More Fun in St Lucia with Archie

Doolittles

Sunday June 1st.  We grabbed Archie in our dinghy and headed over to Doolittles restaurant for pizza.  Paul from s/v Sonic Boom told us the pizza is really good and reasonably priced.  The setting is lovely as it right on the south side of the outer harbor.  However, it seems they don't serve pizza on Sunday night.  Argh!  We didn't want to drop a lot of money on dinner so we just had a coldie.  We ended up meeting the owner and chatted with him a bit.  Then Archie said "I know this woman that makes really good soup just down the road.  I told her we would come by for some.  Let's go there."  And just like that we were off on another grand adventure with Archie.

Archie says this was a typical house when he was growing up

He drove up and over the hill to the main road.  Karen runs a nice little place right across from the football field.  She was there sitting outside but the kitchen light was off.  Not a good sign.  It seems there were a couple of football matches earlier in the day and she was completely sold out of her soup as well as the few other items she cooked up.  Bummer!  She and Archie discussed where we might find something to eat on a Sunday night as most places close down.  Not good.  She gave us a couple of suggestions and we were off into the night.

The first place Archie tried was closed.  We drove by another that was really hopping but Archie wanted tried another only to find it closed as well.  We did a Uturn and headed back to the hopping place.

We pulled off to the side of the road to park and walked up.  There is a small grocery store (as in corner quick shop) that is also a post office.  This was closed since it was Sunday and 8pm by now.  The parking small lot was taken up by 3 small card tables with hot games of dominoes going.  Now I don't mean the goofy Mexican train dominoes that some cruisers play.  I am talking heated, full on, slam em down dominoes.  Heavy duty stuff.  There were four players at each table and at least 5 or six people gathered around each table watching.

Old school country music was blaring.  I am talking Hank Sr.  AND everyone knew the words.  It was kind of....weird.  It turns out that country music is very popular and standard fare on Sundays. I said something about Pasty Cline and Archie said "Oh god, if a Pasty Cline song came on, every single person here would be singing at the top of their lungs."  I talked with a cab driver that stopped by about his love for country music.  "It's soothing after a long week and our usual lively music."  I told him the famous country music joke - "What do you get if  you play a country song backwards?  You get your truck, your dog and your wife BACK!"  He laughed until he cried. Then he practiced telling it back to me so he would have it down.  He finally got it just right and headed off to tell it to others.  

Archie wondered toward the little snack shack at the end of the parking lot / domino area to see if there was any food left.  They weren't cooking anymore.  Most of the cooking for these types of events/evenings is done earlier in the day. When the food is gone, it's gone.  Just like Karen's place. However, Archie worked his BS....er... magic and talked the ladies into letting him scrap the bottom of the big pot. We got 3 full, lukewarm bowls of bouillon.  We watched the various domino games for a while and chatted with locals.  *Side note - I felt sorry for one domino player.  I think he had a touch of OCD as each time someone slammed down the dominoes, it jarred the whole table and upset the dominoes, sending them this way and that.  He just couldn't take it and quickly straighten them out each time only to have them all ajar again on the next play, and the next, and the next.

Finally we decided to head back to the marina.  However, when we got to the top of the hill above the marina there was another little place open. It's wasn't hopping like the domino place but there were a few families hanging out.  Archie said the food was really good and we didn't think the lukewarm stew had quite filled us up so we stopped.  Miss happy (NOT but inside joke) was in the standing serving up the food.  She only had a few items left.  I had grilled chicken, Archie had grilled pork and Tom had grill pork and fries.  It was some of the best grilled chicken I have had.  YUM!  Full tummies, we drove back down to the marina.