Friday, October 13 (Ron)
Went down to the Gingerbread Café for breakfast. Pat had a bowl of oatmeal and a bowl of fruit. I had the breakfast skillet – fried potatoes with onions and peppers, covered with cheese and topped with scrambled eggs. After breakfast, we came back up to the room. Pat decided she would do laundry, and I wanted to go into town to upload the journal to my blog. I also wanted to pick up some Guavaberry liqueur. I drove into town and traffic was terrible. Front Street is the main street thru town going east. It is one lane with lots of shops lining both sides. Back Street is the main street thru town going west. There are two other streets going east-west, both of which are two lanes. There are a few alleys connecting them but often they are blocked by a car parked in it. There is little parking available on either Front Street or Back Street. I was finally able to park, so I took the laptop and went off to find an internet café to upload the journal. So now I’m lugging the laptop and my camera around, and man it’s hot. I see a sign that says “Cold Beer – 3 for $2” so I went in. They also sold liquor and souvenirs. Also other stuff, but I wasn’t paying any attention. After much discussion I purchased a bottle of Cuban Rum aged 11 years, and a bottle of Pusser’s Rum, which is the very same rum issued daily to every man in England’s Royal Navy since 1655. ‘Course I also got those three cold beers. It was a beer from Venezuela. Finished the first beer as I talked with the proprietor. I had him open the second beer and went to put the booze in the car and move it closer to the Guavaberry Emporium. At the Guavaberry Emporium I had three or four samples of the different flavors. I decided on one bottle of the Guavaberry Liqueur, a bottle of Guavaberry Almond Liqueur, a bottle of Guavaberry Rum, and some very smooth sipping rum. They threw in a free t-shirt and three airplane-size bottles. The total came to just under $50. I slowly made my way thru traffic to the resort. It’s now a little after 3pm. I showed Pat the rewards of my pillaging Phillipsburg, and discussed the plan for the rest of the day. The resort is having a singer come in to entertain the guests at the café. Jody had told us that on Friday evening after all the shops close at 5:30, a lot of the locals stay in town for a while instead of fighting traffic. They all hang out on the boardwalk. There is music and entertainment, talking, and fun for all. We decided it sounded like more fun to hang out with the locals than with a bunch of fat, old tourists. We drove back into Phillipsburg and finally found a place to park the car. We walked down Front Street a while, then over on the boardwalk. Not a lot going on. There were some kids practicing their karate moves or something that was fun to watch, but that was about it. We went back to the resort and hung out in the room for a while before going down to the resort’s café for supper. The singer was there doing his thing, which I didn’t think was all that great, but what the heck – it’s free entertainment. There were only three other couples in the café when we got there, and they soon left. Outside the café in a covered area was what appeared to be and anniversary party with a buffet. There was a pretty good crowd for that. A few of them came in, then the rain started pouring down and more of them came inside. They were laughing and dancing and having a good time, so that was cool. A couple of cute little girls around 5 years old came over and talked to us for a while and Rover, the resort dog, came over and laid at our feet. Our last dinner at Belair Beach Resort. We came back upstairs and I did the journal while Pat dozed. We can’t sleep in tomorrow because check-out time is 10am, so it’s off to bed – 11pm.