a baby and woke up to this:

I wondered if I was still dreaming. I pinched myself and then realized I wasn't.

Backing up a bit, I never mentioned our "area" of the island we stayed on. It is the Northside, more of a middle-class residential area - away from the crowds. Our view here is of Magen's Bay (on the right side of the peninsula to the north) and straight to the north is Peterborg - a very exclusive gated area of St. Thomas for the wealthy (not us).

After our long beach day on Day 2, Frank was not in the mood for salting his already sunburnt wounds. So we decided to explore Red Hook, the hip area of St. Thomas on the East End that has lots of bars and restaurants. We also had a daysail planned for the following day, Tuesday, and we wanted to make sure we knew where we were going, since we had to be there early in the a.m.

Our first stop was Big Bambooz, a new outdoor tiki bar close to the St. John Ferry. The waitress greeted us with a smile (they're all so friendly here! Why am I so surprised when people are nice?) and asked if I wanted a "I'm on vacation-fruity-frozen-drink" and I said, "Ok."

I'm not even sure what was in this thing, but it was like a banana milkshake. She called it a Banana Bailey Colada (so it sounds like there was some Bailey's in there, maybe some coconut or something). Ah-mazing. It had to have been like 1,000 calories. I was so full afterward. Frank had a Virgin Islands Summer Ale. We decided to walk around and explore a little bit.

We ended up at Amigos, a Mexican cantina with delicious margaritas and we snacked on some nachos (not pictured). They also have an awesome happy hour with $2 tacos that we discover on about Day 6 or 7, but I'll get to that later. Notice Frank is still drinking the summer ale. That's because you can walk from place to place with a drink in your hand. No one cares. It's a little too laid back if you ask me (there's no such thing as DUI here - well, there is, but you don't get in trouble for it).  

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and bought some ridiculously overpriced produce and bread and I made shrimp scampi for dinner. I'll post my recipe some time. It's super easy and super good.

End Day 3.