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Obsessedmuch's way too ridculously long trip report...
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obsessedmuch
Obsessedmuch's way too ridculously long trip report...
(No, I am not trying to break Vicki's (or anyone else's) record for a long report, I just have to get it all out, the trip was just that wonderful! Thanks for putting up with me and I will be not at all offended if you give up by day two.)
Okay, so this is going to be quite the my gosh why is she blabbering on like this? trip report but nonetheless, here we go.
There's some pretty common themes in my trip. Mostly, I was always up early, I had to stop and pet every single cat, dog and goat that would let me, and I talked to just about everyone I made eye contact with. It was all pretty awesome, even if it sounds insane.
First things first, in the weeks leading up to this trip things were pretty rough. The death of a close family member, the splitting of a couple very close to me and a lot of major every-day work "stuff" all happened in the three weeks prior to the day I left for St. John. To say I was ready on May 23rd would have been the understatement of the year.
Also, I gotta say, a girl has got to be pretty determined to get from land-locked Colorado to the islands. Every time I told someone of the four (yes, four) connections I had to make to get from here to there, they groaned in sympathy. But we all know that I'm obsessed, so four connections = no problem. Also, I am cheaper than some and a $600 ticket seemed better than $900 (at the time). I was saving for Painkillers, I told myself.
Anyway, I left Colorado at 7:00 in the evening on May 23rd and arrived in STT at 2:15 p.m. on the 24th.
It was raining and 45 degrees F when I left Colorado, so I was pretty much motivated with just that.
All you guys and all my research made me feel like such a pro. Once I stepped off that plane and into that humid air (I guess living in a dry climate helps me appreciate it) I was feeling fine. I packed carry-on only so I was outside at a taxi in just minutes. It was 2:30 and I asked the driver if I had time to make the Downtown ferry and he grabbed my bag, stuffed me in a van with forty-seven other people and we were off. Getting on that ferry was a wonderful feeling- knowing I'd been on it before but this time with so much more of a reason was so great. There was a guy sitting in front of me reading a book and I wanted to ask him what his problem was. Reading a book when there were islands to see- geez! The ferry left CA a couple minutes before 3:00 and we were in Cruz Bay by 3:30. They must have known I was excited.
There was some sort of problem at the dock, so the ferry actually pulled into the National Park side. No webcam for me. Luckily the villa rep that Windspree sent was aware of it and met me over there. From there we went to pick up my car for the week.
A little number I like to call The Silver Bullet.
Oh yeah, 2-door Suzuki and I got through the entire week just fine, even when I got stuck in the mud and had to use 4WD.
Anyway, I followed the rep out to Coral Bay on what I came to found out was my "Centerline Initiation." It was 4:00, I was following a local East when about every work truck on St John was going West. You do the math.
I was also distracted by all the cute babies everywhere. Baby goats, baby pigs, baby chickens. My gosh, cuteness. Driving on the left feels very normal to me- I would later be told this was a "sign" but we'll get to that.
The place I stayed isn't really a villa but we'll call it that anyway. It was the Crow's Nest in Coral Bay. It's in the building right across from Skinny's (oh, darn) and just up from the Fire Department (super nice people there).
Crow's Nest has AC, sleeps 3 (though they say four but I don't agree) and is like a little apartment and is REALLY clean, which is major bonus points in my book. It has everything you need and this being my "young, single gal trip" it was sort of cool to have my little apartment up there where I'd wave to my "neighbors" every day and hear the same rooster crowing at 5:00 every morning and until about 7:00 every night.
That night I drove to Lily's and was creeped out by the guys working there but did that stop me from going in about four more times on the trip? Oh no, I like convenient. I didn't get free gum, either. Ha ha.
DAY TWO
I was up at o'dark thirty. Seeing this sunrise for the first time was about all I could ever need. I could physically feel myself decompressing, I think.
I'd planned on going to Trunk thanks to a good tip from Vicki so at about 6:30 I headed out. I know, it's early but I was rested and ready. I tried to be all hey, look at me I ain't scared and take North Shore road but there was a tree down in the middle of the road so I had to turn around and go back. Here's where I get really funny. As I was turning around this couple drives up behind me and I tell them "hey, there's a tree blocking the road down there, you can't get through." They say they don't know any other way to go so I get all up on my high-fallutin- I've-driven-Centerline-once-in-my-entire-life horse and say "follow me, I'll show you the other way." Ha, funny, I know. But, wouldn't you know it, I took them right to Cruz Bay, right to 20 and off we were. When I waved them past me they asked if I lived there- I told them no though I should have said yes because if the giant "St. John Car Rental" tire cover didn't give it away, I don't know what would have.
I stopped at Hawksnest on my way because it was so early. It was so peaceful there, and watching the sun hit the water in the morning was so beautiful.
I stayed there and hung out for quite a while. Not sure how long.
I got over to Trunk Bay before just about anyone else, I think. The rangers just waved to me as I walked in as it was too early to pay admission. It is just so beautiful at Trunk Bay. The water was more clear and beautiful than I even remembered. I picked a spot under a tree to the far right and just sat there, staring out at the water. I just couldn't get over how easy all of this was. Anything I was worried about was just gone. It was so natural. Years ago, I had a high school teacher that would always say "Don't Panic." Ever since then, I've tried to embrace that statement and that Friday morning, sitting in the sand on Trunk Bay I was like yes, finally I'm some place that really gets that. Don't Panic.
Doesn't everyone have to take this pic?
I spent a couple hours swimming and reading (finished the book The Year of Magical Thinking that morning- oh my, if you haven't already, READ IT. Good stuff.) and taking pictures. I walked down the beach to take more pictures and lo and behold, who is it but our cute Vicki taking pictures of her own. She's right, it was like meeting up with an old friend. Very fun. She and her family were kind enough to let me snorkel with them and it was pretty good. You read about the fry fish "wall" in her report so I won't go into that but yeah, it was a little freaky. Who knows what's hiding amongst them!
Her family did invite me to have lunch with them but I didn't want to impose. I'm sure the whole meeting people off the internet thing was odd enough, and I didn't want to over step. I was just thankful to have people to snorkel with. After lunch I chatted with Vicki and her group a little more and then headed out.
I went into Cruz Bay, found parking (beginner's luck, right?) and walked around. I bought some jewelry and then walked up and met Ruth and Ron for the first time. They were so nice as I walked in, looked at Ron and said "ummmm, are you Ron? I'm 'obsessedmuch.'" Boy, did I feel like the biggest dork ever.
After that I decided to go over to the Beach Bar and have my first Painkiller of the trip. It did not disappoint.
Neither did Tigger.
I'd walked over to the National Park ferry dock to see about the ferry schedule and the Wishweweretheres called me to meet up. My second forumite meeting of the trip and oh darn, we had to go sit at a bar on the beach and have a drink again. What a hassle.
After leaving Cruz Bay, I headed back to the Crow's Nest, walked over to Skinny's, saddled up to the bar (ha, like I actually know how to do that) and ordered a beer and dinner. I had the mahi, it was good. Funny people you meet at the bar.
Within about fifteen minutes I'd made friends with the bartender, (I'm sure many of you know who I mean) and his friend, who, as best as I can understand, lives in a room he built under his parent's deck. He spent a good while telling me why this was the "best deal life could ever give you" and why I should seriously quit the office job and "get out while I could." This is where the "signs that you should move to the island" came in, when I told them driving on the left felt normal to me. I am pretty sure he is correct about this in many, many ways. Had I stayed longer, I probably could have convinced myself of that. Also, imagine all this advice in a straight-out-of-central-casting South Boston accent. It was quite hilarious. They invited me to go sailing with them but the days, they just went by too quickly. Maybe next time. I left and went to the villa to go to bed, which I was more than ready for.
DAY THREE
Day three was really, really great. I was up early and decided to go for a run. I am a runner, so this is pretty normal for me, though those hills were challenging. I ran about 20 minutes East out of Coral Bay and then headed back. It was nice, though the chickens, donkeys and goats are not exactly keen on sharing the road at 6:00 a.m.
I'd decided to catch the ferry to Jost that day. I showed up at the ferry "office" at 8:00, waited for them to open and bought my ticket along with about 50 other people. While waiting I met a nice couple (some of you met them at the Beach Bar on the 27th) who I'd end up spending most of the day with.
We stopped at customs where I, stupidly, would leave my departing customs form on the ferry. The ferry had moved up the dock and past the locked door so imagine me, hanging on to the crumbling brick wall on Her Majesty's Customs ferry dock, yelling around to the ferry captain to "please help me get the green bag off the ferry, I needed my form and I left it in the bag" as 50 other people try to shove past me and get through customs like it's a race. At this point I have no idea whether he a) heard me or b) understood what I needed so I'm just standing, looking all forlorn with my passport and ONE customs from on the wrong side of the locked door when, out of the corner of my eye, I see a white piece of paper being slid through the crack in the door. It is my customs form. The ferry captain had gone onto the ferry, found my bag at my seat, gone through it (hello, spare underwear!) and found my form. I tipped him when I got off the boat, don't worry.
So, after I was rushed through customs by an officer- which made me feel half celebrity/ half dumbass- we were off to Jost.
My new friends and I decided to go over to White Bay first and though he tried to play it off, the husband of this couple really couldn't hide how excited he was that his wife had someone to go through the shops with while he did his own thing. I knew this mostly because he said it about ten times before we even hit the beach. They were super cute people!
We decided, I guess just so as not to appear obsessed about getting to Soggy Dollar, that we'd shop a little first. I didn't find anything but who am I kidding, I wasn't really looking. Soon we ended up at Soggy Dollar where the bartender there was mixing some super spicy bloody marys that would have killed me if I had to drink a whole one. I ordered a painkiller- Breakfast of Champions.
Everything was so light and easy, it was like I'd been sucked into some kind of Live Slow vortex. Maybe I was still coming down off my rough prior weeks but wow, there are worse ways to spend Day Three, I'll tell you that much.
I told you, I love the puppies.
While we could still walk straight in our flip flops, we headed over the little hill on the beach to Ivan's. There were just a few people hanging out and, I kid you not, a girl giving a bath to a kitten. She'd later try to give us the kitten, but lucky for us that day, he ran away and hid some place. I decided to walk around and take some pictures and just as I was taking one of a door frame, who should walk through it but Ivan. I just chatted with him for a while and I'm sure he's like that with everyone but it was a really good chat.
Soon it was picture time again and Ivan, funny guy, kept telling jokes while I was trying to be "serious" for the camera. Again, I'm sure he does this to many people. So much for my "seriousness."
Too soon, though, we said goodbye and headed back to Great Harbour and went to Foxy's. Now, this might have just been the drinks and the heat and all the stress leaving me but this was one of the best meals of my trip. Grouper sandwich.
Amazingly good.
I'd gotten up to take some pictures and when I came back around to the table, I looked over and my new friends were up dancing. It was so cute. I know this isn't really trip report-like but how great is it that people not only still like each other after 20 years of marriage, can go on trips to St. John together, "adopt" a girl for the day and let her join them on Jost Van Dyke and just sporadically get up and dance to Reggae at Foxy's on a Saturday afternoon. It was really just a very cute thing to see.
After lunch and, ahem!, more drinks we went over and did some shopping while buzzed (*I now know this has been named Drunk Shopping- thanks Vicki!). It was most definitely hilarious as I tried to put on a $78 sundress over my clothes. What? I saw another girl doing the same thing. No big deal, right?
Alright, so after that we had to head back to the ferry dock and go back to St. John!
My friends invited me to go with them to Woody's and I'm glad I did as I probably wouldn't have gone alone, especially on a Saturday evening. It was a little busy but we got a table outside. It was funny to watch all the "kids" out there seeing and waiting to be seen.
I ordered the blackened shrimp which I ate too fast to take a picture of but they were very good. Here are the shark bites, which are also very good.
When we were finished I headed back over to Coral Bay, went into "my" apartment and soon after, went to bed. What a day!
DAY FOUR
This was the day I was meeting the Wishwewerethere's to hike the Reef Bay trail. We'd agreed to meet at 7:00 a.m. so when I awoke at 6:26 (where was my rooster then, I wonder?) I had to rush to get ready. Luckily, hiking on St. John. doesn't require much (as you all know) so I was at the trail head right at 7:00. Wishweweretheres were right behind me and so we started our trek. It was relatively cool at that time and the trek down was a nice walk.
We stopped off at the petroglyphs- pretty cool.
We made it down to the ruins and soon to Reef Bay. It would have been cool to take a swim down there but hiking back up in a wet bathing suit does not sound super fun to me. Also, I'd heard all kinds of rumors that there are often a lot of sharks at that beach. The trek back up was no too bad, really. Again, it was early and I think that helps. Also, we had plenty of water and stopped to look at things along the way.
All in all, the trip took about 3 hours. I'd do the hike again, but only early.
After leaving, I headed back to "my" apartment. It was still early enough and I was hungry so I quickly showered, and headed over to Miss Lucy's for brunch. I'd just walked up, looking for a table and planning to eat on my own but who should show up? My Jost Van Dyke friends from the day before. They invited me to join them, nice people, and then we discovered we'd both planned to go over to Salt Pond after brunch.
But first, brunch pics
Mimosa, banana pancakes and lobster cake eggs benedict.
What a place for brunch!
I didn't want to impose on my friends more, so I told them I was going to walk over to Drunk Bay first. Well, the wife of the couple decided to come with me because she knew her husband would want to wander around and spend all kinds of time over there where as she and I would just spend a few minutes taking pictures. I'm glad this is how it worked out because I was just a little creeped out being over there. The waves really crash hard and all the "sculptures" surrounding you just felt a little weird. Some of them are funny, but still, weird vibe or something. Probably just me and my chicken-ness.
Salt Pond
Drunk Bay
After we'd had enough of Creepy Bay, we came back to Salt Pond and just floated there for a while. It was great just to sit there, float around and watch the boats and the waves. I did a lot of thinking in that water, it was really nice. I didn't snorkel that day, but from what I hear, there wasn't much to see that day. Maybe just bad timing as I know people have had good snorkeling at Salt Pond Bay.
I guess it was around 2:00 when I decided to leave and head back to get ready for the forumite gathering at the Beach Bar.
I parked in the St. John Car Rental lot (SO convenient) and then did some shopping before the gathering. When I arrived I saw Vicki and her crew first and later, all kinds of folks showed up. Ruth and Ron, liamsaunt and her hub, Rob and Cindi, Jan and Mike with their family, Paul and Lori, Randy and Marcia and my JVD friends, too! It was so hilarious as suddenly, the group got very quiet because off in the distance, up the hill we saw this forum t-shirt marching toward us. It was Randy and we saw him coming a mile away thanks to that shirt. Too funny.
This brings me to a frustrating point. I thought I was all brilliant bringing my iPod and buying a camera connector for it so I could store some photos. All of my Beach Bar photos along with some others are now stranded on my iPod- if anyone has any tips on how to get them off there and onto my PC, please let me know. I will buy your next five painkillers if you can help!
Vicki's pics are, of course, fantastic though so you get the gist of the Beach Bar forum meeting from there.
I also hadn't eaten since Miss Lucy's that morning so I had the tuna. It was goooood.
Meeting up at the Beach Bar was pretty cool. Who knew I could meet all these nice people in a place where there was once only strangers.
I went back to Coral Bay (driving Centerline in the dark was interesting), recorded the busy day in my journal, talked to my mom on the phone for a while and reassured her that I was, in fact, alive and then went to bed.
DAY FIVE
I was up early and decided to go for a run. I was out for about five minutes when it started raining. About three more minutes and it was a downpour. I decided to head back and see if the storm would pass. I ended up watching the storm for about an hour on the deck.
I talked to Vicki and we decided to head over to Waterlemon as it was sunnier on that side. By the time we got there, it was raining again so we said we'd try again later. On my way back, I stopped up at Randy and Marcia's place, Reef Madness. This is really going to be one cool house, people.
That view is just awful...
But hey, they have a roof!
They were really so nice and so patient showing me around, it was really a cool thing to see. And I take a lot of pride in the fact that I'm one of the first to have climbed the "stair tower" from level one to level two. Very cool.
I returned to the Crow's Nest and found that I was locked out. There is a gate that leads into the deck on the Crow's Nest side of the building and apparently, the handle had jammed. Well, I sat for a while, wondering what to do. I tried with all my might, which isn't much but I'm no wuss, either. I just couldn't get into that gate. I had to break down and call Windspree who, because it was Memorial Day, were obviously not in the office. I left a voicemail and tried to keep thinking of what to do. Just then, a guy pulled into the driveway below and he just happened to have a lot of tools in his truck. What the heck, I thought, and I yelled down to ask him if he could help me. I know he could have been a creepo ax-murderer but at this point, I was having visions of having to spend the rest of the day and the night on the deck with only my one bottle of Deep Woods OFF to protect me. He helped me get into the gate by unjamming the handle and thankfully, I was in. I offered to buy him lunch or a drink or something but he declined and said that he was there anyway so it was no big deal. So here's a big thanks to the random maintenance guy on St. John! the rental people called me the next day to ask if I'd gotten in. Ummm, okay.
As soon as I walked through the door, the phone was ringing. It was Vicki and they were ready to try to go to Waterlemon again. I drove over and saw her and her husband up at the Annaberg ruins. It really was so pretty up there.
We headed over to Waterlemon, donned the snorkeling gear and went out into the water. This was really so beautiful. I've never seen so many starfish in one place! I sort of went around faster than the group and ended up on the shore before everyone else. I'd found one of those disposable underwater camera at the house so I brought it- we'll see if I can get any good pics off it once they're developed.
I sat on the shore and, big surprise here, took more pictures.
After everyone was in from snorkeling, I said goodbye to Vicki and her crew and headed off. I decided to stop at the smoothie stand on Centerline and, lo, it was a good decision. Yum!
Earlier, at Reef Madness, Randy and Marcia had been so kind as to invite me to dinner at their place that evening. I took them up on their offer and on the way back from Waterlemon I ran into Rob and Cindi. This is where I unintentionally did the "local" thing and stopped my car in the middle of the road to talk to them. Weird thing was, I don't think we thought twice about it. Anyway, they were also going to be at Randy and Marcia's for dinner so I said I'd see them later.
Since it is apparently against my genetic code to show up somewhere empty-handed, I stopped a Lily's and bought some appetizer food. Let me just say, a block of cream cheese, some Blind Betty's jalapeno jam on top and some crackers and celery makes a really good accompaniment to Randy's rum drinks. Yum.
It was a fun night and they served us some great burgers. Here's some token food porn. Certainly fitting for a Memorial Day bar-b-que.
This was also the latest I stayed up the entire trip, I think. It was 11:00- WOW. Thanks to Randy and Marcia and Rob and Cindi for a fun time!
DAY SIX
Are you still with me? Gosh, I'm sorry, this is turning into a saga. I cant stop now, though.
This was waterguy's birthday, right? Happy Belated, waterguy!
This was the day I'd scheduled to go out with Captain Doug on Gypsy Spirit. I drove into Cruz Bay early and just by chance, ran into Ron and Ruth. It was just so cool to be walking down the street and run into people you recognize. And they are so nice, who would you rather run into?
I told Ruth I thought I'd go over to JJ's for breakfast and she told me about "Table One." That was pretty cool, saw some interesting characters over there. I had a breakfast burrito but again, no picture as I ate it as if someone were going to take it back in two seconds.
I then headed over to the dock to meet up with Captain Doug and the Wishwewerethere's, who were kind enough to book the same day with me. These people, I tell you, so nice.
It looked like it would be a beautiful day for sailing.
I just love being out on the water, any water, really. There's just something so great about being out there, I can't explain it. I'm so very thankful I'm not prone to seasickness.
It turns out, though, that the winds were just not blowin'. That didn't stop us from a good time, though. Doug promised us some great snorkeling spots and he did not disappoint. We first stopped to snorkel between Congo and Lovango (Love-n-Go - good pirate story there). This was fantastic snorkeling. Honestly, I just fell in love with snorkeling again at this spot. Everything was so bright and beautiful and with the sun shining through the water, you could see forever. It was very nice, though we were in a super strong current and the swim back certainly made us work. After this spot we went over the Henley Cay. This was also very beautiful, even though we saw a shark. Yes, a shark. The Wishwewerethere's were gesturing me to come over and I'm thinking, "hmm, cool, fish or something else pretty." Umm no, shark. Big, giant, two-foot long nurse shark. I saw it, froze for about 3 seconds and then began swimming in the opposite direction.
We didn't see any more sharks and that was fine by me. It was beautiful snorkeling once again, though. Wishwewerethere and I swam up to the beach and walked around a little. I think people bring dinghy's out there and have lunch because there were some picnic tables up off the beach. Other than that, an old cement dock and nothing else. Really quiet with a nice view of the north shore of STJ.
After we got back to the boat, Captain Doug made lunch. It was good and I'm always impressed when people can throw a meal together on a boat. I need to practice that before I get my boat because at this point I'd probably have beer and Pringles.
After lunch we tried to sail some more but the wind just wasn't cooperating. We'd get a little, get all excited and then it would stop. Nothing. Completely still.
I really enjoyed that day. Captain Doug was super nice and you can tell he just knows so much about sailing those waters. I talked to him for a while and he told me he was thinking of coming to Colorado, that the mountains might be calling him again. I guess I understand that, so the only thing I said is "I don't know, Doug, it gets pretty cold up there."
When we got back to Cruz Bay, the Wishweweretheres invited me to dinner with them. We met at Skinny's for a drink, first.
Then we headed over to Aqua Bistro. I had some kind of Mahi ( apparently I'm obsessed much with mahi right now) and it was good. I also had a very good, non-choclate by request, Bushwhacker.
We also saw a dog in a dress. Good thing I have a photo or I'd have to blame this sight on the Bushwhackers.
After dinner we drove a friend of the Wishweweretheres home and let me tell you, I have never heard bugs so loud in my life. It was a good thing I was already sure these were nice people or I would have questioned this "back woods of St. John" road trip. The crickets and those darn other loud things were SO noisy. Just wow.
DAY SEVEN
Alright, I know I kept saying people were nice but only because it's true. People are SO nice. The Wishweweretheres had made plans with their villa owners (who own Luna Vista which is beautiful, has pool and A/C and is very nice and clean!) to rent a power boat and go the the BVI's. They were kind enough to invite me along and being that I'd never been to the Bath's or the Indians or Cooper Island, I was like sure!
I know it sounds like I'm not getting a lot of STJ time at this point but not to worry, it's coming.
This day was so fun and went by too quickly. We "powered" out of Cruz Bay directly into a rain storm that morning. How refreshing. We out ran it I guess and went through Customs at Soaper's. This time one person took all our passports and forms so there was no need for me to be ushered through Her Magesty's Customs. What a relief.
We went to the Bath's first, which was awesome to see. A lot of people there that day.
On the way out we stopped and saw the half-sunken freighter that ran aground sometime late last year. That was a sight.
We went to Cooper Island for lunch. Again, I found an animal that liked me.
We then went to the Indians to snorkel. That was WONDERFUL. Again, some really great snorkeling and the sun decided to come out which made it all even better. There were just so many fish, I couldn't believe it. Everywhere you looked there were just awesome fish.
We headed back toward STJ and stopped at Newfound Bay. It was beautiful and very quiet over there. The group was hoping to find turtles but no luck.
I also talked the Wishweweretheres into bringing some choch-dwelling crabs over to the boat. Don't let the smile and the matted down snorkel hair fool you, I was way scared to lose a finger to that thing.
We made a last stop - somewhere else along the North shore but I just can't remember where it was. Anyway, there were turtles there. I didn't get in the water this time but a few people did and it was cool to watch them swim with these huge turtles. I'm always amazed how fast those little guys can be if they want to go.
At the end of my journal entry for this day I wrote "I owe the Wishwewerethere's SO BIG." Seriously, you guys, I can't say thanks enough for such a fun day. I hated saying goodbye to them.
DAY EIGHT
Another great day, another early day. I was up so I decided to go to Maho to hang out for a bit. It was a beautiful morning and I enjoyed walking up and down the beach all on my own.
I still had some time so I decided to go down to Cinnamon for a while, too. I walked around the campground for a while first. Now, I'm not saying anything bad about this campground as I'm sure people have a great time there and I think even I could enjoy a stay there but if I stumbled out of my tent/hut thing in the morning, walked over to the beach and looked to the left, I might, might wonder why I thought camping was a good idea.
Just saying - obviously I have no experience with neither staying at Cinnamon nor staying on that hill to the left.
I walked over to the beach and hung out there for a while, too. Again, I did a whole lot of thinking here. It's funny how things can seem so easy and possible when you're sitting on an empty beach in the morning.
After that, I headed back to Coral Bay and met Pia and Les and their cute puppies for a hike to Brown Bay. This was a lot of fun and it was good to talk with them. That's also a good hike, not really difficult and leads to a nice bay. It's a good place for puppies to play in the water, as well.
Thanks to Pia and Les for having me along! It was great meeting you!
After the hike I decided it would be a good idea to try to go to Vie's today. I did a few things around Coral Bay (like putting gas in the Silver Bullet and stopping at Connections to send a box of "stuff" home) and then headed out. Vie was there- yay!
And she made conch fritters. Oh my, they were good!
There was also only two other people there so I got some time to talk with Vie. It was really nice talking with her as she's very quiet but really has so much to say about the island and her family's life there. We also got to talking about dogs (you're shocked, I know) because her two huge ones were barking a bit and let me tell you, they are guard dogs for certain!
It was a really nice lunch - I can't wait to get out there again.
After that, I decided to go to Honeymoon. I tried calling Rob and Cindi since we'd talked about all going together but I probably waited too long and they'd already left their villa for the day. (Sorry guys.)
I decided to park at Caneel (thanks for that reminder, Pia!) and skip the hike. Honeymoon was beautiful. I can easily see why people call this their favorite. There was also a group of girls that were doing the "catalog pose" photos on the rocks. This was pretty funny. They'd take a picture, flip their hair the opposite direction and then take another picture. Then they'd complain that the rocks were too sharp to sit on so they couldn't get the pose they wanted. I so thought of Wontongirl and Kellyanna.
I swam a little, snorkeled and sat in the sun. It was so nice and relaxing. I don't know how long I spent there - but I guess that doesn't really matter, does it?
(I don't know where the Honeymoon pics are.)
Though I had no idea how long it would take and it was getting late in the afternoon, I decided to walk over to Solomon. Like most other things I did on this trip, no real reason other than I could.
There were more people at Solomon than I'd expected. None of them, thankfully, nekkid though. Yet another pretty beach. I hung out there for a while, too.
The hike to and from Solomon from Honeymoon isn't bad at all, though flip flops are probably not the wisest of shoes choices.
After I got back to Caneel, I went into Cruz Bay and finally did my shopping trip at St. John Spice. I can't wait till the box arrives!
I also walked around Mongoose Junction, visited with the Wishweweretheres villa owner's niece (did that make any sense?) at I Scream! and picked up a salad from Deli Grotto for dinner. I was tired from all the hiking and beaching and this salad back at "my" apartment for dinner was perfect. It was maple waldorf something and it was GOOD.
DAY NINE
My last full day on the island. I know it sounds in writing like all I did was go go go but honestly, I've never done so little. It was SO relaxing and peaceful. Time alone, though I'm bad about admitting it, has really become important to me and this trip just reassured me of that. Also, doing whatever you want, whenever you want with whomever you want is really relaxing. Takes all the pressure out of every decision when you don't have to worry about anyone else.
Anyway, this was June 1st and the first day of hurricane season. I guess it was fitting that the rain storms started sometime around 2:00 a.m. that morning and didn't stop for a while. I hung out for a while but it was barely sprinkling and to me, a person coming from a place where we have cold rain, going out in some warm sprinkling sounded fun. So I decided to go to Maho and swim. I got there, parked and of course, no one was around. I swam and swam for ever it seemed. In reality, I think it was about an hour and the entire time, even when the rain stopped completely, I was alone out there. I didn't think about that too much or I would have creeped myself out but as I was getting ready to get out of the water, two turtles started swimming by me. One poked his head up out of the water and looked me right in the eye. I just looked right back at him- it was SO cool. I just sort of stood there in the waist-deep water and watched them until they eventually swam away.
I came back to the Crow's Nest, ate some lunch and then took a nap. So exciting, right? Throughout the morning, I thought about going over to Cruz Bay that evening and having dinner somewhere nice. It seemed like a nice way to "celebrate" my last night and plus, I had a skirt I'd packed that I didn't even get to wear- haha!
Around 1:30 the rain had stopped for good so I decided I'd go over to Salt Pond and do the Rams Head hike. All I have to say about this hike is DO IT. It was not really difficult and talk about pay off when you reach the top. It was amazing and again, something so peaceful about being up there, just you and the lizards and the wind. It only took me about 30 minutes to get to the top, and there's a great breeze on most of the hike which was nice because I think the humidity was around 800%. I know it makes some people nervous that I did this hike on my own, but everything was fine and thanks to the weather, the trail was empty.
I took some pictures and then looked around, found my "wish" rock and pitched it over the side and yelled out my wish. Honestly, I felt a little goofy but hey, who am I to question tradition? I guess the legend says that if your rock hits the water without hitting anything else on the way down, your wish will come true. Well, I was NOT going to lean over that cliffside to watch my rock so we'll all just have to wait and see if my wish comes true some day.
This was yet another wonderful experience and I couldn't think of a better thing to do on my last day.
The hike did wear me out a little, though, and on the drive back from Salt Pond I decided the cute skirt would just have to wait to be worn another day and I stopped at Island Blues for dinner. I had some kind of jerked mango mahi (yes, more fish) sandwich and a couple beers and listened to some good jokes from some guys at the bar. They had a particularly funny joke but I'll have to save that for another thread- the length of this is getting ridiculous. I will say, though, that for a couple guys who'd been sitting at a bar all afternoon, their jokes were surprisingly clean.
After leaving, I went and got some ice cream and then headed back to the Crow's Nest. I started packing and the rain and winds started up again.
In the morning, I was up early and had some tea out on the deck. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day and I was definitely sad to leave. I loaded up my luggage into the Silver Bullet and headed out, stopping to chat a minute with my "neighbors" at the fire station. They wished me a safe trip, and told me to come back soon and to next time, come over and visit them more.
I took North Shore road into Cruz bay and stopped again at Deli Grotto for breakfast. I also ordered a sandwich to take with me for the airport. The Pink Cadillac at Deli Grotto is my new best friend, I think.
After breakfast, I went to the gas station to fill up the rental. The price of gas went up from something like 3.89 the day before to 4.16 that morning. I only needed a little more than half a tank but the total was something outrageous like $35 which, ironically, I think is equivalent to the number of pounds I'd gained over the previous ten days.
I returned the car to St. John Car Rental and took myself and my bags down the road. Just as I came around the corner at St. John Spice, Ruth yells down to me "you look so sad." I know I must have looked sad but I didn't think it was so obvious. Everyone must do this, right? Why else would it be called the Walk of Woe I guess.
I got to visit more with Ruth and Ron, ran and did some last minute shopping and stopped to talk to Mr. Slimman over at his parking lot. Wow, what a nice man. We just talked and talked as if it were any ordinary morning. Turns out he has cousins here in my hometown and they go to a church right here in my neighborhood. Moreover, he asked for my number so he could put his cousins in touch with me in case we wanted to "become friends." Those were his words - isn't that incredible? I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like it. It was getting close to 10:00 so I told Mr. Slimman goodbye and he said next time I was down, there would be a limo ride waiting for me. So cute!
I went back to Ruth and Ron's, chatted one last time and then went over to the ferry. The ride to Red Hook was uneventful as was the cab ride to the airport. Again, I was in a van with forty-seven other people but this time I got to sit in the front with the A/C right in my face. The driver also had a few bottles of wine up there- I didn't ask.
I checked in at the airport and almost lost my Deli Grotto Pink Cadillac to the customs agent.
"Can I take this sandwich through?"
"What kind of sandwich is it?"
"Umm, turkey."
"Where did you get it?"
"On St. John."
"From where on St. John?"
"Deli Grotto."
"Ohhhh, I bet it's a good one then."
"Umm, yeah, I think so."
At this point I'm thinking either he's just bored or he really wants my sandwich. So I asked him "Do you want some of it?" (How else was I going to get out of there?)
He looked at me and I kid you not, said "Nah, thanks, I just had a steak."
Okay. So I was speechless but thankfully, I was through customs.
My flight left only 40 minutes late, went from STT to San Juan (didn't have to get off the plane, though) and San Juan to Chicago and then back here to Colorado. Long day in which I spent most the time wondering why I got on the ferry. (They tell me this is also normal.)
Honestly, re-entry has not been easy. I have worn sandals to work two days in a row and more than once had to double check that yes, I was driving on the right side of the road.
Thanks to everyone for all your wonderful advice, encouragement and new friendships. I fear I'll never be able to repay all the kindness extended to me on this trip. I will promise this, though, I will pay it forward AND I will be back.
And, if you've made it through this entire report, your next Painkiller is ON ME!
Okay, so this is going to be quite the my gosh why is she blabbering on like this? trip report but nonetheless, here we go.
There's some pretty common themes in my trip. Mostly, I was always up early, I had to stop and pet every single cat, dog and goat that would let me, and I talked to just about everyone I made eye contact with. It was all pretty awesome, even if it sounds insane.
First things first, in the weeks leading up to this trip things were pretty rough. The death of a close family member, the splitting of a couple very close to me and a lot of major every-day work "stuff" all happened in the three weeks prior to the day I left for St. John. To say I was ready on May 23rd would have been the understatement of the year.
Also, I gotta say, a girl has got to be pretty determined to get from land-locked Colorado to the islands. Every time I told someone of the four (yes, four) connections I had to make to get from here to there, they groaned in sympathy. But we all know that I'm obsessed, so four connections = no problem. Also, I am cheaper than some and a $600 ticket seemed better than $900 (at the time). I was saving for Painkillers, I told myself.
Anyway, I left Colorado at 7:00 in the evening on May 23rd and arrived in STT at 2:15 p.m. on the 24th.
It was raining and 45 degrees F when I left Colorado, so I was pretty much motivated with just that.
All you guys and all my research made me feel like such a pro. Once I stepped off that plane and into that humid air (I guess living in a dry climate helps me appreciate it) I was feeling fine. I packed carry-on only so I was outside at a taxi in just minutes. It was 2:30 and I asked the driver if I had time to make the Downtown ferry and he grabbed my bag, stuffed me in a van with forty-seven other people and we were off. Getting on that ferry was a wonderful feeling- knowing I'd been on it before but this time with so much more of a reason was so great. There was a guy sitting in front of me reading a book and I wanted to ask him what his problem was. Reading a book when there were islands to see- geez! The ferry left CA a couple minutes before 3:00 and we were in Cruz Bay by 3:30. They must have known I was excited.
There was some sort of problem at the dock, so the ferry actually pulled into the National Park side. No webcam for me. Luckily the villa rep that Windspree sent was aware of it and met me over there. From there we went to pick up my car for the week.
A little number I like to call The Silver Bullet.
Oh yeah, 2-door Suzuki and I got through the entire week just fine, even when I got stuck in the mud and had to use 4WD.
Anyway, I followed the rep out to Coral Bay on what I came to found out was my "Centerline Initiation." It was 4:00, I was following a local East when about every work truck on St John was going West. You do the math.
I was also distracted by all the cute babies everywhere. Baby goats, baby pigs, baby chickens. My gosh, cuteness. Driving on the left feels very normal to me- I would later be told this was a "sign" but we'll get to that.
The place I stayed isn't really a villa but we'll call it that anyway. It was the Crow's Nest in Coral Bay. It's in the building right across from Skinny's (oh, darn) and just up from the Fire Department (super nice people there).
Crow's Nest has AC, sleeps 3 (though they say four but I don't agree) and is like a little apartment and is REALLY clean, which is major bonus points in my book. It has everything you need and this being my "young, single gal trip" it was sort of cool to have my little apartment up there where I'd wave to my "neighbors" every day and hear the same rooster crowing at 5:00 every morning and until about 7:00 every night.
That night I drove to Lily's and was creeped out by the guys working there but did that stop me from going in about four more times on the trip? Oh no, I like convenient. I didn't get free gum, either. Ha ha.
DAY TWO
I was up at o'dark thirty. Seeing this sunrise for the first time was about all I could ever need. I could physically feel myself decompressing, I think.
I'd planned on going to Trunk thanks to a good tip from Vicki so at about 6:30 I headed out. I know, it's early but I was rested and ready. I tried to be all hey, look at me I ain't scared and take North Shore road but there was a tree down in the middle of the road so I had to turn around and go back. Here's where I get really funny. As I was turning around this couple drives up behind me and I tell them "hey, there's a tree blocking the road down there, you can't get through." They say they don't know any other way to go so I get all up on my high-fallutin- I've-driven-Centerline-once-in-my-entire-life horse and say "follow me, I'll show you the other way." Ha, funny, I know. But, wouldn't you know it, I took them right to Cruz Bay, right to 20 and off we were. When I waved them past me they asked if I lived there- I told them no though I should have said yes because if the giant "St. John Car Rental" tire cover didn't give it away, I don't know what would have.
I stopped at Hawksnest on my way because it was so early. It was so peaceful there, and watching the sun hit the water in the morning was so beautiful.
I stayed there and hung out for quite a while. Not sure how long.
I got over to Trunk Bay before just about anyone else, I think. The rangers just waved to me as I walked in as it was too early to pay admission. It is just so beautiful at Trunk Bay. The water was more clear and beautiful than I even remembered. I picked a spot under a tree to the far right and just sat there, staring out at the water. I just couldn't get over how easy all of this was. Anything I was worried about was just gone. It was so natural. Years ago, I had a high school teacher that would always say "Don't Panic." Ever since then, I've tried to embrace that statement and that Friday morning, sitting in the sand on Trunk Bay I was like yes, finally I'm some place that really gets that. Don't Panic.
Doesn't everyone have to take this pic?
I spent a couple hours swimming and reading (finished the book The Year of Magical Thinking that morning- oh my, if you haven't already, READ IT. Good stuff.) and taking pictures. I walked down the beach to take more pictures and lo and behold, who is it but our cute Vicki taking pictures of her own. She's right, it was like meeting up with an old friend. Very fun. She and her family were kind enough to let me snorkel with them and it was pretty good. You read about the fry fish "wall" in her report so I won't go into that but yeah, it was a little freaky. Who knows what's hiding amongst them!
Her family did invite me to have lunch with them but I didn't want to impose. I'm sure the whole meeting people off the internet thing was odd enough, and I didn't want to over step. I was just thankful to have people to snorkel with. After lunch I chatted with Vicki and her group a little more and then headed out.
I went into Cruz Bay, found parking (beginner's luck, right?) and walked around. I bought some jewelry and then walked up and met Ruth and Ron for the first time. They were so nice as I walked in, looked at Ron and said "ummmm, are you Ron? I'm 'obsessedmuch.'" Boy, did I feel like the biggest dork ever.
After that I decided to go over to the Beach Bar and have my first Painkiller of the trip. It did not disappoint.
Neither did Tigger.
I'd walked over to the National Park ferry dock to see about the ferry schedule and the Wishweweretheres called me to meet up. My second forumite meeting of the trip and oh darn, we had to go sit at a bar on the beach and have a drink again. What a hassle.
After leaving Cruz Bay, I headed back to the Crow's Nest, walked over to Skinny's, saddled up to the bar (ha, like I actually know how to do that) and ordered a beer and dinner. I had the mahi, it was good. Funny people you meet at the bar.
Within about fifteen minutes I'd made friends with the bartender, (I'm sure many of you know who I mean) and his friend, who, as best as I can understand, lives in a room he built under his parent's deck. He spent a good while telling me why this was the "best deal life could ever give you" and why I should seriously quit the office job and "get out while I could." This is where the "signs that you should move to the island" came in, when I told them driving on the left felt normal to me. I am pretty sure he is correct about this in many, many ways. Had I stayed longer, I probably could have convinced myself of that. Also, imagine all this advice in a straight-out-of-central-casting South Boston accent. It was quite hilarious. They invited me to go sailing with them but the days, they just went by too quickly. Maybe next time. I left and went to the villa to go to bed, which I was more than ready for.
DAY THREE
Day three was really, really great. I was up early and decided to go for a run. I am a runner, so this is pretty normal for me, though those hills were challenging. I ran about 20 minutes East out of Coral Bay and then headed back. It was nice, though the chickens, donkeys and goats are not exactly keen on sharing the road at 6:00 a.m.
I'd decided to catch the ferry to Jost that day. I showed up at the ferry "office" at 8:00, waited for them to open and bought my ticket along with about 50 other people. While waiting I met a nice couple (some of you met them at the Beach Bar on the 27th) who I'd end up spending most of the day with.
We stopped at customs where I, stupidly, would leave my departing customs form on the ferry. The ferry had moved up the dock and past the locked door so imagine me, hanging on to the crumbling brick wall on Her Majesty's Customs ferry dock, yelling around to the ferry captain to "please help me get the green bag off the ferry, I needed my form and I left it in the bag" as 50 other people try to shove past me and get through customs like it's a race. At this point I have no idea whether he a) heard me or b) understood what I needed so I'm just standing, looking all forlorn with my passport and ONE customs from on the wrong side of the locked door when, out of the corner of my eye, I see a white piece of paper being slid through the crack in the door. It is my customs form. The ferry captain had gone onto the ferry, found my bag at my seat, gone through it (hello, spare underwear!) and found my form. I tipped him when I got off the boat, don't worry.
So, after I was rushed through customs by an officer- which made me feel half celebrity/ half dumbass- we were off to Jost.
My new friends and I decided to go over to White Bay first and though he tried to play it off, the husband of this couple really couldn't hide how excited he was that his wife had someone to go through the shops with while he did his own thing. I knew this mostly because he said it about ten times before we even hit the beach. They were super cute people!
We decided, I guess just so as not to appear obsessed about getting to Soggy Dollar, that we'd shop a little first. I didn't find anything but who am I kidding, I wasn't really looking. Soon we ended up at Soggy Dollar where the bartender there was mixing some super spicy bloody marys that would have killed me if I had to drink a whole one. I ordered a painkiller- Breakfast of Champions.
Everything was so light and easy, it was like I'd been sucked into some kind of Live Slow vortex. Maybe I was still coming down off my rough prior weeks but wow, there are worse ways to spend Day Three, I'll tell you that much.
I told you, I love the puppies.
While we could still walk straight in our flip flops, we headed over the little hill on the beach to Ivan's. There were just a few people hanging out and, I kid you not, a girl giving a bath to a kitten. She'd later try to give us the kitten, but lucky for us that day, he ran away and hid some place. I decided to walk around and take some pictures and just as I was taking one of a door frame, who should walk through it but Ivan. I just chatted with him for a while and I'm sure he's like that with everyone but it was a really good chat.
Soon it was picture time again and Ivan, funny guy, kept telling jokes while I was trying to be "serious" for the camera. Again, I'm sure he does this to many people. So much for my "seriousness."
Too soon, though, we said goodbye and headed back to Great Harbour and went to Foxy's. Now, this might have just been the drinks and the heat and all the stress leaving me but this was one of the best meals of my trip. Grouper sandwich.
Amazingly good.
I'd gotten up to take some pictures and when I came back around to the table, I looked over and my new friends were up dancing. It was so cute. I know this isn't really trip report-like but how great is it that people not only still like each other after 20 years of marriage, can go on trips to St. John together, "adopt" a girl for the day and let her join them on Jost Van Dyke and just sporadically get up and dance to Reggae at Foxy's on a Saturday afternoon. It was really just a very cute thing to see.
After lunch and, ahem!, more drinks we went over and did some shopping while buzzed (*I now know this has been named Drunk Shopping- thanks Vicki!). It was most definitely hilarious as I tried to put on a $78 sundress over my clothes. What? I saw another girl doing the same thing. No big deal, right?
Alright, so after that we had to head back to the ferry dock and go back to St. John!
My friends invited me to go with them to Woody's and I'm glad I did as I probably wouldn't have gone alone, especially on a Saturday evening. It was a little busy but we got a table outside. It was funny to watch all the "kids" out there seeing and waiting to be seen.
I ordered the blackened shrimp which I ate too fast to take a picture of but they were very good. Here are the shark bites, which are also very good.
When we were finished I headed back over to Coral Bay, went into "my" apartment and soon after, went to bed. What a day!
DAY FOUR
This was the day I was meeting the Wishwewerethere's to hike the Reef Bay trail. We'd agreed to meet at 7:00 a.m. so when I awoke at 6:26 (where was my rooster then, I wonder?) I had to rush to get ready. Luckily, hiking on St. John. doesn't require much (as you all know) so I was at the trail head right at 7:00. Wishweweretheres were right behind me and so we started our trek. It was relatively cool at that time and the trek down was a nice walk.
We stopped off at the petroglyphs- pretty cool.
We made it down to the ruins and soon to Reef Bay. It would have been cool to take a swim down there but hiking back up in a wet bathing suit does not sound super fun to me. Also, I'd heard all kinds of rumors that there are often a lot of sharks at that beach. The trek back up was no too bad, really. Again, it was early and I think that helps. Also, we had plenty of water and stopped to look at things along the way.
All in all, the trip took about 3 hours. I'd do the hike again, but only early.
After leaving, I headed back to "my" apartment. It was still early enough and I was hungry so I quickly showered, and headed over to Miss Lucy's for brunch. I'd just walked up, looking for a table and planning to eat on my own but who should show up? My Jost Van Dyke friends from the day before. They invited me to join them, nice people, and then we discovered we'd both planned to go over to Salt Pond after brunch.
But first, brunch pics
Mimosa, banana pancakes and lobster cake eggs benedict.
What a place for brunch!
I didn't want to impose on my friends more, so I told them I was going to walk over to Drunk Bay first. Well, the wife of the couple decided to come with me because she knew her husband would want to wander around and spend all kinds of time over there where as she and I would just spend a few minutes taking pictures. I'm glad this is how it worked out because I was just a little creeped out being over there. The waves really crash hard and all the "sculptures" surrounding you just felt a little weird. Some of them are funny, but still, weird vibe or something. Probably just me and my chicken-ness.
Salt Pond
Drunk Bay
After we'd had enough of Creepy Bay, we came back to Salt Pond and just floated there for a while. It was great just to sit there, float around and watch the boats and the waves. I did a lot of thinking in that water, it was really nice. I didn't snorkel that day, but from what I hear, there wasn't much to see that day. Maybe just bad timing as I know people have had good snorkeling at Salt Pond Bay.
I guess it was around 2:00 when I decided to leave and head back to get ready for the forumite gathering at the Beach Bar.
I parked in the St. John Car Rental lot (SO convenient) and then did some shopping before the gathering. When I arrived I saw Vicki and her crew first and later, all kinds of folks showed up. Ruth and Ron, liamsaunt and her hub, Rob and Cindi, Jan and Mike with their family, Paul and Lori, Randy and Marcia and my JVD friends, too! It was so hilarious as suddenly, the group got very quiet because off in the distance, up the hill we saw this forum t-shirt marching toward us. It was Randy and we saw him coming a mile away thanks to that shirt. Too funny.
This brings me to a frustrating point. I thought I was all brilliant bringing my iPod and buying a camera connector for it so I could store some photos. All of my Beach Bar photos along with some others are now stranded on my iPod- if anyone has any tips on how to get them off there and onto my PC, please let me know. I will buy your next five painkillers if you can help!
Vicki's pics are, of course, fantastic though so you get the gist of the Beach Bar forum meeting from there.
I also hadn't eaten since Miss Lucy's that morning so I had the tuna. It was goooood.
Meeting up at the Beach Bar was pretty cool. Who knew I could meet all these nice people in a place where there was once only strangers.
I went back to Coral Bay (driving Centerline in the dark was interesting), recorded the busy day in my journal, talked to my mom on the phone for a while and reassured her that I was, in fact, alive and then went to bed.
DAY FIVE
I was up early and decided to go for a run. I was out for about five minutes when it started raining. About three more minutes and it was a downpour. I decided to head back and see if the storm would pass. I ended up watching the storm for about an hour on the deck.
I talked to Vicki and we decided to head over to Waterlemon as it was sunnier on that side. By the time we got there, it was raining again so we said we'd try again later. On my way back, I stopped up at Randy and Marcia's place, Reef Madness. This is really going to be one cool house, people.
That view is just awful...
But hey, they have a roof!
They were really so nice and so patient showing me around, it was really a cool thing to see. And I take a lot of pride in the fact that I'm one of the first to have climbed the "stair tower" from level one to level two. Very cool.
I returned to the Crow's Nest and found that I was locked out. There is a gate that leads into the deck on the Crow's Nest side of the building and apparently, the handle had jammed. Well, I sat for a while, wondering what to do. I tried with all my might, which isn't much but I'm no wuss, either. I just couldn't get into that gate. I had to break down and call Windspree who, because it was Memorial Day, were obviously not in the office. I left a voicemail and tried to keep thinking of what to do. Just then, a guy pulled into the driveway below and he just happened to have a lot of tools in his truck. What the heck, I thought, and I yelled down to ask him if he could help me. I know he could have been a creepo ax-murderer but at this point, I was having visions of having to spend the rest of the day and the night on the deck with only my one bottle of Deep Woods OFF to protect me. He helped me get into the gate by unjamming the handle and thankfully, I was in. I offered to buy him lunch or a drink or something but he declined and said that he was there anyway so it was no big deal. So here's a big thanks to the random maintenance guy on St. John! the rental people called me the next day to ask if I'd gotten in. Ummm, okay.
As soon as I walked through the door, the phone was ringing. It was Vicki and they were ready to try to go to Waterlemon again. I drove over and saw her and her husband up at the Annaberg ruins. It really was so pretty up there.
We headed over to Waterlemon, donned the snorkeling gear and went out into the water. This was really so beautiful. I've never seen so many starfish in one place! I sort of went around faster than the group and ended up on the shore before everyone else. I'd found one of those disposable underwater camera at the house so I brought it- we'll see if I can get any good pics off it once they're developed.
I sat on the shore and, big surprise here, took more pictures.
After everyone was in from snorkeling, I said goodbye to Vicki and her crew and headed off. I decided to stop at the smoothie stand on Centerline and, lo, it was a good decision. Yum!
Earlier, at Reef Madness, Randy and Marcia had been so kind as to invite me to dinner at their place that evening. I took them up on their offer and on the way back from Waterlemon I ran into Rob and Cindi. This is where I unintentionally did the "local" thing and stopped my car in the middle of the road to talk to them. Weird thing was, I don't think we thought twice about it. Anyway, they were also going to be at Randy and Marcia's for dinner so I said I'd see them later.
Since it is apparently against my genetic code to show up somewhere empty-handed, I stopped a Lily's and bought some appetizer food. Let me just say, a block of cream cheese, some Blind Betty's jalapeno jam on top and some crackers and celery makes a really good accompaniment to Randy's rum drinks. Yum.
It was a fun night and they served us some great burgers. Here's some token food porn. Certainly fitting for a Memorial Day bar-b-que.
This was also the latest I stayed up the entire trip, I think. It was 11:00- WOW. Thanks to Randy and Marcia and Rob and Cindi for a fun time!
DAY SIX
Are you still with me? Gosh, I'm sorry, this is turning into a saga. I cant stop now, though.
This was waterguy's birthday, right? Happy Belated, waterguy!
This was the day I'd scheduled to go out with Captain Doug on Gypsy Spirit. I drove into Cruz Bay early and just by chance, ran into Ron and Ruth. It was just so cool to be walking down the street and run into people you recognize. And they are so nice, who would you rather run into?
I told Ruth I thought I'd go over to JJ's for breakfast and she told me about "Table One." That was pretty cool, saw some interesting characters over there. I had a breakfast burrito but again, no picture as I ate it as if someone were going to take it back in two seconds.
I then headed over to the dock to meet up with Captain Doug and the Wishwewerethere's, who were kind enough to book the same day with me. These people, I tell you, so nice.
It looked like it would be a beautiful day for sailing.
I just love being out on the water, any water, really. There's just something so great about being out there, I can't explain it. I'm so very thankful I'm not prone to seasickness.
It turns out, though, that the winds were just not blowin'. That didn't stop us from a good time, though. Doug promised us some great snorkeling spots and he did not disappoint. We first stopped to snorkel between Congo and Lovango (Love-n-Go - good pirate story there). This was fantastic snorkeling. Honestly, I just fell in love with snorkeling again at this spot. Everything was so bright and beautiful and with the sun shining through the water, you could see forever. It was very nice, though we were in a super strong current and the swim back certainly made us work. After this spot we went over the Henley Cay. This was also very beautiful, even though we saw a shark. Yes, a shark. The Wishwewerethere's were gesturing me to come over and I'm thinking, "hmm, cool, fish or something else pretty." Umm no, shark. Big, giant, two-foot long nurse shark. I saw it, froze for about 3 seconds and then began swimming in the opposite direction.
We didn't see any more sharks and that was fine by me. It was beautiful snorkeling once again, though. Wishwewerethere and I swam up to the beach and walked around a little. I think people bring dinghy's out there and have lunch because there were some picnic tables up off the beach. Other than that, an old cement dock and nothing else. Really quiet with a nice view of the north shore of STJ.
After we got back to the boat, Captain Doug made lunch. It was good and I'm always impressed when people can throw a meal together on a boat. I need to practice that before I get my boat because at this point I'd probably have beer and Pringles.
After lunch we tried to sail some more but the wind just wasn't cooperating. We'd get a little, get all excited and then it would stop. Nothing. Completely still.
I really enjoyed that day. Captain Doug was super nice and you can tell he just knows so much about sailing those waters. I talked to him for a while and he told me he was thinking of coming to Colorado, that the mountains might be calling him again. I guess I understand that, so the only thing I said is "I don't know, Doug, it gets pretty cold up there."
When we got back to Cruz Bay, the Wishweweretheres invited me to dinner with them. We met at Skinny's for a drink, first.
Then we headed over to Aqua Bistro. I had some kind of Mahi ( apparently I'm obsessed much with mahi right now) and it was good. I also had a very good, non-choclate by request, Bushwhacker.
We also saw a dog in a dress. Good thing I have a photo or I'd have to blame this sight on the Bushwhackers.
After dinner we drove a friend of the Wishweweretheres home and let me tell you, I have never heard bugs so loud in my life. It was a good thing I was already sure these were nice people or I would have questioned this "back woods of St. John" road trip. The crickets and those darn other loud things were SO noisy. Just wow.
DAY SEVEN
Alright, I know I kept saying people were nice but only because it's true. People are SO nice. The Wishweweretheres had made plans with their villa owners (who own Luna Vista which is beautiful, has pool and A/C and is very nice and clean!) to rent a power boat and go the the BVI's. They were kind enough to invite me along and being that I'd never been to the Bath's or the Indians or Cooper Island, I was like sure!
I know it sounds like I'm not getting a lot of STJ time at this point but not to worry, it's coming.
This day was so fun and went by too quickly. We "powered" out of Cruz Bay directly into a rain storm that morning. How refreshing. We out ran it I guess and went through Customs at Soaper's. This time one person took all our passports and forms so there was no need for me to be ushered through Her Magesty's Customs. What a relief.
We went to the Bath's first, which was awesome to see. A lot of people there that day.
On the way out we stopped and saw the half-sunken freighter that ran aground sometime late last year. That was a sight.
We went to Cooper Island for lunch. Again, I found an animal that liked me.
We then went to the Indians to snorkel. That was WONDERFUL. Again, some really great snorkeling and the sun decided to come out which made it all even better. There were just so many fish, I couldn't believe it. Everywhere you looked there were just awesome fish.
We headed back toward STJ and stopped at Newfound Bay. It was beautiful and very quiet over there. The group was hoping to find turtles but no luck.
I also talked the Wishweweretheres into bringing some choch-dwelling crabs over to the boat. Don't let the smile and the matted down snorkel hair fool you, I was way scared to lose a finger to that thing.
We made a last stop - somewhere else along the North shore but I just can't remember where it was. Anyway, there were turtles there. I didn't get in the water this time but a few people did and it was cool to watch them swim with these huge turtles. I'm always amazed how fast those little guys can be if they want to go.
At the end of my journal entry for this day I wrote "I owe the Wishwewerethere's SO BIG." Seriously, you guys, I can't say thanks enough for such a fun day. I hated saying goodbye to them.
DAY EIGHT
Another great day, another early day. I was up so I decided to go to Maho to hang out for a bit. It was a beautiful morning and I enjoyed walking up and down the beach all on my own.
I still had some time so I decided to go down to Cinnamon for a while, too. I walked around the campground for a while first. Now, I'm not saying anything bad about this campground as I'm sure people have a great time there and I think even I could enjoy a stay there but if I stumbled out of my tent/hut thing in the morning, walked over to the beach and looked to the left, I might, might wonder why I thought camping was a good idea.
Just saying - obviously I have no experience with neither staying at Cinnamon nor staying on that hill to the left.
I walked over to the beach and hung out there for a while, too. Again, I did a whole lot of thinking here. It's funny how things can seem so easy and possible when you're sitting on an empty beach in the morning.
After that, I headed back to Coral Bay and met Pia and Les and their cute puppies for a hike to Brown Bay. This was a lot of fun and it was good to talk with them. That's also a good hike, not really difficult and leads to a nice bay. It's a good place for puppies to play in the water, as well.
Thanks to Pia and Les for having me along! It was great meeting you!
After the hike I decided it would be a good idea to try to go to Vie's today. I did a few things around Coral Bay (like putting gas in the Silver Bullet and stopping at Connections to send a box of "stuff" home) and then headed out. Vie was there- yay!
And she made conch fritters. Oh my, they were good!
There was also only two other people there so I got some time to talk with Vie. It was really nice talking with her as she's very quiet but really has so much to say about the island and her family's life there. We also got to talking about dogs (you're shocked, I know) because her two huge ones were barking a bit and let me tell you, they are guard dogs for certain!
It was a really nice lunch - I can't wait to get out there again.
After that, I decided to go to Honeymoon. I tried calling Rob and Cindi since we'd talked about all going together but I probably waited too long and they'd already left their villa for the day. (Sorry guys.)
I decided to park at Caneel (thanks for that reminder, Pia!) and skip the hike. Honeymoon was beautiful. I can easily see why people call this their favorite. There was also a group of girls that were doing the "catalog pose" photos on the rocks. This was pretty funny. They'd take a picture, flip their hair the opposite direction and then take another picture. Then they'd complain that the rocks were too sharp to sit on so they couldn't get the pose they wanted. I so thought of Wontongirl and Kellyanna.
I swam a little, snorkeled and sat in the sun. It was so nice and relaxing. I don't know how long I spent there - but I guess that doesn't really matter, does it?
(I don't know where the Honeymoon pics are.)
Though I had no idea how long it would take and it was getting late in the afternoon, I decided to walk over to Solomon. Like most other things I did on this trip, no real reason other than I could.
There were more people at Solomon than I'd expected. None of them, thankfully, nekkid though. Yet another pretty beach. I hung out there for a while, too.
The hike to and from Solomon from Honeymoon isn't bad at all, though flip flops are probably not the wisest of shoes choices.
After I got back to Caneel, I went into Cruz Bay and finally did my shopping trip at St. John Spice. I can't wait till the box arrives!
I also walked around Mongoose Junction, visited with the Wishweweretheres villa owner's niece (did that make any sense?) at I Scream! and picked up a salad from Deli Grotto for dinner. I was tired from all the hiking and beaching and this salad back at "my" apartment for dinner was perfect. It was maple waldorf something and it was GOOD.
DAY NINE
My last full day on the island. I know it sounds in writing like all I did was go go go but honestly, I've never done so little. It was SO relaxing and peaceful. Time alone, though I'm bad about admitting it, has really become important to me and this trip just reassured me of that. Also, doing whatever you want, whenever you want with whomever you want is really relaxing. Takes all the pressure out of every decision when you don't have to worry about anyone else.
Anyway, this was June 1st and the first day of hurricane season. I guess it was fitting that the rain storms started sometime around 2:00 a.m. that morning and didn't stop for a while. I hung out for a while but it was barely sprinkling and to me, a person coming from a place where we have cold rain, going out in some warm sprinkling sounded fun. So I decided to go to Maho and swim. I got there, parked and of course, no one was around. I swam and swam for ever it seemed. In reality, I think it was about an hour and the entire time, even when the rain stopped completely, I was alone out there. I didn't think about that too much or I would have creeped myself out but as I was getting ready to get out of the water, two turtles started swimming by me. One poked his head up out of the water and looked me right in the eye. I just looked right back at him- it was SO cool. I just sort of stood there in the waist-deep water and watched them until they eventually swam away.
I came back to the Crow's Nest, ate some lunch and then took a nap. So exciting, right? Throughout the morning, I thought about going over to Cruz Bay that evening and having dinner somewhere nice. It seemed like a nice way to "celebrate" my last night and plus, I had a skirt I'd packed that I didn't even get to wear- haha!
Around 1:30 the rain had stopped for good so I decided I'd go over to Salt Pond and do the Rams Head hike. All I have to say about this hike is DO IT. It was not really difficult and talk about pay off when you reach the top. It was amazing and again, something so peaceful about being up there, just you and the lizards and the wind. It only took me about 30 minutes to get to the top, and there's a great breeze on most of the hike which was nice because I think the humidity was around 800%. I know it makes some people nervous that I did this hike on my own, but everything was fine and thanks to the weather, the trail was empty.
I took some pictures and then looked around, found my "wish" rock and pitched it over the side and yelled out my wish. Honestly, I felt a little goofy but hey, who am I to question tradition? I guess the legend says that if your rock hits the water without hitting anything else on the way down, your wish will come true. Well, I was NOT going to lean over that cliffside to watch my rock so we'll all just have to wait and see if my wish comes true some day.
This was yet another wonderful experience and I couldn't think of a better thing to do on my last day.
The hike did wear me out a little, though, and on the drive back from Salt Pond I decided the cute skirt would just have to wait to be worn another day and I stopped at Island Blues for dinner. I had some kind of jerked mango mahi (yes, more fish) sandwich and a couple beers and listened to some good jokes from some guys at the bar. They had a particularly funny joke but I'll have to save that for another thread- the length of this is getting ridiculous. I will say, though, that for a couple guys who'd been sitting at a bar all afternoon, their jokes were surprisingly clean.
After leaving, I went and got some ice cream and then headed back to the Crow's Nest. I started packing and the rain and winds started up again.
In the morning, I was up early and had some tea out on the deck. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day and I was definitely sad to leave. I loaded up my luggage into the Silver Bullet and headed out, stopping to chat a minute with my "neighbors" at the fire station. They wished me a safe trip, and told me to come back soon and to next time, come over and visit them more.
I took North Shore road into Cruz bay and stopped again at Deli Grotto for breakfast. I also ordered a sandwich to take with me for the airport. The Pink Cadillac at Deli Grotto is my new best friend, I think.
After breakfast, I went to the gas station to fill up the rental. The price of gas went up from something like 3.89 the day before to 4.16 that morning. I only needed a little more than half a tank but the total was something outrageous like $35 which, ironically, I think is equivalent to the number of pounds I'd gained over the previous ten days.
I returned the car to St. John Car Rental and took myself and my bags down the road. Just as I came around the corner at St. John Spice, Ruth yells down to me "you look so sad." I know I must have looked sad but I didn't think it was so obvious. Everyone must do this, right? Why else would it be called the Walk of Woe I guess.
I got to visit more with Ruth and Ron, ran and did some last minute shopping and stopped to talk to Mr. Slimman over at his parking lot. Wow, what a nice man. We just talked and talked as if it were any ordinary morning. Turns out he has cousins here in my hometown and they go to a church right here in my neighborhood. Moreover, he asked for my number so he could put his cousins in touch with me in case we wanted to "become friends." Those were his words - isn't that incredible? I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like it. It was getting close to 10:00 so I told Mr. Slimman goodbye and he said next time I was down, there would be a limo ride waiting for me. So cute!
I went back to Ruth and Ron's, chatted one last time and then went over to the ferry. The ride to Red Hook was uneventful as was the cab ride to the airport. Again, I was in a van with forty-seven other people but this time I got to sit in the front with the A/C right in my face. The driver also had a few bottles of wine up there- I didn't ask.
I checked in at the airport and almost lost my Deli Grotto Pink Cadillac to the customs agent.
"Can I take this sandwich through?"
"What kind of sandwich is it?"
"Umm, turkey."
"Where did you get it?"
"On St. John."
"From where on St. John?"
"Deli Grotto."
"Ohhhh, I bet it's a good one then."
"Umm, yeah, I think so."
At this point I'm thinking either he's just bored or he really wants my sandwich. So I asked him "Do you want some of it?" (How else was I going to get out of there?)
He looked at me and I kid you not, said "Nah, thanks, I just had a steak."
Okay. So I was speechless but thankfully, I was through customs.
My flight left only 40 minutes late, went from STT to San Juan (didn't have to get off the plane, though) and San Juan to Chicago and then back here to Colorado. Long day in which I spent most the time wondering why I got on the ferry. (They tell me this is also normal.)
Honestly, re-entry has not been easy. I have worn sandals to work two days in a row and more than once had to double check that yes, I was driving on the right side of the road.
Thanks to everyone for all your wonderful advice, encouragement and new friendships. I fear I'll never be able to repay all the kindness extended to me on this trip. I will promise this, though, I will pay it forward AND I will be back.
And, if you've made it through this entire report, your next Painkiller is ON ME!
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SoCaTraveler
- Posts: 94
- Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:36 pm
- Location: Southern California
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Xislandgirl
- Posts: 4163
- Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:03 pm
- Location: Slightly left of center
obsessedmuch, great report. I read the whole thing, only 34 printed pages compared to Vicki's 20-something. 
With your sense of humor and writing style,I can see how you got along well with Vicki. That's great that you got to meet so many nice people esp. the forumites.
Thanks for the report and photos.
With your sense of humor and writing style,I can see how you got along well with Vicki. That's great that you got to meet so many nice people esp. the forumites.
Thanks for the report and photos.
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obsessedmuch
Carole, I understand. It was way past my bed time, too.
Kellee- It was the Crow's Nest but I know Eagle's Nest is another rental somewhere too, right? Anyway, the only night it was a little loud was Live Reggae Night at Skinny's. It was pretty cool to sit on the deck with your drink and listen to No Woman No Cry and watch the world go by.
Kirk, I don't know. I do alright here on the mainland and besides, where would I escape to? Now if I could work out a 6/6 or even a 5/7 deal, that would be sweet!
X, I agree, SUCH a great group here. The trip was reassurance of that, no doubt.
Jersey, 34? Wow. I have issues.
Marybeth, thanks. How crazy is it that I don't even remember where that was? I started to wonder if I was even the one that took that photo.
Kellee- It was the Crow's Nest but I know Eagle's Nest is another rental somewhere too, right? Anyway, the only night it was a little loud was Live Reggae Night at Skinny's. It was pretty cool to sit on the deck with your drink and listen to No Woman No Cry and watch the world go by.
Kirk, I don't know. I do alright here on the mainland and besides, where would I escape to? Now if I could work out a 6/6 or even a 5/7 deal, that would be sweet!
X, I agree, SUCH a great group here. The trip was reassurance of that, no doubt.
Jersey, 34? Wow. I have issues.
Marybeth, thanks. How crazy is it that I don't even remember where that was? I started to wonder if I was even the one that took that photo.
Like a good book, once I started I couldn't stop!
I'm so glad that everything worked out so well for you. Your being willing to put yourself "out there" obviously made the trip all the more special.
You can tell it was a great report because at the end, on the morning of your "walk of woe" I felt sad reading it ( and a little "verklempt").
Thanks for sharing it with us!
I'm so glad that everything worked out so well for you. Your being willing to put yourself "out there" obviously made the trip all the more special.
You can tell it was a great report because at the end, on the morning of your "walk of woe" I felt sad reading it ( and a little "verklempt").
Thanks for sharing it with us!
Come see us!
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Xislandgirl
- Posts: 4163
- Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:03 pm
- Location: Slightly left of center
Obsessed, you are adorable and your report was so good. I just read the whole thing here at work. Im so glad I was not interrupted or I would have been pi$$ed off. Everyone knows trip reports take priority, right? Your pics are excellent, I enjoyed the whole thing. I hope I get to meet as many folks as you did when Im there later this month. And, I cant wait to see creepy drunk bay...but I won't go alone 
Karen
Karen
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Kentuckygirl
- Posts: 1903
- Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:17 am
- Location: Kentucky
