Drive Around The Island

We took our time this morning and didn’t get out the door until after 10:00. We decided to go across the street and eat a brunch meal at Sweet and Savory Bistro. I had and egg Florentine sandwich and Tom had a club sandwich (this is a real shocker to anyone who knows Tom – LoL). The food was good but the service was super slow.

Our plan for the day was to drive around the island. We went clockwise and we were soon driving by the veterinary school that we had been to yesterday for the geocache. Tom asked me if we wanted to stop and try again. Since it’s easy parking and it was on the way I said sure why not. Good thing we did. A different guard was working today and he knew exactly what I was talking about when I asked for the geocache. He went right to a cabinet and pulled it out. I had thought about asking the other guards to check the cabinets yesterday, but I didn’t want to tell them how to do their job. I signed the log, dropped a Travel Bug, and Tom snapped a picture before we were back on our way.

Next stop was the Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park. This was quite an impressive fort high up on the hill that the British designed and African slaves built. We enjoyed walking around the fort, reading about it’s history, and taking a bunch of pictures. There was a multi-cache at this location as well. I found the gravestone for the first waypoint that was to give me the coordinates to the final cache, but admittedly I got lazy when I read the hint and it said that the cache was near the gift shop air conditioner and you could ask someone in the gift shop for help. I looked all around the air conditioner thinking the air conditioner was the target, but didn’t find anything. There weren’t many people left wandering the fort since all the tour groups had left so it was a good time for me to ask the worker in the souvenir shop. He knew exactly what I was talking about and instead of giving me a hint, he took me to the cache itself. It was a tiny nano on the hinge of a window frame that was near the air conditioner. I never looked there, but it was a well placed cache. After I was done signing the log I went back into the shop and had a nice conversation with the man, Philip. I learned that he was originally from England but moved here 25 years ago, and he hasn’t left the island in 18 years. He also told us all about the tourists from the cruise ships and which cultures tend to buy more and which are more tight with their money. No surprise that Americans buy more. He said the tightest group are Germans. I bought a couple of things (including a locally made Christmas ornament) and we went on our way to explore the rest of the grounds.

As we drove around the island we found a nice little black sand beach where I could pull off the road. We walked the beach and I picked up little pieces of sea glass along the way. Tom played around with taking some pictures and got his shoes and socks all wet when an incoming wave got him.

Next up was an attempt for a geocache that I knew the last couple of cachers had not found. I thought I would make the attempt anyway. Tom stayed in the car for a little power nap and I went about searching. I knew I was in the correct area, but after looking and looking I could not come up with the find. The view was pretty though!

We continued on to complete the loop of the north part of the island before we continued down to the peninsula. We stopped at the Timothy Hill Overlook and took the touristy St. Kitt’s photo. Tom tried a new feature on his photo called “Add Me” where he took a picture of me, then I took over his position and took a picture of him and it added him to the photo as if we had both been standing there at the same time. It was pretty impressive. Even though that feature worked, we were fortunate that another tourist had just made the climb up the hill and was by himself so we could help each other out with picture taking. Also at this location was a geocache that I was easily able to find.

We made our way South to the end of the island where we were planning on going to the Spice Mill for dinner. There weren’t a lot of cars in the parking lot when we pulled in. They were open, but it was still early and the kitchen was not yet serving food (I think we pulled in around 5:00, but the kitchen opened at 5:30). Lucky for us the bar was open where we enjoyed a rum punch while we waited for a table. I ordered a lemon basil chicken breast and Tom had the fish of the day. We shared our meals so we each got some of both. I liked the chicken better than the fish, but both were good – although I preferred the fish at Shipwreck. After we were done eating we walked off dinner along the beach before we headed back to the hotel.

We had a great day. Tomorrow we are planning on beach hopping and snorkeling! It’s pretty cold at home right now, so I feel fortunate that we picked the right week to travel to the Caribbean. Stay warm everyone!

Stats of the Day

Steps: 10,982
Geocaches: 3/4
High Temperature: 83 Degrees
Low Temperature: 77 Degrees