Food & DINK
We travel. We eat. And we travel to eat.
Cruise Day 5: A Hot Day in St. George
This being the only morning of the trip we had a scheduled activity, we endeavored to get up at an early hour. Kathleen had the good idea to utilize room service for breakfast, giving us a little more time to get ourselves together after a late (for us) night the previous evening. The room service breakfast was surprisingly good. We breakfasted on our balcony and enjoyed customized omelets and some breakfast pastries.
We made it off the ship in time to take the free ferry to St. George provided by NCL, which is located just off to the right once you leave the terminal building. The ferry left at 9:00, but I’d advise showing up at least a bit earlier, as there was quite the line to get on a very crowded ferry.
The ferry ride took about an hour, putting us in St. George around 10:00. Our plan for the morning was a walking tour of historic St. George. The guided tour is provided by the St. George’s Foundation and takes place Monday through Thursday and Saturday at 10:30. The tour is $15 per person and you do not need to book it in advance; just buy your tickets at the Visitor Information Center next to the Town Hall.
The walking tour was great, and I’d definitely recommend it. My only complaint is the tour was billed as lasting an hour and ten minutes, but in reality the tour lasted about two hours. While it was great that the guide took his time and gave us a lot of interesting information, the day was extremely hot and, thinking the tour was only an hour, we neglected to bring extra sunscreen. And, stupidly, I left my hat back in Alexandria. I’m sure I would have gotten more out of the experience had I not been worried about the sun melting my face off.
The longer-than-expected tour also cut down on the time we had to do other activities in St. George. We were also hoping to ride a horse and carriage around the historic town, but we ended up not having time to do that because of the extra time we spent on the tour. It didn’t help that the horse and carriage tour provider no longer provides half an hour rides.
When the tour finished up around 12:30, we were in need of some lunch, and some shade. We made our way over to Wahoo’s and yet again I dove head first into a bowl of fish chowder. In case you’re keeping score, the offering at Wahoo’s was our least favorite of the chowders we tried. While it had the most actual fish in it, it lacked the spicy complexity of the chowders we had the day prior. We did enjoy a lot of very fresh wahoo, and that was excellent.
After lunch, we popped in a couple of the shops surrounding the square to buy some souvenirs. I purchased a shot glass (which I buy on all of our vacations), and we bought some tasty-looking sauces to take home, including the sherry pepper sauce used in the fish chowder. Kathleen is working on coming up with a fish chowder recipe to try here at home and I can’t wait.
The ferry back to the Dockyard was scheduled to leave at 3:00, so we got back to the dock at about 2:45, but there was no ferry in sight. There was, however, a huge line with absolutely no shelter from the sun. The ferry ran late, and I sweltered. We eventually made it on the ferry by about 3:15, and I can’t remember the last time I was so excited to be inside. The overall temperature that day was probably only in the mid-80s, but there was absolutely no cloud cover. The sun was very intense, especially standing in that long ferry line for half an hour.
Relaxing in our cool cabin, not to mention a cold shower, was a must. We eventually felt cool and refreshed, and we yet again headed out to enjoy some pre-dinner drinks. As was our habit, we enjoyed a couple glasses of wine and some Manchego cheese to wet our appetite for dinner.
Dinner that evening was at Moderno—NCL’s Brazilian steakhouse. We love these types of restaurants on land, but we weren’t that impressed when we dined at Moderno on our Getaway cruise a few years ago. We decided to give it another shot though and we were rewarded; the food was very good, and we had a great time stuffing ourselves full of delicious meats (and amazing pao de queijo).
Our early morning caught up to us, so we decided to make it an early night. We spent a little quality time just relaxing and reading in our cabin before falling into bed.
Up next in cruise day 6: enjoying a quiet ship.
Food & DINK 