Jeudi 9 Mai

Today was another very nice day in spite of weather that was not what the brochures suggest. There was a rather heavy rain this morning which subsided around 9:30 am but the skies remained gray and threatening with a fair wind all day. We ate breakfast in, making ourself eggs and eating some pastries we bought yesterday. I promised myself that from here on, if we eat in, we will go down the hill to the little grocery to get fresh pastries in the morning as there is no comparison. We also had fresh mango and baby bananas with our feast. We headed out in the morning and explored some little grocery stores on the French side in Oyster Pond, then drove through the Orient Village area. Many shops are closed today because of Ascension Thursday, but some are open. Not much in the Village, though. We drove on to Grand Case and parked in the public lot at the outside of the main street area. We walked down the main street, mostly fine restaurants, and entertained ourselves by reading the wonderful menus and specials of the day. Not sure if we'll head back there for dinner or one of the other fine places available. We wandered about an hour and returned to the lolos for lunch, deciding on the one that offered whole grilled red snapper. We shared one fish which was plenty, with an order of fried plantains and a couple of freshly fried johnnycakes. Bob had read about ti punch and wanted to try it so we ordered two - they were only $1 each. They were a drink worthy of Jack Sparrow - straight (cheap) rum with a lime wedge. I'm afraid there'll be a little rum in my purgatory barrel as I only made it about half the large shot. Tasted like it could strip turpentine quite handily. The food was quite good, though not the quality of our previous meals. Also a fraction of the price. We stopped at the all-French large grocery, Simply, and picked up a tray of amazing-looking cheeses. I also found a pint of the coconut ice cream I had not previously been able to find. We stopped at the little grocery down the hill from our hotel on the way back for a lovely multigrain baguette since the grocery had none left for the day. Upon return to the hotel, we sampled some of the ice cream we had purchased, including the rhum raisin and cafe that we had previously purchased. I had a small scoop of each in a dish with a baby banana split as garnish. Yum! We tgok a brief rest, then donned our Keens to walk down to Dawn Beach which we had not yet had time to do. I believe the beach at Mr. Busby's yesterday is also part of Dawn Beach though a small rocky outcropping separates it from this half. We walked up and down this half a couple of times enjoying the breeze and the wildness of the waves with the wind that continues to whip. On the last pass, I got caught just above a small pile of rocks when a particularly large wave came in and broke on the rocks, completely showering me in salty, sandy spray. A few Westin customers still on the beach got a little free entertainment watching me get drenched. We came back up to the hotel after the walk and I made us some most excellent rum punches. We had bought boxed mango, guava, and orange juices and Dad had a small bottle of Pom which I mixed with some of the mango rum we got from the Marigot market yesterday. I shall have to make that again soon, but I'm now saving room for another (hopefully) exquisite dinner. I did have a second shower to wash off the salt and sand so I look presentable for dinner.