usvi-on-line
STJ Fall 2010 Trip Report - Day 3
STJ Fall 2010 Trip Report - Day 3
Link to Day 1 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18383
Link to Day 2 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18387
I woke up feeling a little "foggy" this morning, a result of the poisoning by rum my wife had, at my insistence, inflicted upon me the previous evening.
Fortunately, the town itself seemed to have suffered no long term ill effects:
After breakfast and coffee our thoughts turned to packing. No - we hadn't been kicked off of the island! The villa we had reserved for the trip wouldn't be available to us until this afternoon, so we were packing ahead of the "move" from the Cruz Bay area to the Fish Bay area. But first, a word about our temporary location that we were getting ready to vacate...
We spent the first two nights of our trip in the Rainbow's End unit at the Battery Hill condos. We had never before stayed in a place so close to Cruz Bay, and we found doing so to be very convenient. As for the unit itself, it's not brand new or luxurious, but it's well maintained, has everything you need, and is a good value. There are only eight full condos and a mini-condo they call a cottage on the property, and it was less than half full while we were there. The pool and the gas grill on property are for community use, but we never encountered anyone else while using either. The place is up near the top of the hill that's just past Gallows Point if you're driving away from town. The Star Villas, Villa Caribe, Villa Bouganvillea, and others are on the same road. We would certainly consider staying there again.
Back to your regularly scheduled report...
Since we had bought some stuff since we got off of the plane we needed a good way to transport said stuff from one abode to another. So we walked down the hill into town (see how convenient that is?) and found a suitable box, walked back up the hill, and packed up all of our stuff, and went to put it in the back of the jeep.
A very nice person had volunteered to let us store our stuff with them so that we didn't have to haul it around with us all day until we could check in at the villa. Which was especially nice because we had arranged to meet captainjay and mrscaptainjay at the ferry and going to a beach with them somewhere. I'm pretty sure that they didn't want to share the back seat with all of our stuff, and I wasn't too crazy about leaving all of our stuff in the back of an essentially unlocked jeep while we frolicked on a beach.
At the annointed time, our friends showed up on the ferry as promised, and we were off to a beach - any beach would do they said. None of us had ever been to Denis (aka Castaway) beach before, so we decided to check it out. We managed walking the trail to Denis and came out of the brush to a gorgeous, rocky, windswept (OK - sandblasted), stretch of white sand and turquoise water puncuated by coral heads. It became apparent rather quickly that this was not going to be a place we'd want to snorkel that day, so we decided that rather than scramble back up the trail right away and find a beach more suitable to snorkeling, that we'd find an activity more suitable to staing on this one. Fortunately, we just happened to have a cooler full of ice cold cans of Presidentes with us, and standing in the water while emptying those ended up being the perfect way to enjoy a couple of hours at Denis beach on that day.
As the cooler got lighter and lighter, we began to realize that it might also have been a good idea to have saved some of that cooler space for some food. We really couldn't think of a better answer to that dilemma than walking back up the trail, getting back in the jeep, and driving back into town - so we did.
Mongoose Junction was a sight for sore eyes, and an empty table in the shade at the Sun Dog cafe was too tempting to pass up! We all found things on the menu to our liking that we ordered, and after some of that famous island time service (maybe the tiny kitchen there was a factor as well) we were chowing down on some very welcome sustenance.
Since it was now past time that we were supposed to be able to check into our villa (not to mention close to or past kickoff time for the Gators-Georgia football game) we dropped our guests off - they were meeting up with the crew we'd met at the ferry yesterday, as well as Jorge and Barb, whose ferry was due to arrive later, for some villa time before we all reconoiterred later at the Beach Bar.
We picked up our stuff, and called the villa management company...
VMC: Hello?
Me: It's me, we're ready to go to our villa now, where should we meet you?
VMC: Aren't you on St. Thomas?
Me: No, I'm near the ferry dock.
VMC: Aren't you on the car barge?
Me: No, I was on the car barge Thursday, but now I'm right by the ferry dock. The one for people. In Cruz Bay.
VMC: Hmmm...we expected you to be coming over on the car barge from St. Thomas today.
Me: OK - where and when can I meet you so that you can lead us to our villa?
VMC: <sigh> OK, where are you?
Me: In Cruz Bay, by the Wharfside complex.
VMC: Hmmm...do you know where the Lumberyard Complex is?
Me: Yes.
VMC: Good, that's where our office is.
Me: Do you want me to meet you there.
VMC: No, I'll meet you where you are.
Me: It's kind of crowded and crazy here right now. You're taking us to the villa by way of Jacob's Ladder, right?
VMC: Where?
Me: We're going up the road that runs in front of the Westin on the way to the villa, right?
VMC: Of course.
Me: Then why don't we meet you in the parking lot at The Marketplace, you know, where Starfish is?
VMC: <sigh> OK, I'll see you there in five minutes...
OK - I've seen this movie before. Leslie and I set the over/under for her arrival at the Marketplace for 15 minutes. I should have taken the over...
So we follow our "greeter" out to Fish Bay. She is very protective of the shocks, brakes, and apparently everything else about her Suzuki - any bump, hump, stump,or jump causes her to slow down from her 5mph cruising speed. OK - we really didn't want to see the first half of the game anyway. we're thinking this villa is a LOOOONG way out from town, and are scoffing at the "10-15 minutes from Cruz Bay" claim on the web site.
Eventually we turn off of Marina Drive onto a half mile stretch of dirt road that reminds me of the flat portions of the road to Lameshure...and we thought she was driving slowly before! Right after we hit pavement again she passes a driveway and puts her turn signal on. We take that as a sign that we should turn into the driveway and must be correct because she then backs up and pulls in behind us.
Muttering under her breath, she produces a key and opens the front door to the top level of the villa which contains the great room, kitchen, a full bath with shower(?), and a closet with a washer/dryer stack. When she closes the door behind her it doesn't latch and opens. She looks in disbelief and repeats that action several times, with (shockingly) the same result each time.
Finally it was determined that the door would stay closed if you used the deadbolt - not a perfect scenario, but I was ready to move on. She began showing us the features of the place, in real time as she figured them out (hey - this light switch controls that light!). Then Jim arrived. Apparently Jim, who lives out in Fish Bay, had just come over on the car barge and (surprise!) the guests that he expected to see and to escort out to their villa weren't on it (really? - you don't say!).
At least Jim seemed competent. He showed us the TV and the DISH network reciever and was about to tell us how to use the remote for it when I let him know that we have DISH Network at home and that he could move on. Then he told us about all of the wonderful channels we had at our disposal, only none of the networks since "there's a law that says if they're available over the air, you have to receive them that way". I guess our TVs at home, as well as those of the last two villas we stayed at in Coral Bay are all in violation. No matter - we were sunk - the game we wanted to watch - the only game we wanted to watch this entire trip, was on CBS. OK - we'll watch ESPN and get scoring updates.
But when we turned on the receiver, we get a screen that says that the signal is being acquired and to wait. That's the standard screen you see after a receiver reboot, and usually you see some progress after a couple of minutes, but I suppose this receiver was on island time. Devil's Island. No dice. No problem, who goes on vacation to watch TV anyway.
Then we got to watch the original greeter show the non-latching door trick to Jim. After a few dozen repetitions he cut her off and promised to come back the next day to shim it into submission. Are these people EVER going to leave? Finally, they did. We put our stuff (remember our stuff?) away, and poured a drink. This was more like it. And the view of the sun setting over Ditleff Point wasn't too bad either.
In a couple of hours we'd head to the Beach Bar for the Halloween party. What to do until then? Does the internet work? Check. Don't some sports web sites update the college football scores? Check. Hey - here's something called "gamecast" that gives you live graphical updates - almost like watching the game, right? Have you ever "watched" a game using this method? No? here's a word of advice for you.
Don't.
The "live updates" made our greeter look like Usain Bolt (world champion sprinter for those of you that aren't sports fans). It was excruciating. All the more so because when we first checked, "our team" had a two touchdown lead. After the other team came back and tied the score, the teams kept taking turns scoring touchdowns until the game went to overtime. The Gators ended up winning in an improbable fashion, but we were just glad it had ended so we could get down to serious island business - finally!
It was time to head down to the Beach Bar for their Halloween costume contest/party that, for some reason, was being held on Saturday, 10/30 - a day early. Speaking of early, we obviously didn't get the memo that this was a late starter because the place was next to empty when we arrived. We grabbed a table and some chairs on the beach because we figured we might want to have that safe haven available once the bar area got crowded and crazy.
Crazy wasn't limited to the bar area. A woman dressed as a viking (sort of) asked if she could join us at the table. When we told her we were waiting for friends to join us, she either considered herself a friend of ours, didn't hear/understand what we'd said, or was only asking the question rhetorically, because she sat right down. The conversation, er, monologue, that ensued was fractured, random, and entertaining (at least for a little while). Predictably, by the time the costume judging rolled around she was (even more) incoherent, and pieces of her costume were strewn around various corners of the Beach Bar since she had generously shared them with a number of participants in her party, both willing and unwilling!
As it got later the crowd grew, as did the revelry, and it turned out to be a fun outing. Several forumites showed up, some in costume (among them mrsB as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz), some not so much (I was among this group). We didn't stay real late, in part because of the long, long drive out to our villa in Fish Bay (which, it turned out wasn't nearly so long when we weren't having to follow cheerful greeter lady to get there).
Another great St. John day in the books...
Link to Day 2 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18387
I woke up feeling a little "foggy" this morning, a result of the poisoning by rum my wife had, at my insistence, inflicted upon me the previous evening.
Fortunately, the town itself seemed to have suffered no long term ill effects:
After breakfast and coffee our thoughts turned to packing. No - we hadn't been kicked off of the island! The villa we had reserved for the trip wouldn't be available to us until this afternoon, so we were packing ahead of the "move" from the Cruz Bay area to the Fish Bay area. But first, a word about our temporary location that we were getting ready to vacate...
We spent the first two nights of our trip in the Rainbow's End unit at the Battery Hill condos. We had never before stayed in a place so close to Cruz Bay, and we found doing so to be very convenient. As for the unit itself, it's not brand new or luxurious, but it's well maintained, has everything you need, and is a good value. There are only eight full condos and a mini-condo they call a cottage on the property, and it was less than half full while we were there. The pool and the gas grill on property are for community use, but we never encountered anyone else while using either. The place is up near the top of the hill that's just past Gallows Point if you're driving away from town. The Star Villas, Villa Caribe, Villa Bouganvillea, and others are on the same road. We would certainly consider staying there again.
Back to your regularly scheduled report...
Since we had bought some stuff since we got off of the plane we needed a good way to transport said stuff from one abode to another. So we walked down the hill into town (see how convenient that is?) and found a suitable box, walked back up the hill, and packed up all of our stuff, and went to put it in the back of the jeep.
A very nice person had volunteered to let us store our stuff with them so that we didn't have to haul it around with us all day until we could check in at the villa. Which was especially nice because we had arranged to meet captainjay and mrscaptainjay at the ferry and going to a beach with them somewhere. I'm pretty sure that they didn't want to share the back seat with all of our stuff, and I wasn't too crazy about leaving all of our stuff in the back of an essentially unlocked jeep while we frolicked on a beach.
At the annointed time, our friends showed up on the ferry as promised, and we were off to a beach - any beach would do they said. None of us had ever been to Denis (aka Castaway) beach before, so we decided to check it out. We managed walking the trail to Denis and came out of the brush to a gorgeous, rocky, windswept (OK - sandblasted), stretch of white sand and turquoise water puncuated by coral heads. It became apparent rather quickly that this was not going to be a place we'd want to snorkel that day, so we decided that rather than scramble back up the trail right away and find a beach more suitable to snorkeling, that we'd find an activity more suitable to staing on this one. Fortunately, we just happened to have a cooler full of ice cold cans of Presidentes with us, and standing in the water while emptying those ended up being the perfect way to enjoy a couple of hours at Denis beach on that day.
As the cooler got lighter and lighter, we began to realize that it might also have been a good idea to have saved some of that cooler space for some food. We really couldn't think of a better answer to that dilemma than walking back up the trail, getting back in the jeep, and driving back into town - so we did.
Mongoose Junction was a sight for sore eyes, and an empty table in the shade at the Sun Dog cafe was too tempting to pass up! We all found things on the menu to our liking that we ordered, and after some of that famous island time service (maybe the tiny kitchen there was a factor as well) we were chowing down on some very welcome sustenance.
Since it was now past time that we were supposed to be able to check into our villa (not to mention close to or past kickoff time for the Gators-Georgia football game) we dropped our guests off - they were meeting up with the crew we'd met at the ferry yesterday, as well as Jorge and Barb, whose ferry was due to arrive later, for some villa time before we all reconoiterred later at the Beach Bar.
We picked up our stuff, and called the villa management company...
VMC: Hello?
Me: It's me, we're ready to go to our villa now, where should we meet you?
VMC: Aren't you on St. Thomas?
Me: No, I'm near the ferry dock.
VMC: Aren't you on the car barge?
Me: No, I was on the car barge Thursday, but now I'm right by the ferry dock. The one for people. In Cruz Bay.
VMC: Hmmm...we expected you to be coming over on the car barge from St. Thomas today.
Me: OK - where and when can I meet you so that you can lead us to our villa?
VMC: <sigh> OK, where are you?
Me: In Cruz Bay, by the Wharfside complex.
VMC: Hmmm...do you know where the Lumberyard Complex is?
Me: Yes.
VMC: Good, that's where our office is.
Me: Do you want me to meet you there.
VMC: No, I'll meet you where you are.
Me: It's kind of crowded and crazy here right now. You're taking us to the villa by way of Jacob's Ladder, right?
VMC: Where?
Me: We're going up the road that runs in front of the Westin on the way to the villa, right?
VMC: Of course.
Me: Then why don't we meet you in the parking lot at The Marketplace, you know, where Starfish is?
VMC: <sigh> OK, I'll see you there in five minutes...
OK - I've seen this movie before. Leslie and I set the over/under for her arrival at the Marketplace for 15 minutes. I should have taken the over...
So we follow our "greeter" out to Fish Bay. She is very protective of the shocks, brakes, and apparently everything else about her Suzuki - any bump, hump, stump,or jump causes her to slow down from her 5mph cruising speed. OK - we really didn't want to see the first half of the game anyway. we're thinking this villa is a LOOOONG way out from town, and are scoffing at the "10-15 minutes from Cruz Bay" claim on the web site.
Eventually we turn off of Marina Drive onto a half mile stretch of dirt road that reminds me of the flat portions of the road to Lameshure...and we thought she was driving slowly before! Right after we hit pavement again she passes a driveway and puts her turn signal on. We take that as a sign that we should turn into the driveway and must be correct because she then backs up and pulls in behind us.
Muttering under her breath, she produces a key and opens the front door to the top level of the villa which contains the great room, kitchen, a full bath with shower(?), and a closet with a washer/dryer stack. When she closes the door behind her it doesn't latch and opens. She looks in disbelief and repeats that action several times, with (shockingly) the same result each time.
Finally it was determined that the door would stay closed if you used the deadbolt - not a perfect scenario, but I was ready to move on. She began showing us the features of the place, in real time as she figured them out (hey - this light switch controls that light!). Then Jim arrived. Apparently Jim, who lives out in Fish Bay, had just come over on the car barge and (surprise!) the guests that he expected to see and to escort out to their villa weren't on it (really? - you don't say!).
At least Jim seemed competent. He showed us the TV and the DISH network reciever and was about to tell us how to use the remote for it when I let him know that we have DISH Network at home and that he could move on. Then he told us about all of the wonderful channels we had at our disposal, only none of the networks since "there's a law that says if they're available over the air, you have to receive them that way". I guess our TVs at home, as well as those of the last two villas we stayed at in Coral Bay are all in violation. No matter - we were sunk - the game we wanted to watch - the only game we wanted to watch this entire trip, was on CBS. OK - we'll watch ESPN and get scoring updates.
But when we turned on the receiver, we get a screen that says that the signal is being acquired and to wait. That's the standard screen you see after a receiver reboot, and usually you see some progress after a couple of minutes, but I suppose this receiver was on island time. Devil's Island. No dice. No problem, who goes on vacation to watch TV anyway.
Then we got to watch the original greeter show the non-latching door trick to Jim. After a few dozen repetitions he cut her off and promised to come back the next day to shim it into submission. Are these people EVER going to leave? Finally, they did. We put our stuff (remember our stuff?) away, and poured a drink. This was more like it. And the view of the sun setting over Ditleff Point wasn't too bad either.
In a couple of hours we'd head to the Beach Bar for the Halloween party. What to do until then? Does the internet work? Check. Don't some sports web sites update the college football scores? Check. Hey - here's something called "gamecast" that gives you live graphical updates - almost like watching the game, right? Have you ever "watched" a game using this method? No? here's a word of advice for you.
Don't.
The "live updates" made our greeter look like Usain Bolt (world champion sprinter for those of you that aren't sports fans). It was excruciating. All the more so because when we first checked, "our team" had a two touchdown lead. After the other team came back and tied the score, the teams kept taking turns scoring touchdowns until the game went to overtime. The Gators ended up winning in an improbable fashion, but we were just glad it had ended so we could get down to serious island business - finally!
It was time to head down to the Beach Bar for their Halloween costume contest/party that, for some reason, was being held on Saturday, 10/30 - a day early. Speaking of early, we obviously didn't get the memo that this was a late starter because the place was next to empty when we arrived. We grabbed a table and some chairs on the beach because we figured we might want to have that safe haven available once the bar area got crowded and crazy.
Crazy wasn't limited to the bar area. A woman dressed as a viking (sort of) asked if she could join us at the table. When we told her we were waiting for friends to join us, she either considered herself a friend of ours, didn't hear/understand what we'd said, or was only asking the question rhetorically, because she sat right down. The conversation, er, monologue, that ensued was fractured, random, and entertaining (at least for a little while). Predictably, by the time the costume judging rolled around she was (even more) incoherent, and pieces of her costume were strewn around various corners of the Beach Bar since she had generously shared them with a number of participants in her party, both willing and unwilling!
As it got later the crowd grew, as did the revelry, and it turned out to be a fun outing. Several forumites showed up, some in costume (among them mrsB as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz), some not so much (I was among this group). We didn't stay real late, in part because of the long, long drive out to our villa in Fish Bay (which, it turned out wasn't nearly so long when we weren't having to follow cheerful greeter lady to get there).
Another great St. John day in the books...
Come see us!
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northerngal
- Posts: 420
- Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:32 pm
- Location: Michigan
Post Subject
Augie, I always enjoy your TRs. You aught to put them all together and write a little book about the island. I'll buy the first one 
Friends, they go away then they re-appear...I believe there is Magic here.
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msgcolleen
- Posts: 1497
- Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:33 am
- Location: Allen, Texas
Just now sitting down to enjoy your trip report Augie! Lovin' your writing style and just picturing myself along there with you guys! Luv your costume Leslie! Any pics of Jorge? 
I've got 2 tickets to paradise~Pack your bags we'll leave tonight!
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