Saint Barth. Day 4. Rainy Days and Mondays.
Monday morning we opened the blinds to find gray skies and rain.
It was a rainy day, foggy and disgusting. Immediately we got nervous because the plan for the day was to spend the morning at the pool, and then spend the afternoon on a boat. We called the concierge and they said they didn’t know yet if the boat would be going out and how the weather would be in the afternoon. She said she would get back to us by 1130 (the boat was supposed to be at 1pm), so we went to breakfast.
I decided I would go to the gym while we waited to see what the story would be with the boat. Well, while I was on my way to the gym, everyone else kind of decided that even if it wasn't raining, it wasn't worth doing the boat in gross weather so we should push the boat off to the next day and go into town to shop today. So I had to come back change out of my gym clothes and into regular clothes. I should mention that the entire time Tzvi was wavering over his decision and didn’t stop talking about if he had made the right choice. As you can imagine it was quite pleasant to listen to.
We drove to Gustavia, the only town on the island. It was basically some high end shopping (Prada, Dior, Hermes), mixed with medium-high-end shopping, local shops and souvenir stores. Tzvi bought a relatively expensive t-shirt. At one point we went into a store called Maison Pelican, which was basically an eclectic antique store that had lots of expensive art and pottery. Mendy noticed that the man working in the store was wearing a Jewish star and a Nova bracelet, so of course I had to bagel him. He said he was from France, and that there are basically 30 Jews on the Island. He said the island is fine for Jews and no one bothers him, “and if they would bother me, I wouldn’t care.” Good for you Mr. Pelican.
By one o’clock the stores started closing for their midday siesta (or whatever you call it in France). By then we were just hot and decided to go back to the hotel for lunch. We opted to eat “inside” at the restaurant, rather than at our seats. They started us with a delicious focaccia shaped like a pretzel and olive oil with zahtar. I had a falafel bowl, which was delicious. It was like a big salad that I added felafel to and it was so good. Tzvi had a mahi mahi burger that he really liked. Mendy had a pizza that was huge. It was a nice meal, but it was so hot.
For dessert they came around with a tray of all of the desserts. They were all stunning and we wanted to eat all of them, but we settled on a strawberry vanilla cream thing. That was delicious. I regret not getting the vanilla bean dessert that was shaped like a bean, but I don’t think I could have actually eaten it at that point.
After that we sat by the beach for a while. It was still a little cloudy, but the weather was pretty nice. I don’t know if it would’ve been windy and rough on the boat though. Tzvi and Mendy went out and swam in the ocean for a while and saw a bunch of turtles, so that was cool.
I left the beach and headed to the gym. Eventually everyone came and met me there. Hindel did yoga while Tzvi and Mendy swam in the spa pool. Finally we left the spa and went back to the room get ready for dinner.
Dinner tonight was at Bonito, another “festive” restaurant (as the hotel told us). It's a beautiful restaurant. It was really pretty and everything was white and blue, but it was also basically outdoors and it was so hot. I just don’t get it. It’s 80 degrees at night. Close the windows and turn on the air.
Dinner was very good, but so slow. We started with cocktails. This place is famous for making a cocktail that comes in a bathtub with a rubber duck. They call it “Sex in the Bath” and it’s made with vanilla vodka, passion fruit shrub and “secret foam.” I didn’t ask what was in the foam. It was actually a super cute drink and pretty tasty. Mendy and I both got that one, so, if you’re keeping track at home, so far on this trip Hindel has drank like a porn star and Mendy has had sex in the bath.
For starters the others had wahoo ceviche again, and I had a vegetarian ceviche, which was basically a bunch of veggies but actually pretty good. For the main I ordered the tuna, but they didn’t want to cook it for me. They said if they cook it through then people always send it back, so I had to promise the waitress I wouldn’t send mine back. It still came basically raw, but the parts I ate were very tasty. We also had these delicious yucca fries that were so good.
For dessert we had this rum raisin souffle thing, which was so weird, and a hazelnut thing also.
After dinner we drove our little Volkswagen up and down the steep hills of the island, and all we had to say was WAHOOOOO.
Good day.
