About halfway through our day yesterday, I heard the voice in my head say, “WHEN will you finally learn that everything happens for a reason. EVERYTHING happens for a reason.” And I told myself, again, that if I could remember that, then I wouldn’t throw myself into such a tizzy sometimes when ‘obstacles’ are thrown into my path. Because it was a blessing that we had to ditch some of our luggage. If that hadn't been the case, we never would have made one final trip to the post office...and would have never experienced our day yesterday in the way that it unfolded.
Yesterday was magical. MAGICAL! It was as if it had been scripted. Boyfriend came up with the perfect analogy over dinner last night: it was like “The Truman Show” (a film we love). For anyone who hasn’t seen it, Jim Carrey plays Truman whose entire life has been televised. He’s living in a manufactured environment and doesn’t even know it. So everything that happens to him--every person who crosses his path--is carefully orchestrated. But we meant the analogy in a good way. :)
Time seemed to slow to a crawl for us yesterday. It was as if we were given two days’ worth of time to fill. The few times we thought to check our watches, we’d marvel, “Gee, it’s only ______.”
We snapped about 300 photos yesterday. I wish I had a way to show a bunch of them to you, but I don’t. Yes, there’s Flickr, but with this slow-ass dial-up, it takes FOREVER to even upload half a dozen. (Oh yeah, and I have a plane to catch!) So for now, the handful of photos in this post will have to suffice. But we have a lot of photos to remember our last full day on St. Thomas. It was a day we will always remember, even without the photos.
We rose early and got started right away on transferring clothes from our large suitcases into boxes (see previous post). About 10:30 we called for a taxi, which showed up quickly. We had the driver drop us at the little post office at the cruise ship dock. There was no line and we breezed in and out. Next stop was the bank for a transaction we’d forgotten to do the previous day. Then we decided to have lunch at a Mexican restaurant that recently opened. It’s owned by a guy who briefly ran the kitchen at the club where we both worked when we first lived here. When we walked in, boyfriend ran into someone he knew and they chatted a bit. I knew the guy looked familiar, but couldn’t remember when I’d seen him. Boyfriend reminded me that he’d been the lighting guy for the run of Ain’t Misbehavin’ the boyfriend had done. (Boyfriend was in the 4-piece band and did 24 shows.) The guy came over to our table and exchanged email addresses with the boyfriend. I asked him later what the guy’s name was, because I couldn’t remember. When he told me, it suddenly dawned on me that he’s the morning guy on the local rock radio station. I had no idea that the guy I’d been listening to on the way to work in the mornings was THAT guy! Too funny. He’s headed to Montana in a couple of months for a summer-long acting gig. We told him we might be taking a road trip and if we do, Montana will be one of the states we’ll hit. So depending on the timing, we might see him there.
Next we decided to head to the strip mall owned by my former employer to say goodbye to some people who work there. En route, boyfriend spotted one of his golfing buddies sitting at the outdoor rum shack, so we walked over so boyfriend could tell him goodbye and so I could take a picture of the two of them. The man is a well-known radio talk show host here and boyfriend told him he’d be listening on the net. Trust me when I say that we learned a LOT about West Indian culture by listening to that show when we first arrived. :)
Next stop was the bikini store which is owned by friends of ours. He was one of the first people we met here. He wasn’t there, but his wife was, as well as one of the very first people the boyfriend worked with at the club (she'd been a bartender there). We saw our friends’ baby. She’s already six months old and she’s beautiful. She was asleep, so we didn’t get to interact with her, but I was so busy ooh’ing an aah’ing over her that it wasn’t until hours later that I realized I’d forgotten to take her picture. The wife called her husband so we could tell him goodbye.
We left the bikini store to walk across the parking lot to the club to say goodbye to our old friend who tends bar there on weekday days. She’s been there since the club opened--five years ago this month. It was the first place the boyfriend and I both worked, and the whole reason we're responsible for being here in the first place. But before we even got inside the club, we ran into a woman sitting at one of the tables in front of the club. She and her husband are in the restaurant business and have owned a series of three in the time we’ve been here. Boyfriend had occasionally provided music for them in their current venture. So we had a chance to tell her goodbye.
Our old pal was working in the bar, and we also ran into a guy we‘ve known since our first days here. We chatted with both of them, exchanged email addresses, took photos and got hugs. By now we were starting to feel like, “Boy, we sure are running into a lot of people...”
When we left the bar, we walked to the street and hailed a safari (open air) taxi for a lift to downtown. We were the only passengers (since the driver had just dropped his fares at the cruise ship dock and was heading back to get more). We snapped photos of the harbor on the way to
town.
Our first stop downtown was Jen’s Deli, to say goodbye to Jen. If you’re ever in St. Thomas and want a great lunch, go to Jen’s. It’s right across from the gazebo in Emancipation Garden. She’s a wonderful cook and a nice lady. She also does a good breakfast, but be prepared, lunchtime is super-busy.
Then we just started wandering. Boyfriend handed the camera to me and told me to snap away. After all, it was my work neighborhood for four years. (My office is just a few short blocks away, so
when I’d go for a walk at lunchtime, it was typically through the downtown streets.) We wandered up and down alleys, because the alleys that run between Main Street and Veterans Drive (the waterfront) are some of my favorite spots downtown.
We went back to the kiosk where I bought my conch shell bracelet, because boyfriend decided he wanted a Caribbean hook bracelet after all. (He bought one for me for our first Xmas here. If you wear the open part of the hook facing up your arm, it means you’re unavailable. Wear the hook facing down toward your hand and it means you’re looking!) While we were there, I spotted a thin silver hook bracelet with a Larimar stone. I liked it, so I bought it.
We continued our stroll and eventually made our way along the waterfront just past the Legislature building where we spotted a couple of benches. We sat in the one that was shaded and took in the harbor view. It was one of those, ‘Gee, this is a really nice spot and we never even knew these benches were here” moments. And then suddenly, there it was…making its way through the
slow-going late afternoon traffic…our old friend’s former vehicle…the black Jeep. It was the first ride either of us had here. Boyfriend went without a car until I arrived. We bought a little used Mazda pickup about a week after I got here. Our friend sold his Jeep a couple of years ago. It looks worse for wear, five years later, but then these island roads will do that to a car. Back then, it was all shiny. It’s what the boyfriend pulled up in when he picked me up at the airport on a very warm June night five years ago. And as we made our way that night through the streets of St. Thomas to our first residence, high in the hills, it all seemed so exotic and, well, tropical. :)
It was the Jeep. That was when it really started feeling like The Truman Show. It was like, “Cue the Jeep.” So of course we had to take a picture...and have a wonder-filled laugh over it.
We left the bench and made our way through traffic to a funky little market a block away to grab some water. The market is right behind my former office and I’ve frequented it many, many times. The owner said, “We (he and his wife) haven’t seen you in awhile.” I told him that I no longer work in the neighborhood and about our move plans. He said they’d miss me. He was always very nice and kind towards me.
I asked the boyfriend if he’d ever been inside the church near my office. He said he hadn’t, even though we’ve taken people there to have their picture taken in front of it. It’s the church where I’d occasionally sit on my lunch breaks when I’d find myself in dire need of some stillness and silence during workdays that were pushing my buttons. Amazingly (because it’s written up in all of the guidebooks), I almost never saw anyone else in there. It’s the oldest church on St. Thomas. So we sat there awhile and just took in its mellow open-air vibe. It was lovely to be there in the late afternoon, with the sun streaming through the western windows. We looked at the artifacts in the display case, and bought a few postcards (there’s a donation box). And then the boyfriend stepped to the little stand where the guestbook resides in front of the door. He wanted us to sign it. And it was then that I saw that ours would be the last two names in the entire book. How fitting, as we close the chapter on this phase of our lives.
We walked the couple of blocks to the taxi stand and found a nice lady taxi driver to drive us home. Boyfriend snapped photos along the way as we climbed the steep, steep hill leaving town.
And the driver paused at a particularly scenic spot so we could snap one last photo of Magens Bay from above. Instead of having her drive us to our door, we had her drop us on the road, at the entrance to our gate, so we could walk in, snapping photos along the way. We were only home for a moment and then the boyfriend strapped on his golf bag and walked to the clubhouse to get a cart.
While he was gone, his former supervisor rang the doorbell. He was here to pick up the items he’d bought. So I began gathering them for him and boyfriend arrived a few moments later. We said our goodbyes, I snapped a picture of the two of them and then we hopped in the cart and set out for the course so he could play one final round of golf at his beloved Mahogany Run (where we also live and where he just completed 4-½ years of employment).
I snapped a lot of pictures, even though he has a ton already of the course. As the sun began to lower, we knew we were going to run out of time to complete 18 holes, so we hightailed it to a spot at a cove below the 13th green so we could snap a couple of shots of a place that was special to us. During the massive renovation of the course a few years ago, the back half of the course was closed. We used to walk to the cove with our chairs and just sit on its rocky beach and listen to the waves. (It's where the boyfriend took H. fishing...and they accidentally hooked an octopus.) Yesterday we grabbed a couple of items off the beach to tuck into our bags as mementos.
Then it was off to the scenic 14th hole, the signature hole of the course. Boyfriend decided he’d play it one more time. It’s a par 3, but you have to drive across a cove. He was really happy with his tee shot. And as he stood over his putt, a gorgeous white yacht appeared in the background. He sank the putt, pumped his fist (a birdie!) and we laughed and hugged at what a fitting final golf shot that would be for his golfing career at Mahogany Run. It’s a tough hole and one that gave him fits when he first lived here. I know this won’t mean anything to anyone who’s not a golfer, but if you are, then you’ll understand. And the setting was just so perfect. A gorgeous early evening...the blue, blue Atlantic...the island of Hans Lollick in the background...and a fabulous yacht sailing by just as he sunk the putt. (The pictures are hard to see--it was dusk.)
We snapped a few more photos on our way back to the clubhouse. And then we stopped in to see the General Manager who was still in her office. We chatted with her for awhile. She took us into the darkened pro shop and gave us some goodies. I snapped a picture of the two of them and then we set off for the walk home. The sun had just set…and so had the boyfriend’s time with Mahogany Run.
There’s a very nice restaurant in our little enclave. Although we could have rustled up some food at home, I suggested we have dinner at the restaurant. We didn’t have a reservation, but we figured they wouldn’t be that busy on a Wednesday night. We didn’t even go home to change, just walked in wearing our shorts and carrying our backpack. And although we hadn’t eaten there in years, boyfriend’s played music for private events there several times and we drive by it every time we enter and exit our guard gate. It seemed fitting to have our last meal there. The food was good, the service was excellent and the setting is lovely. It’s an old plantation home.
After dinner, we linked arms and made our way through the inky darkness, over and down the hill to our little lane. And as we climbed the hill, we looked up at the huge Big Dipper, as we have so very many times during our years here. Some of my favorite moments here have been gazing up at the night sky. We realized it would be the last time we would look up at the stars from the island of St. Thomas. And we did it with the knowledge that we have no idea where this journey is leading
us...only that we’re being guided. We don’t know who or what is doing the guiding...but after our how our day unfolded yesterday, it's hard not to think that somehow our path is being laid out for us. So wish us luck…here we go!
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