I’m not sure whether the rooster moved a little farther away from my window, if I had just gotten used to his noise and could ignore it, or if it was because I was so exhausted from the kayaking, but I slept much better last night, even though I was still aware of the rooster mistakenly going off during the night. So, with a pretty solid six hours of sleep, I headed out on the day’s adventure. I walked seven tenths of a mile to the Edward Blyden Ferry Terminal to catch a ferry to the neighboring island of St. John, only to find that there was a mechanical problem, and the ferry is not running today. There are other ferries from St. Thomas to St. John, but they depart from other places, which are not such easy walking distance from my hotel. So, today became my day to explore downtown Charlotte Amalie!

I found downtown Charlotte Amalie to be reminiscent of the French Quarter of New Orleans. Take a look…

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Downtown Charlotte Amalie has a pretty typical mix of souvenir shops and restaurants for a beach/tourist town, with one abnormality: there are billions of jewelry stores. Seriously, check out this screen shot from Google Maps:

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For the bulk of the day, I just wandered downtown. Some highlights:

I had a breakfast/lunch consisting of a spinach omelet at a little place called Bumpas. The food was good, and the second-floor dining area provides a nice view of the harbor. I also had a Virgin Islands Root Beer, made by St. Johns Brewery. Not my favorite root beer, but not bad, either.

I soon found that St. Johns Brewery has its own store in downtown Charlotte Amalie. There I had a very tart (but good) hard lemonade, made with dark rum. I asked if they make any hard ciders. I was told they have hard ciders at the actual brewery on the island of St. John, but not at this store. So, there’s one more thing to do when I go to St. John (probably tomorrow).

I found a store called S.O.S. Antiques that specializes in items recovered from shipwrecks. I didn’t buy anything, but it was an interesting place to browse – almost like a free museum.

Speaking of free museums, I also spent a good amount of time at the St Thomas Historical Trust Museum. This place has a lot of information and photos showing how the city of Charlotte Amalie developed in the early 20th Century, and a lot of info about pre-Columbian peoples who once occupied the island. Interestingly, I found very little about the years when the island was ruled by various European countries, and very little about the old sugar plantations.

For dinner, I had a yummy angus burger at Stone House Cafe. And that was my day. Thank you and good night.