Pipes of Pam: November 2016

The previous Part 1 and Part 2 of our Gabrielsen siblings trip to St. Kitts

covered the first Thursday through Sunday of our ten-day stay, but all of the next week

we spent happy hours together swimming, golfing, talking, laughing and eating.

Though it was really quite hot,

the guys just drank a lot of water and it was

like they couldn't get enough golf on Marriott's 18-hole course.

Monday night was our turn to pick, so we ate Mexican food at Chinchillas on the beach.

Finally it arrived!

Tuesday, while the guys golfed,

Joan, Patty Cindy and I went Sister Shopping in town.
What could be more fun than strolling in and out of store after store with your sisters,
checking out native crafts, jewelry, trying on hats and tops and spraying yourself down with designer perfume!
There weren't many tourists in town, and every store we entered we were met with cajoling calls to buy.
In this perfume store, the three pretty clerks, from India, Venezuela and St. Kitts,
sold all four of us a new bottle of perfume and we each had great fun picking our scent out.
They were so delighted, they took our pic and put us on their Facebook page!

Patty and Hal, on their night to pick the restaurant,

decided that we would cook on the outdoor grill and have hamburgers.

We had already planned to grocery shop before we took our taxi back home from Sister Shopping.

We had had lunch at the Sweet Cane Grill, where our taxi driver recommended, and it was probably my favorite place we ate - we had a yummy lunch of mahi mahi sandwiches, salad, the best fries and conch fritters - yum!

Anyway, when we walked into the glorious a. c. in the restaurant, sitting at one of the tables

enjoying their favorite burgers on the island was the missionary couple we had met at church on Sunday.

We told them we were going to cook hamburgers that night and asked where we should buy the hamburger.

Long story short, we ended up at the downtown branch of the store where they shopped and the store was moving all of their food and there was no functioning butcher counter.

We found some patties in the freezer section, that when we got home, opened them up (kind of a brown color?) and read the label, discovered they were made of soy and beef hearts, etc. We seasoned them up, Roger and Hal slapped them on the grill, we served them in delicious buns, special sauce, pickles, lettuce, cheese,
and they were delicious!

Patty and I made some baked beans, adding guava and mango jam,
and we had plantain and potato chips,
then coconut and rum raisin ice cream for dessert.
That rum raisin was to die for!

Wednesday night John and Cindy picked an Indian food restaurant nearby,

and when they came to pick us up,

(John and Cindy and Tom and Joan's unit was above ours that we shared with Hal and Patty),

John snapped pics of us in our nice home away from home.

John and Cindy had scouted this place out and arranged a special air-conditioned room
(thank you, thank you - all of the rest of the restaurant was open air and the air was still
and sweltering that night because it had poured rain just before we arrived).

There was this little greeting at our table:

We all had to get a pic with it while we waited for our food.

When it was Tom and Joan's turn, Tom said, "Aw, Joan, really? Those flowers aren't even real."

"C'mon, Tom," Joan said.

Got it!

The chef came out to chat and was a hoot! He had trained and cooked in several places in India,

making wonderful Indian and Chinese food.

We all enjoyed our food, some of it a bit spicy, but delicious.

He took a selfie of him in the foreground and our table in the background

and he put it on the restaurant's Facebook page.

That's twice we made Facebook. Ha!

Next morning, Tom, Joan, John and Cindy took a ferry to explore the neighboring little island of Nevis

and Roger and Hal decided to stay and golf and Patty and I booked a massage.

John found the right taxi driver/tour guide.

They had an interesting day exploring the island, with the highlight being seeing a lovely plantation.

Patty and I had looked forward to having a massage at the spa on the property, and it didn't disappoint. Ahh!

That evening we took a taxi to town for dinner at Sweet Cane.
The girls had enjoyed our lunch so much there, Roger and I picked it for all of us to have dinner.
It's a family affair who are running it and Roger and I chatted with the chef, assistant chef and the waiters/waitresses - all brothers, sisters and their children, while we waited for our cab.

We kept hearing about Cathy's on The Strip, so Tom and Joan chose it for Friday night.

It was small and it was a long wait for the food, but it was so worth it!

We took couple shots while we waited.

Their barbecued ribs . . .

. . . and their island grilled lobster were some of the best we had ever had!

We had to get a pic of the cook - I think maybe she was Cathy.

At our last dinner together, we chose an Italian restaurant nearby called Ciao.

They served homemade pasta and pizza and it was yummy.

They also took a pic of us and put it on their Facebook page!

That's three times -

I guess we're famous on St. Kitts now! (;

Everyone but Roger and I left very early Sunday morning.

We didn't have enough of our free points we used to get there to fly out Sunday, but we had free Marriott points to move in to the hotel part of the resort for one night,

so we flew out on Monday.

Our wonderful new grandson-in-law, Sydney's Jake, has a great job in P.R. for Marriott in Hong Kong, and he called and arranged a large welcome basket

that had greeted us when we arrived at St. Kitts, then he had us upgraded to a suite for this last night.

Jake, you are so kind!

Our suite is on the top floor.