Today started slowly. We all slept in and didn’t get ambulatory til nearly noon. I went in for a quick snorkel and the water was clear and calm until you got to the reef! Seems like the reef is too close to the surface and it causes too much agitation in the water, making visibility just not good enough to take pictures. There are certainly lots of fish to see, just the photos don’t turn out well enough to post on the blog.
We drove into Philipsburg again and spent the day wandering about checking out the stores and the people. There was a HUGE cruise ship in the harbor and the town was full of people. We sat on the boardwalk and had lunch at place called The Big Wood. It was typical fare for lunch, nothing special, but beers were a buck.
I managed to find a couple shirts to buy – which makes the total somewhere near a dozen haha! Never seen such good looking shirts as in this town!
We’ve fallen into the habit of hitting the hot tub before 5 pm, since there is a 2 for 1 drink special from 4 til 6. We have a couple of drinks, then head home for a nap before dinner! Tough life, but someone has to live it!
For dinner we headed across the pond to Captain Oliver’s restaurant. We had intended to go to Captain Oliver’s a few days ago but we stopped at Le Planteur, a French creole restaurant that Maggie enjoyed. I thought it was terrible – I mean come on – they served my fish dish in tinfoil! lol – Anyway – it’s too bad we did not get to Captain Oliver’s that day, because it was probably the best food and service we’ve had on the island. We’ve made a reservation for Friday, our last day, for a repeat performance.
They picked us up from the hotel, and took us to the restaurant. it sits right on the dock, in the middle of the marina. Tables are set over glass, so you can watch the fish below you, including nurse sharks, large and small tarpon, turtles and many other smaller fish.
The appetizers – fish soup, Caesar salad, snails and shrimp were all amazing. The main courses were awesome. I had the mahi mahi in a Pernod sauce. It came with asparagus, carrots, spinach and potatoes. The presentation was sensational. The tastes were delightful. I couldn’t have dreamed a better dish! For dessert I had Pear Charlotte and while it was not what I expected, it was delicious nonetheless.
They brought a bottle of Banana-vanilla brandy to the table, and told us it was on the house and to drink as much as we liked. It too was a unique taste sensation.
They had a live musician playing music and singing, and he was very good as well. He was a very good guitarist, playing everything, but he played some Santana tunes remarkably well. It was a really romantic setting, and he fostered that feeling with his choice of songs.
A perfectly delightful end to the day.