Girls’ Day Out

The girls at lunch in Philipsburg, St. Marteen, midway through
our shopping jaunt.  Clockwise:  Alice Kilgo, me, Jan.
Photo courtesy of Alice Kilgo, Ocean Star.  Alice blogs her
adventures at http://www.svoceanstar.blogspot.fr 

“My husband would go nuts after 15 minutes of this,” Jan of Wild Thing said.  “Wow,” I countered.  “Wayne is allergic to shopping.  He’d be climbing the walls within 3 minutes.”

Alice, our ringleader and guide from Ocean Star, apparently is less afflicted; she just smiled.  Steve, her partner, provided dinghy ferry service for us.

We spent the day in Philipsburg, St. Marteen, the Dutch side duty free Mecca for cruise ships and beyond.  Everything from the $10 dollar store to 10 million dollar diamond rings (okay, I don’t know how much is the high end, but the area is chockablock full of both designers stores and high end jewelry) are available, tax free and competitively priced.

Lunch: an ample serving of delicious goat stew and sides
from the BBQ joint along the waterfront cruise ship promenade.
That, and a Red Stripe Jamaican beer (my new favorite Caribbean
beer) and a generous tip to our excellent waitress ran
a reasonable $15 USD.

Our mission?  Lots of girl stuff.  Barrettes.  Hair ties.  A white sundress.  Scoping out pressure cookers.  A discontinued Channel concealer.  Athletic tank top.  Whatever cool jewelry freebies we could pick up that were readily available (aquamarine necklace and a black sapphire today).  Sheets.  Gossip.  Getting to know each other.  Sharing a variety of tips on how to find bargains, make life easier and more enjoyable.

“You can tell your husband how much you saved, shopping here” Jan said.

“Nope,” I countered. “He doesn’t fall for that.  He’ll want to know not what I saved but what I spent.  Hmmm.  Hair stuff.  Bracelets.  Lunch.  Sundress – he’ll like that, at least.  That’s about $80; $30 over our average targeted daily allowance for the two of us.  I could’ve done a lot worse.”

He did like the white sundress.  So do I.