The sun shone this morning, and we haven't seen a lot of sun this trip, but we couldn't bear the thought of being out in the sun, as badly as we got toasted yesterday. So we had a perfect day shopping in Phillipsburg, topped off with The Pink Flip Flop.
Lunch today at Hot Tomatoes, near the airport. We split an order of signature Hot Tomatoes. Then I had the Bahamian Conch Fritters with a Creole Dipping Sauce -- it was worth it just for the dipping sauce. And I had the Conch Chowder, same as last year. Judi had the Bonsai Chicken.
Then it was a short hop by jet to start our week in Puerto Rico. Will someone please tell me why it is that whenever you're in the airport in San Juan you have to walk and walk and walk miles and miles to get wherever you're going?
Then it was out of the airport and onto the roads. So, like, one hour I was driving in St. Maarten, and the next in Puerto Rico -- talk about a time warp! St. Maarten has small, curvy, hilly, one lane roads; friendly drivers; and you can bend the rules some and it all works out. In Puerto Rice the roads are three or fours lanes in each direction, the drivers are fast, horns blare, and no one has any patience. I felt like my mind was bent at a 90 degree angle.
I had a little language adventure, too. In Saint Martin, I greeted everyone with bonjour, and instantly everyone knew to address me in English. I guess I don't pronounciate French very well. But here, at the hotel, I greeted the clerk with a bright buenas! and she responded with a torrent of Spanish. "Excuse me," I interrupted, "buenas is the only Spanish word I know." I guess my pronunciation was alright.
While I was checking in, a Blonde came in to complain to the desk clerk: "We've been waiting for the trolley for thirty minutes and the restaurant closes at nine and He gets really cranky if He doesn't get his dinner." (Note it's "his dinner," not just "dinner.") Normally the capitalized he is reserved for the Deity, but obviously to her it was a proper noun. Judi said that maybe His mommy didn't do what she should have when he was a baby and forgot to give him a name. I thought that if I were the desk clerk I would have said, "I'm sorry you married a pig and a bore but that's not my problem."
Then the Blonde happened to hear that we had come from St. Maarten: "You were on St. Maarten? He wanted to go there last year, but someone told me about all the nudie beaches, and I knew He would be strolling down the nudie beaches and that would be a problem for me."
Yeah, you got problems.
Text and images © Copyright Gregory Smith or Judith Fulks 2004