Beautiful Barbados

Saturday, August 23 (the day we arrived) was supposed to be a race day but it was rained out.  So, we got lucky this year when the race was postponed to August 30, instead.  We've always known that they had horse racing at the Garrison Savannah but it never had happened while we were here.  So, we decided to go.

I found out very late Friday night that one of my sites had been hacked. I had contacted Tech Support for my hosting company and got nowhere, being the Friday night/Saturday morning of a 3-day weekend.  So, Tom called them before we went.  At $2.00 a minute, I didn't want to stay on the line while they restored a database so I trusted them to do this and we left for the races.

We got to the Garrison Savannah in plenty of time and parked about 1/3 of the way around the oval, trying for a place in the "shade".  HA.

The Garrison area, just south of Bridgetown, is also home to the Barbados Museum & Historical Society as well as the newly opened George Washington House and Museum.  We have been to the Barbados Museum a few times but not (yet) this year.  It's set on the grounds of a 19th century military prison and has several galleries such as:

• Amerindian Culture
• Barbadian social and military history
• Antique maps, prints and paintings
• New African Gallery
• Interactive children's gallery
• Natural history
• A research library of Barbadian and Caribbean history
• and, of course, a gift store

The George Washington House and Museum is just opened this year so we haven't been there yet.  Neither that nor the Barbados Museum was open on race day.  We did walk past both on the way to  the grandstand for the race. 

I was amazed that we could get in so cheaply - it was only $10BDS each ($1BDS equals $1.98US) and $5BDS for the program.  $12.50 US for both of us.

I have never been to any kind of race so this was all new to me.  We were very close to the track and we sat by the finish line.  There was a grass track and an inner sand track.  We had been told that the sand track was used sometimes but it wasn't while we were there.

We were kind of confused at first because they were describing a race but no one was running.  It turned out that they were broadcasting another race from Sarasota in between the individual races here.

There were 10 races in all and we stayed for 4.  In the second, I picked a horse that I liked while it was walking around the track before the race.  When I found out it had a musical name - Bold Ballard - I was hooked.  Too bad I didn't bet.  Bold Ballard, number 8, won.

 

 

The 4th race was all horses from the US and UK.  I chose one from Ocala, FL because I thought that one could best deal with the heat.  Guess which won?  The jockey was 19 year old Chris Husbands.  He'd just won something like 4 out of 5 races in Trinidad in July.  And he did very well on Saturday.

After the 4th race we decided to leave and walk the other 2/3 of the way around the track (well, going that way was Tom's idea).  He kept looking back, thinking we could catch one more race.  I was hot and wanted to get something to eat.

While we were walking, they move the start gate halfway around the track.  When we got there, the horses were right in front of us.  Tom got a great picture of Chris Husbands.  He said he was having a "good day".  Guess so - he won that race, too!

Finally, back to our car and off to Bubba's for lunch.  Not my favorite but it's a sports bar with big screen TVs and American-style burgers and fries. The food is good but it's just a little too much USA and not enough Barbados.

Then back home for a dip in the pool, a bit of reading and a nap.

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Sunday mornings Tom always has a meeting here and today was no different.  Actually, Sundays are pretty slow here since the stores, museums and activities are mostly closed. 

The Crane has a nice Gospel Brunch followed by a lunch buffet with steel pan drums.  We used to go the the Brunch but the format has changed.  It used to be a drop in thing up until about 11:30-12:00.  Now it's 2 seatings.  One at 9, one at 10 and we can't make either of those.  We have never been to the lunch buffet.

Someone at the meeting asked Tom to go to another one at night.  It was up in St John parish and we've always gotten lost there.  Luckily, the guy agreed to meet Tom and lead him to the meeting - and back again, since it would be dark.

In the meantime, we talked to MIchael and wished him luck with his upcoming move on Monday and new job starting Tuesday.

The website is not fixed.  In fact, 2 others are now not working.  They had been fine, not hacked, before the database restore.  So, there are 3 with 500 Internal Server Errors.  I guess it's better than having that hacker stuff but I hope these can be restored.  So much work was put into them and I hate to have to redo everything.

Then, Tom went to his meeting...and ran into someone from his childhood hometown.  Small world!  He always seems to run into people he knows, no matter where he is. 

He brought back Chefette roti for dinner.  Yum!