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Adventure In Paradise Part 1
Adventure In Paradise Part 1
OK … I WAS TRYING TO WRITE THIS AS ONE BIG REPORT BUT I FINALLY GIVE UP AND WILL PROVIDE IT IN INSTALLMENTS.
My wife and I took our daughter, our son, and his girlfriend to St John from 1-13 July. We have been a couple of times before but this was the first trip for the kids and we were excited to introduce them to one of our favorite places in the world. This is the trip report for our “Adventure in Paradise”.
July 1:
Got an early 8:00 am flight out of DC which means we had to leave the house about 4:00 am! Since we were supposed to meet my son and his girlfriend at the airport, I was worried about their ability to get up this early but they seemed to manage just fine and everyone got checked in and patiently waited.
The connection in Charlotte provided us with enough time to get into the island spirit (what do you mean 10:00 am is too early for a beer?).
It is now 3:30pm and we have landed in STT!!! This means we have somehow managed to make it with no problems with the flights and all of the luggage arrived intact also. So we hop on a taxi for the harrowing ride to Redhook. As I am privately convincing myself that these overcrowded vehicles are safe, we hear on the radio news about a tourist bus that had run off the road and are soon surrounded with ambulances and police cars headed to the scene. I don’t think anyone was seriously injured but it did make our ride more exciting!! Of course we missed the 4:00 pm ferry but not to worry, the bar is open, the painkillers and beers are cold, and the 5:00 pm ferry “soon come”. It looks like an excellent start to our “Adventure in Paradise”.
Hopped off the ferry at about 5:20 pm and had my first shot of rum on the island (thanks for that Cruzan rum cart). We then went to meet our representative from Island Getaways – Kathy McLaughlin. She had picked up the rental car keys from St John Car Rental so we loaded up the luggage into her car and walked to the rental company to get the car and follow her up to the Villa Allesandra. For those of you who don’t know, Allesandra is in Chocolate Hole off of Rock Ridge Road. Actually the road is not too bad but there is one very steep switch back which has been newly paved and because of this is extremely slippery. Even with our 5 passenger Dodge Nitro and turning wide, we regularly squealed tires going around that turn. My kids who have worked in restaurants said the trick was to roll down the window, blow the horn, and yell “hot corner” as you careened around the bend. It seemed to work as we never encountered another vehicle coming down.
Kathy gave us the obligatory tour of the Villa including where the washer/dryer are, how the A/C in the bedrooms works (only when all of the doors are closed), and where the safe was and the combination to the safe. She also stated that we would need “the key” for the safe but I wasn’t really paying much attention at that time (more on that later) since I was enjoying the views and wondering how we would survive the heat in the middle room.
Anyway, the Allesandra has some excellent views of Great Cruz Bay and Chocolate Hole and since it faces west, the sun sets are beautiful. Due to the west face, the pool also stayed comfortable, but unfortunately, since it gets a healthy dose of the afternoon sun the kitchen and middle room stay warm (hot). This villa is the first time I have really felt the requirement for AC in the bedrooms and could probably have used it in the middle room (but the cheapskate in me did not want to pay the extra charge for the middle room AC).
After we settled into the Allesandra in other words, after we unpacked and took a quick dip in the pool, we headed off to Rhumb Lines for an excellent dinner. I had grilled Mahi-Mahi (a staple for me on the island), while others in the party had Tuna, Salmon, and jerk pork. Sorry for those of you who like to see them, but I don’t do food porn pictures. Anyway after a big meal and a long day, we headed back up to the Villa for some serious time in the sack. On the way back we stopped at the new Dolphin Market since it is open later than Starfish and found it to a great resource for staples … near the villa and stocked with most of what we needed.
Day 2: July 2
One of the problems traveling with my kids is that they don’t do the early starts that I like to do but never-the-less it does give me time to sit outside on the patio before the sun crosses over the roofline and enjoy my morning coffee. After a breakfast of eggs and black bean salsa, we finally got our adventure underway. Our first stop was at St John Car Rental to fill out the paperwork for the car and then we headed over to Honeymoon Beach. We parked at Caneel and walked in. The snorkeling was not great without any interesting finds, but my daughter and son’s girlfriend did get “attacked” by a fish who I believe was just trying to avoid a larger fish. As was said that fish was rather frisky and since it only swam at the girls I have to assume it was a healthy male.
Well since the snorkeling was not very good we only stayed at Honeymoon for another couple of hours before we wandered up to the villa for some serious pool time and cleanup. The plan was to go to the Fish Trap Market to bring something back to the villa to grill up for dinner but by the time we got back into Cruz Bay, the market had closed so we just went to the Fish Trap Restaurant instead. We had swordfish, halibut, and corvine. Although it was “ok” we were not that impressed with the dinner. However, I believed it was time to introduce the newbies to the night life offered by St John. So, after dinner we headed over to the Beach Bar for a round of Bushwakers and to Woodies for conch fritters and a PainKiller. Living in DC, I am not sure they were impressed by the level of activity, but they did enjoy the drinks and the environment.
Day 3: July 3
Once again I get to enjoy my coffee in the morning while waiting for the kids to get out of bed. I decided today would be a good day to travel further down the island, so I drove us over Gift Hill to Center Line road to get to our destination this day which was Maho. This also gave me another opportunity to introduce the newbies to island roads. I think they appreciated it.
You can’t beat Maho for easy access unless you don’t get there till noon and the crowds have taken all of the parking places along the road (as they had this day). Well we were finally able to cram the car into a place and trekked the 10-15 yards to the beach. Maho is a beautiful beach but on this day the water was a bit murky for snorkeling and at one point there was seaweed floating which you had to swim through to get out. All in all nothing of much interest was seen during the snorkel.
This time we made sure we got back to the Fish Trap market in time to purchase some fresh fish. Got enough Mahi-Mahi and Scallops for everyone and picked up some onions and local sweet potatoes along with some wine from Starfish. Headed back to the villa and had a feast of sautéed scallops, grilled onions, grilled Mahi-Mahi, roasted sweet potatoes, and great red wine. This was probably the best meal we have had on the island yet! It is time to go to bed and get ready for tomorrow.
NEXT REPORT …
CARNIVAL AND OUR TRIP WITH PALM TREE CHARTERS!!!
My wife and I took our daughter, our son, and his girlfriend to St John from 1-13 July. We have been a couple of times before but this was the first trip for the kids and we were excited to introduce them to one of our favorite places in the world. This is the trip report for our “Adventure in Paradise”.
July 1:
Got an early 8:00 am flight out of DC which means we had to leave the house about 4:00 am! Since we were supposed to meet my son and his girlfriend at the airport, I was worried about their ability to get up this early but they seemed to manage just fine and everyone got checked in and patiently waited.
The connection in Charlotte provided us with enough time to get into the island spirit (what do you mean 10:00 am is too early for a beer?).
It is now 3:30pm and we have landed in STT!!! This means we have somehow managed to make it with no problems with the flights and all of the luggage arrived intact also. So we hop on a taxi for the harrowing ride to Redhook. As I am privately convincing myself that these overcrowded vehicles are safe, we hear on the radio news about a tourist bus that had run off the road and are soon surrounded with ambulances and police cars headed to the scene. I don’t think anyone was seriously injured but it did make our ride more exciting!! Of course we missed the 4:00 pm ferry but not to worry, the bar is open, the painkillers and beers are cold, and the 5:00 pm ferry “soon come”. It looks like an excellent start to our “Adventure in Paradise”.
Hopped off the ferry at about 5:20 pm and had my first shot of rum on the island (thanks for that Cruzan rum cart). We then went to meet our representative from Island Getaways – Kathy McLaughlin. She had picked up the rental car keys from St John Car Rental so we loaded up the luggage into her car and walked to the rental company to get the car and follow her up to the Villa Allesandra. For those of you who don’t know, Allesandra is in Chocolate Hole off of Rock Ridge Road. Actually the road is not too bad but there is one very steep switch back which has been newly paved and because of this is extremely slippery. Even with our 5 passenger Dodge Nitro and turning wide, we regularly squealed tires going around that turn. My kids who have worked in restaurants said the trick was to roll down the window, blow the horn, and yell “hot corner” as you careened around the bend. It seemed to work as we never encountered another vehicle coming down.
Kathy gave us the obligatory tour of the Villa including where the washer/dryer are, how the A/C in the bedrooms works (only when all of the doors are closed), and where the safe was and the combination to the safe. She also stated that we would need “the key” for the safe but I wasn’t really paying much attention at that time (more on that later) since I was enjoying the views and wondering how we would survive the heat in the middle room.
Anyway, the Allesandra has some excellent views of Great Cruz Bay and Chocolate Hole and since it faces west, the sun sets are beautiful. Due to the west face, the pool also stayed comfortable, but unfortunately, since it gets a healthy dose of the afternoon sun the kitchen and middle room stay warm (hot). This villa is the first time I have really felt the requirement for AC in the bedrooms and could probably have used it in the middle room (but the cheapskate in me did not want to pay the extra charge for the middle room AC).
After we settled into the Allesandra in other words, after we unpacked and took a quick dip in the pool, we headed off to Rhumb Lines for an excellent dinner. I had grilled Mahi-Mahi (a staple for me on the island), while others in the party had Tuna, Salmon, and jerk pork. Sorry for those of you who like to see them, but I don’t do food porn pictures. Anyway after a big meal and a long day, we headed back up to the Villa for some serious time in the sack. On the way back we stopped at the new Dolphin Market since it is open later than Starfish and found it to a great resource for staples … near the villa and stocked with most of what we needed.
Day 2: July 2
One of the problems traveling with my kids is that they don’t do the early starts that I like to do but never-the-less it does give me time to sit outside on the patio before the sun crosses over the roofline and enjoy my morning coffee. After a breakfast of eggs and black bean salsa, we finally got our adventure underway. Our first stop was at St John Car Rental to fill out the paperwork for the car and then we headed over to Honeymoon Beach. We parked at Caneel and walked in. The snorkeling was not great without any interesting finds, but my daughter and son’s girlfriend did get “attacked” by a fish who I believe was just trying to avoid a larger fish. As was said that fish was rather frisky and since it only swam at the girls I have to assume it was a healthy male.
Well since the snorkeling was not very good we only stayed at Honeymoon for another couple of hours before we wandered up to the villa for some serious pool time and cleanup. The plan was to go to the Fish Trap Market to bring something back to the villa to grill up for dinner but by the time we got back into Cruz Bay, the market had closed so we just went to the Fish Trap Restaurant instead. We had swordfish, halibut, and corvine. Although it was “ok” we were not that impressed with the dinner. However, I believed it was time to introduce the newbies to the night life offered by St John. So, after dinner we headed over to the Beach Bar for a round of Bushwakers and to Woodies for conch fritters and a PainKiller. Living in DC, I am not sure they were impressed by the level of activity, but they did enjoy the drinks and the environment.
Day 3: July 3
Once again I get to enjoy my coffee in the morning while waiting for the kids to get out of bed. I decided today would be a good day to travel further down the island, so I drove us over Gift Hill to Center Line road to get to our destination this day which was Maho. This also gave me another opportunity to introduce the newbies to island roads. I think they appreciated it.
You can’t beat Maho for easy access unless you don’t get there till noon and the crowds have taken all of the parking places along the road (as they had this day). Well we were finally able to cram the car into a place and trekked the 10-15 yards to the beach. Maho is a beautiful beach but on this day the water was a bit murky for snorkeling and at one point there was seaweed floating which you had to swim through to get out. All in all nothing of much interest was seen during the snorkel.
This time we made sure we got back to the Fish Trap market in time to purchase some fresh fish. Got enough Mahi-Mahi and Scallops for everyone and picked up some onions and local sweet potatoes along with some wine from Starfish. Headed back to the villa and had a feast of sautéed scallops, grilled onions, grilled Mahi-Mahi, roasted sweet potatoes, and great red wine. This was probably the best meal we have had on the island yet! It is time to go to bed and get ready for tomorrow.
NEXT REPORT …
CARNIVAL AND OUR TRIP WITH PALM TREE CHARTERS!!!
Last edited by hotrns on Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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msgcolleen
- Posts: 1497
- Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:33 am
- Location: Allen, Texas
Fun first few days! Love those pics! Charter soon come~ 
I've got 2 tickets to paradise~Pack your bags we'll leave tonight!
[url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/]
[url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/]
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shelli0001
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:03 pm
- Location: Indiana
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LandLockedBeachLover
- Posts: 374
- Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 9:16 am
- Location: St. Louis, MO
Great start! The water is beautiful at Honeymoon! Can't wait to hear about Palm Tree Charters, as we have a (highly anticipated) trip with them on my b-day 8/10. We're headed to Baths, JVD and the Willie T. I hope you had a great time! Little worried about the looong trip to the Baths on such a "small" (26') boat...
