usvi-on-line
20 days in paradise, part 7
20 days in paradise, part 7
Day 16
8:30 AM: Earthquake! It did not last very long, but we definitely felt it. We hung around reading books for a while before heading out to the beach. Today the falcon went too far. When I came out of the house, it swooped down, crashed into my head and scratched my scalp! This meant war, and I had a weapon! After vowing revenge, we headed out to the beach. First stop: Denis Bay. The entrance to the trail spur is...interesting:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550229493/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/200/5502 ... 9dd3a3.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="entrance to denis bay trail"></a>
It’s hard to tell from the photo, but you kind of have to crawl through the opening.
The walk down was hilly but short. This beach is beautiful:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550229405/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/212/5502 ... f7454b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="denis bay"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550229443/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/234/5502 ... 7d0afc.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="denis bay rocks"></a>
We did not go down by the pier because it looks like there is a private house down there. We decided against swimming here, and instead headed out to snorkel Tektite. Thankfully we decided to snorkel Little Lameshur first though.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550233427/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/225/5502 ... bea503.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="entrance to little lameshur"></a>
We got into the water and there was NO visibility. You could not even see your hand in front of your face! Snorkel aborted, we just lazed around in the water for a few hours, until the beach got crowded (OK, about 10 people!).
We stopped at Great Lameshur for photos, but did not bother to snorkel:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550071854/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/220/5500 ... ea3305.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="great lameshur"></a>
Lunch was at Island Blues.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550109526/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/237/5501 ... 4c487d.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="view from island blues"></a>
We really liked this place, good views, tasty food, not too expensive. We were so completely relaxed by this point, we started referring to ourselves as Mr. and Mrs. Jellybones.
Back to the house for pool time and our counterattack on the falcon. I had brought down a water shooter I got from llbean, and we took it into the pool with us. A couple of blasts in the vicinity of the falcon (no, we did not actually blast the bird, just kind of near it), and the falcon started keeping its distance. Take that, bird!
We watched our last sunset at Argonauta (hazy):
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550071866/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/241/5500 ... ec2df8.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="hazy argo sunset"></a>
And then I did not feel like cooking, so we went to dinner at Happy Fish. This is a sushi restaurant in the marketplace. It has kind of a funky atmosphere-a large projection screen playing kung fu movies, anime over the bar, stylized fans moving in sync on the ceiling. John said that if Quentin Tarantino moved to the Caribbean and opened a restaurant, it would probably look like this! We enjoyed everything we tried, but the food really took a long time to come. We ordered maguro sashimi to start, and it took them 45 minutes to bring it! The fish, when it finally came, was very fresh, but a LOT bigger than I am used to-probably 4" by 2". Our rolls came about 45 minutes after that. It made for a different and fun evening out.
Back to the house for our last night at Argonauta, watching the ships come in and the sparkling lights of St. Thomas.
Day 17
It was another beautiful St. John day. When we got up, we saw a big ship heading it to St. Thomas. Trunk Bay was sure to be crowded later! We spent the morning in the pool, with the falcon keeping a vigilant (though distant) watch. Around 11 ish we packed up, said goodbye to Argonauta, and headed over to Caneel to drop our bags. They told us our room was not ready but that it would be when we got back from dropping off the car. Filled up the car ($63, youch!), then went over to Penns....where they informed us that the car was due back yesterday!!!! It was my fault, I gave them the last night at the villa as our return dates. I felt so stupid. They were nice about it though. She said to us: "It’s not as if I did not know where to find you if I needed the car!"
That situation settled, we headed over for lunch at Panini Beach (good as always), then stopped by St. John Spice to visit with Ruth and buy gifts for people back home.
We got back to Caneel around 2:30, but the room was not ready. John was already a little unhappy because he had requested either 7A or one of the Turtle Bay rooms and we did not get it. We went for a walk around the grounds, took some pictures of the plants:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550249967/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/244/5502 ... 61cd7f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="purple caneel flowers"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550058134/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/193/5500 ... f45194.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="caneel flowers"></a>
and poked around in the gift shop. At 3:30 PM we checked back and the room was still not ready. We thought this was odd because we had walked by the room at the beginning of our stroll and saw that people were cleaning in there. 4 PM....still no room. GRR. Finally at 4:30 or so, they came to get us to take us to our room. My initial impression of the room was less than positive. First off, it had a very strong unidentifiable smell. Second, it was off Caneel Beach, which we did not want. This building has not yet been renovated also. However, once we settled in and relaxed, we liked the room very much. Although not renovated, the room is in good condition:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550225957/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/199/5502 ... cc95a4.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="caneel interior"></a>
With very nice views, and just steps to the beach:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550109504/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/202/5501 ... fb44be.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="view from caneel room"></a>
The smell dissipated by the morning, so that was not a problem either.
It would not be a complete day without snorkeling, so we headed down to Scott Beach, my favorite.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550087728/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/220/5500 ... 77c25b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="scott beach"></a>
John vegged out on a lounge chair, getting his jellybones back, while I snorkeled around (didn’t see anything except a forest of conch), and then lounged on a floatie until John joined me in the water. The swim worked miracles on restoring our good moods, and all was right in the world again.
After cleaning up, we headed into town for a walk by the water:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550229369/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/230/5502 ... 956f56.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="cruz bay sunset"></a>
And then dinner at one of our favorites: La Tapa. It was live jazz night, which was great-not too loud, and great ambiance. The food, as always was spectacular. We started with the bread with la tapa oil (olive oil, balsamic, parmesean, basil, dill, pink peppercorn flakes), and the three dipping sauces (roasted pepper hummus, mango salsa, cucumber tsatski). Yum! I do wish La Tapa had better bread though. We then shared twp appetizers: grilled shrimp with salsa fresca and siclilian lifeguard calamari. I have the calamari recipe at home in the Babbo cookbook, but it never tastes as good when I make it as it does on St. John. Main course we split an entrée of yellowfin tuna with chipotle sauce, seared polenta, buttery grean beans and a little arugula. So good! We also split a cheese plate of St. Andre, manchengo, and humbolt fog, with fig paste, guava jelly, and honey. They did not bring us any knives or forks with the cheese, just bread, which I wanted no more of, so we just ate it with our fingers. It still tasted good! We ended the night with a couple of Red Stripes at the Beach Bar and then back to Caneel for some quiet conversation and sleep in their super comfortable bed.
Day 18
We skipped breakfast and headed right to Turtle Bay.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550105006/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/205/5501 ... 00b1f5.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="turtle bay"></a>
This was our fourth stay at Caneel, but our first visit to this beach. It is small and very pretty, with lots of shade, and what looked like good snorkeling possibilities on both sides of the beach. On the right we found good coral and lots of fish, including some really big squid:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550107438/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/226/5501 ... 8d0699.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="turtle bay squid"></a>
and John found a moray eel. Then we snorkeled the left and around the point. This is a really good snorkeling spot-tons of healthy coral:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550107396/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/208/5501 ... 788a24.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="turtle bay elkhorn"></a>
and lots of fish. Sponge:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550107422/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/223/5501 ... b74615.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="turtle bay sponge"></a>
There is a current though, so use caution if you snorkel here.
After drying off and some booktime, we headed back to Scott Beach. I immediately found two turtles munching on the sea grass, and a bunch of rays.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550094578/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/196/5500 ... a5578b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="scott turtle swimming"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550261779/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/226/5502 ... b46db5.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="scott ray"></a>
Over at Paradise, we found coral:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550249911/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/240/5502 ... 320755.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="paradise worms"></a>
But not too many fish.
Back on the beach, we read books and were kept company by this pair of gulls:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550087764/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/212/5500 ... eec3fd.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="scott gulls"></a>
They were, erm, very amorous. Repeatedly. Right next to our chairs. Maybe they were on their honeymoon!
We had lunch at the Caneel Beach Terrace. John’s grilled tuna sandwich was very good, but I made the mistake of ordering the "grilled gruyere and cheddar" sandwich, which turned out to be mild cheese on wonder bread! For $12 , no less. Oh well, live and learn. More lounging and booktime, then we went over to Caneel Beach for a late afternoon snorkel.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550058072/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/246/5500 ... 0e362e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="caneel beach"></a>
We found a baby shark swimming up and down the beach:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550058054/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/208/5500 ... fedfaf.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="caneel baby shark"></a>
And a huge ray in just a few feet of water. Lots of little grunts:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550225909/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/250/5502 ... 5196e5.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="caneel grunts 2"></a>
and then the battery ran out in the camera!
For dinner tonight we decided to take a chance and try Tage even though Ted Robinson had left. Unfortunately, he was sorely missed. We started with an amuse bouche from the chef: yellow tomato with fresh mozzarella, basil, olive oil, and balsamic (the balsamic was bitter). We then split an appetizer of potato wrapped flash fried shrimp (needed salt, the potato wrapping was underdone, and the shrimp was not deveined). For mains, I had a tuna, which was very fresh and perfectly cooked rare, but it was seasoned with a gloppy soy-based sauce that tasted like it could have come from a cheap Chinese joint. John’s potato-wrapped mahi was more successful. For dessert, the white chocolate tarragon soufflé was back on the menu, so of course we ordered that. It was wonderful, though not nearly as tarragony as other times, which was a little disappointing. Service was good until the end, when John noticed that the waitress had charged him for a different, more expensive bottle of wine that what we drank (same winery, but single vineyard), and she disagreed with him about it, telling us "she knew what we ordered" and so on. Not until she went back into the kitchen trash to retrieve the bottle did she admit her mistake. It was annoying. Plus, dinner was really expensive considering the flaws in the food. It was not a horrible experience by any means, but with so many other choices, Tage is "off the list" for us.
Back to Caneel for booktime and an early bed.
Final installment tomorrow!
8:30 AM: Earthquake! It did not last very long, but we definitely felt it. We hung around reading books for a while before heading out to the beach. Today the falcon went too far. When I came out of the house, it swooped down, crashed into my head and scratched my scalp! This meant war, and I had a weapon! After vowing revenge, we headed out to the beach. First stop: Denis Bay. The entrance to the trail spur is...interesting:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550229493/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/200/5502 ... 9dd3a3.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="entrance to denis bay trail"></a>
It’s hard to tell from the photo, but you kind of have to crawl through the opening.
The walk down was hilly but short. This beach is beautiful:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550229405/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/212/5502 ... f7454b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="denis bay"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550229443/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/234/5502 ... 7d0afc.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="denis bay rocks"></a>
We did not go down by the pier because it looks like there is a private house down there. We decided against swimming here, and instead headed out to snorkel Tektite. Thankfully we decided to snorkel Little Lameshur first though.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550233427/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/225/5502 ... bea503.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="entrance to little lameshur"></a>
We got into the water and there was NO visibility. You could not even see your hand in front of your face! Snorkel aborted, we just lazed around in the water for a few hours, until the beach got crowded (OK, about 10 people!).
We stopped at Great Lameshur for photos, but did not bother to snorkel:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550071854/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/220/5500 ... ea3305.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="great lameshur"></a>
Lunch was at Island Blues.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550109526/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/237/5501 ... 4c487d.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="view from island blues"></a>
We really liked this place, good views, tasty food, not too expensive. We were so completely relaxed by this point, we started referring to ourselves as Mr. and Mrs. Jellybones.
Back to the house for pool time and our counterattack on the falcon. I had brought down a water shooter I got from llbean, and we took it into the pool with us. A couple of blasts in the vicinity of the falcon (no, we did not actually blast the bird, just kind of near it), and the falcon started keeping its distance. Take that, bird!
We watched our last sunset at Argonauta (hazy):
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550071866/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/241/5500 ... ec2df8.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="hazy argo sunset"></a>
And then I did not feel like cooking, so we went to dinner at Happy Fish. This is a sushi restaurant in the marketplace. It has kind of a funky atmosphere-a large projection screen playing kung fu movies, anime over the bar, stylized fans moving in sync on the ceiling. John said that if Quentin Tarantino moved to the Caribbean and opened a restaurant, it would probably look like this! We enjoyed everything we tried, but the food really took a long time to come. We ordered maguro sashimi to start, and it took them 45 minutes to bring it! The fish, when it finally came, was very fresh, but a LOT bigger than I am used to-probably 4" by 2". Our rolls came about 45 minutes after that. It made for a different and fun evening out.
Back to the house for our last night at Argonauta, watching the ships come in and the sparkling lights of St. Thomas.
Day 17
It was another beautiful St. John day. When we got up, we saw a big ship heading it to St. Thomas. Trunk Bay was sure to be crowded later! We spent the morning in the pool, with the falcon keeping a vigilant (though distant) watch. Around 11 ish we packed up, said goodbye to Argonauta, and headed over to Caneel to drop our bags. They told us our room was not ready but that it would be when we got back from dropping off the car. Filled up the car ($63, youch!), then went over to Penns....where they informed us that the car was due back yesterday!!!! It was my fault, I gave them the last night at the villa as our return dates. I felt so stupid. They were nice about it though. She said to us: "It’s not as if I did not know where to find you if I needed the car!"
That situation settled, we headed over for lunch at Panini Beach (good as always), then stopped by St. John Spice to visit with Ruth and buy gifts for people back home.
We got back to Caneel around 2:30, but the room was not ready. John was already a little unhappy because he had requested either 7A or one of the Turtle Bay rooms and we did not get it. We went for a walk around the grounds, took some pictures of the plants:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550249967/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/244/5502 ... 61cd7f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="purple caneel flowers"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550058134/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/193/5500 ... f45194.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="caneel flowers"></a>
and poked around in the gift shop. At 3:30 PM we checked back and the room was still not ready. We thought this was odd because we had walked by the room at the beginning of our stroll and saw that people were cleaning in there. 4 PM....still no room. GRR. Finally at 4:30 or so, they came to get us to take us to our room. My initial impression of the room was less than positive. First off, it had a very strong unidentifiable smell. Second, it was off Caneel Beach, which we did not want. This building has not yet been renovated also. However, once we settled in and relaxed, we liked the room very much. Although not renovated, the room is in good condition:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550225957/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/199/5502 ... cc95a4.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="caneel interior"></a>
With very nice views, and just steps to the beach:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550109504/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/202/5501 ... fb44be.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="view from caneel room"></a>
The smell dissipated by the morning, so that was not a problem either.
It would not be a complete day without snorkeling, so we headed down to Scott Beach, my favorite.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550087728/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/220/5500 ... 77c25b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="scott beach"></a>
John vegged out on a lounge chair, getting his jellybones back, while I snorkeled around (didn’t see anything except a forest of conch), and then lounged on a floatie until John joined me in the water. The swim worked miracles on restoring our good moods, and all was right in the world again.
After cleaning up, we headed into town for a walk by the water:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550229369/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/230/5502 ... 956f56.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="cruz bay sunset"></a>
And then dinner at one of our favorites: La Tapa. It was live jazz night, which was great-not too loud, and great ambiance. The food, as always was spectacular. We started with the bread with la tapa oil (olive oil, balsamic, parmesean, basil, dill, pink peppercorn flakes), and the three dipping sauces (roasted pepper hummus, mango salsa, cucumber tsatski). Yum! I do wish La Tapa had better bread though. We then shared twp appetizers: grilled shrimp with salsa fresca and siclilian lifeguard calamari. I have the calamari recipe at home in the Babbo cookbook, but it never tastes as good when I make it as it does on St. John. Main course we split an entrée of yellowfin tuna with chipotle sauce, seared polenta, buttery grean beans and a little arugula. So good! We also split a cheese plate of St. Andre, manchengo, and humbolt fog, with fig paste, guava jelly, and honey. They did not bring us any knives or forks with the cheese, just bread, which I wanted no more of, so we just ate it with our fingers. It still tasted good! We ended the night with a couple of Red Stripes at the Beach Bar and then back to Caneel for some quiet conversation and sleep in their super comfortable bed.
Day 18
We skipped breakfast and headed right to Turtle Bay.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550105006/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/205/5501 ... 00b1f5.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="turtle bay"></a>
This was our fourth stay at Caneel, but our first visit to this beach. It is small and very pretty, with lots of shade, and what looked like good snorkeling possibilities on both sides of the beach. On the right we found good coral and lots of fish, including some really big squid:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550107438/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/226/5501 ... 8d0699.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="turtle bay squid"></a>
and John found a moray eel. Then we snorkeled the left and around the point. This is a really good snorkeling spot-tons of healthy coral:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550107396/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/208/5501 ... 788a24.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="turtle bay elkhorn"></a>
and lots of fish. Sponge:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550107422/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/223/5501 ... b74615.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="turtle bay sponge"></a>
There is a current though, so use caution if you snorkel here.
After drying off and some booktime, we headed back to Scott Beach. I immediately found two turtles munching on the sea grass, and a bunch of rays.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550094578/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/196/5500 ... a5578b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="scott turtle swimming"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550261779/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/226/5502 ... b46db5.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="scott ray"></a>
Over at Paradise, we found coral:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550249911/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/240/5502 ... 320755.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="paradise worms"></a>
But not too many fish.
Back on the beach, we read books and were kept company by this pair of gulls:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550087764/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/212/5500 ... eec3fd.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="scott gulls"></a>
They were, erm, very amorous. Repeatedly. Right next to our chairs. Maybe they were on their honeymoon!
We had lunch at the Caneel Beach Terrace. John’s grilled tuna sandwich was very good, but I made the mistake of ordering the "grilled gruyere and cheddar" sandwich, which turned out to be mild cheese on wonder bread! For $12 , no less. Oh well, live and learn. More lounging and booktime, then we went over to Caneel Beach for a late afternoon snorkel.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550058072/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/246/5500 ... 0e362e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="caneel beach"></a>
We found a baby shark swimming up and down the beach:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550058054/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/208/5500 ... fedfaf.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="caneel baby shark"></a>
And a huge ray in just a few feet of water. Lots of little grunts:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/550225909/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/250/5502 ... 5196e5.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="caneel grunts 2"></a>
and then the battery ran out in the camera!
For dinner tonight we decided to take a chance and try Tage even though Ted Robinson had left. Unfortunately, he was sorely missed. We started with an amuse bouche from the chef: yellow tomato with fresh mozzarella, basil, olive oil, and balsamic (the balsamic was bitter). We then split an appetizer of potato wrapped flash fried shrimp (needed salt, the potato wrapping was underdone, and the shrimp was not deveined). For mains, I had a tuna, which was very fresh and perfectly cooked rare, but it was seasoned with a gloppy soy-based sauce that tasted like it could have come from a cheap Chinese joint. John’s potato-wrapped mahi was more successful. For dessert, the white chocolate tarragon soufflé was back on the menu, so of course we ordered that. It was wonderful, though not nearly as tarragony as other times, which was a little disappointing. Service was good until the end, when John noticed that the waitress had charged him for a different, more expensive bottle of wine that what we drank (same winery, but single vineyard), and she disagreed with him about it, telling us "she knew what we ordered" and so on. Not until she went back into the kitchen trash to retrieve the bottle did she admit her mistake. It was annoying. Plus, dinner was really expensive considering the flaws in the food. It was not a horrible experience by any means, but with so many other choices, Tage is "off the list" for us.
Back to Caneel for booktime and an early bed.
Final installment tomorrow!
It's like looking in your soup and finding a whole different alphabet.
....mia
-
obsessedmuch
-
CardinalSynn
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Mon May 28, 2007 2:21 pm
- Location: Arizona
-
snorkelqueen
- Posts: 432
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 12:33 pm
- Location: california
Macro used on the flowers? Very nice.
Does the new Canon you used underwater use AA batteries or proprietary (i.e. camera specific) batteries?
Always liked the fact that the Powershots use regular old AAs that you can always swap in.
Does the new Canon you used underwater use AA batteries or proprietary (i.e. camera specific) batteries?
Always liked the fact that the Powershots use regular old AAs that you can always swap in.
When we come to place where the sea and the sky collide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
No, it has a rechargable canon battery. I think that's kind of a bummer, but it was the only canon Royal Caribbean had that they also had the underwater housing for. The other bummer is that you can't just plug the camera into the charger unit with a cable, you have to take the battery out of the camera and stick it into the wall charger.jmq wrote:
Does the new Canon you used underwater use AA batteries or proprietary (i.e. camera specific) batteries?
Always liked the fact that the Powershots use regular old AAs that you can always swap in.
My old canon is at the camera hospital now so maybe it can be salvaged, and then I'll have both to choose from.
It's like looking in your soup and finding a whole different alphabet.
Another great chapter.
Did you bring a computer to download your pictures? We've got enough memory cards for a weeks worth, but an upcoming trip is 2+ weeks (not to STJ
) and are trying to come up with a storage solution (and don't really want to bring a laptop).
Your "quick" dinners are fancier than what I put together when I spend a weekend in the kitchen.
Waiting for the final chapter -
janet
Did you bring a computer to download your pictures? We've got enough memory cards for a weeks worth, but an upcoming trip is 2+ weeks (not to STJ
) and are trying to come up with a storage solution (and don't really want to bring a laptop).Your "quick" dinners are fancier than what I put together when I spend a weekend in the kitchen.
Waiting for the final chapter -
janet
janet
-
Jan&MikeVa
- Posts: 1084
- Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:32 pm
- Location: The Chesapeake Bay
