Part 4 - February 3-9 Trip Report

lvbookworm

SBH Insider
This day reminded me of a game I used to play growing up called "arrows." A bunch of kids would split into two teams. The first would set out with a golfball-sized rock (to use as a makeshift piece of chalk) while the other remained behind for five minutes. The first team would run until coming to an intersection, at which time they would draw a set of two arrows on the sidewalk pointing forward, left or right. One of the arrows would point in the direction they would continue, the other would serve as a decoy. The second team would follow and have to guess which way they went. If they got to the second intersection and didn't see more arrows, they knew they chose poorly and would have to backtrack to the correct path. This continued until the 2nd team caught the first team, or the first team made it back to home base - whichever happened first.

Since we hadn't yet done so, our objective of the day was to drive around the island to see what had changed since our list visit. Our departure was delayed when my husband got into an intense "tennis match" of sorts with a bunch of mosquitos that had taken up residence in our kitchen. I must say I had mixed feelings seeing him so gleeful using the critter-be-gone tennis racquet that was provided in our villa to kill said mosquitos. Hearing the "zzzipzap" after each attack made him positively giddy! Once he eliminated all the kitchen dwellers, he took it upon himself to hunt them down anywhere he could find them. He was in heaven!

It was at this point he decided we HAD to drive directly to Marché U to purchase a racquet for us and additional racquets to give as presents to anyone else he could think of. Hmm. Okay. I'm game! We got to the market and purchased the racquets, but that led to wandering around all the shops next to the market, which led to driving to the shops in St. Jean, which led to even more wandering and shopping. A couple of hours and multiple purchases later, we decided to take our treasures home for safe keeping before driving around the island.

When we arrived back at the villa we were greeted with a sense of calm, quiet and a distinct lack of TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT noises that had been permeating the air for the past few days. We looked across to the hillside construction site and found it deserted. Well. That changed everything! We decided to take advantage of our gorgeous view sans noise, and lounged around our villa pool reading, swimming and dozing the entire day.

If not for our 7:30 reservation at Bonito we probably would have settled for takeout and a bottle of wine. But we were starting to get a little bit of cabin fever and decided to venture into town to do some window shopping before dinner.

When it was time to walk up the hill we looked at each other and said, "Okay - which way do we go?" The path forward was straight up with no sidewalk and a torrent of fast-moving cars and scooters heading straight down toward us. Nope. Not gonna go that way. I remembered a forum post discussing the walk to Bonito, and vaguely remembered the mention of a staircase. (Too bad I couldn't remember how to get to the staircase.) We finally decided to turn right and loop around the block, and eventually made our way to the top.

The hostess seated us at one of the banquettes along the outer edge, my husband enjoying the view over the harbor while I was pleasantly entertained by the constant back and forth of the wait staff and all the other diners' comings and goings. We ordered a bottle of Billecart Salmon champagne and made a toast to our day of complete, random fun.

For dinner I had the sautéed mahi-mahi with coconut jasmine rice and a side of wok vegetables. The fish was perfectly cooked, the vegetables were appropriately crunchy and the rice had just the right amount of coconut essence.

My husband had the grilled tuna filet and, except for the fact it was cooked medium instead of the requested rare, he enjoyed the combination of Mediterranean flavors including capers, olives and tomato confit.

When it came time for dessert nothing was really calling our name. And, on top of that, I always have a hard time paying $15 for dessert. No matter how tasty or artistic, it always seems insane. We finished our champagne and decided to head back to the villa to create a dessert of our own.

On one of our visits to Petite Columbe we discovered their puffy little "chouquettes." (Full disclosure: We usually polished off a bag of these as an appetizer course to our daily breakfast of croissants, but shhhh...don't tell!). We bought extras that morning with the intent of turning them into homemade profiteroles using items we had purchased the day before - vanilla ice cream, a squeeze bottle of chocolate sauce and a good-ole' can of whipped cream. After factoring in the cost of all the ingredients, our brainstorm dessert came out to a whopping $2.47 per serving. It was worth every single penny!

All-in-all we were very happy with our ad-lib day in paradise. It was one of the few times we've stepped out of our comfort zone of habitual "over-planning," and this allowed us to backtrack and follow wherever the proverbial chalk arrows pointed.
 
Love your day and your rolling along with whatever happens.

I too get a thrill hearing that zap and knowing I have made a mosquito kill.

Keep on keeping on and note I am hooked on your daily journaling.
 
My daugter Annie is the best mosquito zapper! Funny story. Ahhh, you remember your husbands dining option. I just love reading your daily reports as well, keep them coming. Ahhh, St. Barts....
 
Enjoyed reading about your days’ meanderings. It made me laugh hearing about your bug zapper racquet-crazed hubby...I’ve got one of those husband’s too...LOL! A perfect day in paradise!
 
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