Our journey, Chapter 7: A breath of fresh air
We bid goodbye to St. John on Friday, taking the ferry back to Red Hook. I hope none of the other passengers were making the trip to seek medical care on St. Thomas.
Instead of having to wait until late afternoon to check in, we learned our condo at Cowpet Bay East was ready to welcome us by the time we docked. A hopeful sign of good things to come.
On the taxi ride to the condo, we quizzed the driver about the best options for groceries. We were already familiar with Moe’s in Red Hook, which also meant while it was fine, we wanted more. He gave us several suggestions (another hopeful sign), but ultimately recommended Cost-U-Less as best meeting our needs.
The condo is located on Cowpet Bay, thus the name. I can’t help wonder how the bay, itself, became Cowpet. Adding to this mystery, there are two small isles we can see from our balcony in the condo, called Cow Rock and Calf Rock. Why such a fixation with cattle? A sign on the beach clearly states, “No pets allowed”. What if I had a pet cow? It would only seem fair to let me have it here. I guess some things will just remain enigmatic.
The exteriors of the condos are more than a bit 70’s. I am pretty sure Erin, who loved mid-twentieth century architecture, would approve. And, the front door looks like the entrance to a hobbit’s home. I seriously expected Bilbo Baggins to throw the door open to greet us. After some disappointing housing experiences over the last couple of weeks, I held my breath as we opened the door. To our complete delight, we discovered the pictures we had seen on VRBO of the “newly redecorated” condo, if anything, understated the look and feel of the unit. It was clean, nicely decorated and very well appointed.
I am a neat freak. Probably a good thing, because Natalie is, too. Probably the key to staying married for fifty years. Well, maybe a small contributing factor?
I’m also leery of how well hotel rooms are cleaned. Because of that, I keep all of my toiletries in my shaving kit when we travel. With us here for two weeks and my complete confidence in the sanitary conditions of the condo, I gleefully emptied the contents of my shaving kit into a drawer in the bathroom. (Doesn’t take much to make me giddy, does it?)
Although the condo’s balcony faces west southwest, there is a breeze, and the hill across complex from us swallows the sun before dinner. So, definitely a departure from the challenges we had in St. John.
As always in life, there are tradeoffs. The view from the beach at Cowpet is not nearly as beautiful as either that at the Ritz Club or Gallows Point. Gallows Point and the Westin don’t offer the breath of fresh air of the Ritz or Cowpet. For those who have had to endure the massive incursion of sargassum piling up on the beach and “enjoyed” the stench of it as it dries and begins to rot, come to Cowpet Bay. Once again, although only one spit of land separates Cowpet from Great Bay, where the Ritz is, the staff at the Ritz has to work incessantly to keep the sargassum under control while there is zero sargassum on the beach at Cowpet. That small piece of land jutting out from the northeast of the bay acts as a breakwater and keeps Cowpet pristine. A big plus for Cowpet Bay.
After quickly unpacking, we sauntered down to the beach where we lunched by the water at Sangria’s Beachside Bistro. Of course, at Sangria’s, ordering a carafe of sangria is obligatory. Though not usually my thing, we enjoyed the not-too-sweet concoction and the food was equally good.
Because we always stay at the Ritz Club when we’re in St. Thomas, this foray was by definition separating us from our normal routine here, and therefore pushed us out of our comfort zone, even though the Ritz is literally next door to this property. We were rewarded for our “bravery” and are both very glad we chose to stay here.
The only thing on our calendar for the rest of the day was a meeting with Martin, the realtor Charlesworth introduced us to three weeks ago. He had invited us for happy hour cocktails at the St. Thomas Yacht Club. Natalie was still supposed to stay off of her leg as much as possible, but with the Yacht Club at the end of the beach next to Cowpet, my intrepid wife said she wanted to walk to it that evening. In the interim, we made the decision to head to Cost-U-Less.
Going to the grocery meant having to take a taxi. Although only five miles from here, the round trip ran $65. Ugh. However, we were thrilled with the wide array of items and the prices at Cost-U-Less. In addition to fresh produce, we found fresh meat and fresh fish. Although the price on some items was higher than the States (translate as: crackers), the total bill was roughly what we would have expected at home. Wow! Still another good sign.
Yes, more gleefulness.
Soon, we were off to the Yacht Club. Now, “Yacht Club” can evoke images of snootiness with the elite rubbing elbows with others of their kind. Nope. Not this one. The St. Thomas Yacht Club is once again island shabby and the people couldn’t have been nicer. We even found the St. Pete bergee on display and sent a pic of it to our good friends Paul and Barb, who live there in Florida. They are members of the St. Pete Yacht Club with reciprocal rights to the one here, so they can come any time they are in St. Thomas, which may have had something to do with Barb encouraging us to strongly consider a home here. Wink, wink.
We met Martin and his companion, Blair, she as delightful as he is. Martin introduced us to a friend of his who is an orthopedic surgeon. Let me say that again – orthopedic surgeon, one who practices here on St. Thomas…at a hospital. Just keeps getting better.
Martin told his physician friend about Natalie’s cut, he examined it, said it looked fine and told her to continue to take it easy and keep it clean.
We walked back to our condo and made a dinner of veggies, cheese and crackers before settling into bed for an early and very contented evening.
It was a wonderful day filled with things that delighted us.