We taxied to Cruz Bay. Liz was going to the Lumberyard, which we all had thought was a lumberyard until she found out it was a shopping mall.

Beth and I went to a laundromat, which turned out to be just a block from the Lumberyard. The proprietor was an unfriendly woman, and the washroom had no soap or TP, much like our other laundromat experience in the islands. We had to buy tokens for all the machines.

After putting our laundry in the washers, we went next door to the Amore Center, a building with beautiful stonework and lots of plants on the balconies. I wanted to check it out. We started up the stairs. We were between the second and third stories when a woman called out, "Where are you going?" We are looking for shops, I said. "There's nothing up there," she said. So we followed her into her shop on the second floor, a ceramic art shop. We could see the ceramic studio through a glass wall. There was some beautiful merchandise, but it was too expensive for us.

Back to the laundromat.

Our next quick trip, after putting our clothes into the dryer, was to the tourist office. We wanted to ransack the free "Restaurants and Recipes of the Virgin Islands" booklets to give as gifts. While I distracted the lady behind the desk, Beth made the hit. I asked about the Sunday ferry schedule. The lady even made a phone call to double check, because the ferry schedule had been disrupted lately for some reason.

But she must have been keeping her eye on the loot, because she swept out from behind the desk and up to Beth. "Oh, no, you can't take all of them," she said to Beth. "Earlier this morning a woman took too many." We immediately knew she was talking about Liz.

But she really was nice. We hooligans, not so much. Before we left, I asked her, "Can I have one?" As if Beth wouldn't share. Sure, she answered. (Later we extorted a few more copies from Liz.)

We had tokens left over when we finished our laundry. The proprietor refused to buy them back. We sold them to a regular who was in his truck in the parking lot.

We returned to the Westin by taxi. Liz had already returned. She found two barber shops open at the Lumberyard -- not much else.

Liz wanted to spend a low-key day at the Westin.

Beth and I planned a low-key day trip, without any snorkeling or hikes, to Coral Bay, a sleepy, one-horse settlement and harbor on the other side of the island. We hitched back to Cruz Bay and caught a bus to Coral Bay.

The first ride took us over the hill. The second ride took us to Cruz Bay. It was a pickup truck. Beth rode in front, I rode in back. We passed a pedestrian, and the driver told Beth, "I don't like that guy. I don't trust him. Eight years ago, he sold me some pot that turned out to be Kleenex."

Beth and I had been waiting at the bus stop for some time before Beth noticed, right in front of our faces, a simple but elegant bird made of dried, woven palm leaves hanging from string on the back of a traffic sign. It immediately became her pet. (Sunday morning when we were packing up to leave, she vowed to avenge any baggage handler who damaged it.)

The now-familiar bus ride across the island. We asked the driver to let us off at Coccoloba, a little mall of shops at the heart of Coral Bay.

Beth with her palm leaf bird, outside Coccoloba, Coral Bay

At Coccoloba, I borrowed a washroom key with a surfboard key ring from the bartender. Beth got a washroom key with a real motherboard key ring from the computer shop. I bought batteries from the grocery store, then we went across the courtyard to the gift and souvenir shops.

One shop that was going out of business had postcards with an aerial view of the Westin Resort. I thought, maybe it's a smaller island than I thought.

No, no smoothies at the deli. The last shop, attractive but expensive, jewelry and shiny things.

We walked down the road to the resale shop, "New 2 U." The windows were open but the front yard gate was closed. "Come in," called a voice. Inside was a scholarly-looking man reading a book. I gave him two books. He was very grateful and said his wife had published a book of poetry. Beth and I looked around -- books, clothes, miscellany -- but didn't buy anything.

Walking back toward Coccoloba, we ran into someone we knew. He was walking from the lot with the junk in it toward the sound of men who were laughing and shouting in the bushes and trees between the road and the shore. We said hi. Beth said, "You been smoking some spliff?"

"How did you know?" he asked.

"I can see it in your eyes."

He showed us something in the palm of his hand.

Beth and I walked down past Coccoloba and crossed the road. We went down some steps to the water's edge and sat on some rocks by a culvert. I ate some rice cakes.

Then we crossed back over the road and walked farther down, to the gourmet restaurant, Sweet Plantain. We looked at a menu. It looked good, but they weren't serving dinner yet.

We walked back to Coccoloba and ate at the Aqua Bistro. Beth had pizza, and I had a Mahi sandwich. I joked that the pizza looked like a pile of cheese on a cracker. Beth said, yeah, it's not very good. Neither was my Mahi. We shooed flies and ate and shooed flies. Then I borrowed the key with the large cooking spoon key ring.

Kent and Mike

We loitered in front of Coccoloba a while. Popped into the little gift shack with the palm tree growing out of its roof. The proprietor owned the little car that was covered with bumper stickers, which we had admired earlier.

We watched dogs in cars driving by, and dogs in parked cars, waiting for their drivers, who were at the bar. Then Beth noticed a quiet dog in a car we had been standing next to for some time.

Boats were moored all over this end of the bay. A man waded out from the rocky shoreline into the harbor.

The bus was about 10 minutes late when we saw it go by in the opposite direction -- toward Salt Pond. So we knew we had more time to wait.

Kent came by and we talked a little. He said he was 48 and has been growing his dreads for 23 years. He said he has a big place ("two king-size beds") near Salt Pond and invited us to stay there next time we are in St. John. "Bring me a girlfriend," he said. He started to shake my hand in the conventional way and then switched to the old soul-hip style. We said good-bye.

The sun ignited the edge of a dark cloud over the gift shop palm tree.

The bus returned, heading back toward Cruz Bay, and we boarded. The driver must have been in a hurry, to say the least. Beth said it was like an amusement ride -- we should have harnesses, like the Batman ride. I said the driver was taking corners like a Ferrari. It was good exercise, working our core muscles to keep from falling out of our seats. Before we knew it, we were in Cruz Bay.

Beth and I tried to hitch back to the Westin but ended up walking the whole way. Along the way, we stopped at the Tamarind Inn. It looked nice from the courtyard. The owner was just cooking the "Thanksgiving" dinner (every night of the week a different entree). I would have ordered key lime pie, but that was still in the oven, too.

When we came to the big hill before the St. John Market, we stopped to drink water, then climbed.

Beth was still carrying her palm-leaf bird.