La Papaya Aug 28 to Sept 2 part 2

[gibber161]

August 29

My wife and I woke up Sunday morning to a glorious sunrise just starting to peek over Gifft Hill Road. We made iced coffee and made our way out onto the upper deck of La Papaya. It was so quiet, especially up this high, which is something that we really needed to help us unwind from our hectic work lives.
We actually lost track of time while watching the sun’s rays brightening up our little bay below us. We had originally wanted to take the ferry to Jost and spend a very lazy day on the beach and at the beach bars. However, after looking at the time, 8:15am, we realized we didn’t have enough time to pack our things and catch the ferry without forgetting something.
We decided to go to our most favorite beach: Maho!! The water was unbelievable as always, with the waves barely breaking as they hit the beach. There were only 3 other groups on the beach that morning, so it was pretty quiet. We were able to swim and float in relative solitude. We had concocted a rum and juice drink that morning to bring with us and we enjoyed sipping our drinks as we relaxed on the soft, white sands of Maho.
We stayed until noon, then went to Deli Grotto to pick up our favorite sandwiches for lunch to have back at the villa: Pink Cadillac for my wife and the hot roast beef sandwich for me. After we ate, we spent some more time floating in the pool at La Papaya when a worker from Destinations St John came by and put our pool furniture in storage for safe keeping from the expected winds from Hurricane Earl.
Since it was still sunny and beautiful, we decided to head into Cruz Bay for drinks and t-shirt shopping. We went to the Beach Bar and ordered Painkillers for my wife and Bushwackers for me. Delicious. We enjoyed the atmosphere for a bit before heading to Mongoose Junction looking for t-shirts for our daughter and son. We didn’t find what we wanted, so we decided to head out to Coral Bay and look at the t-shirt selection out there. Unfortunately everyone had closed by the time we got there.
The ominous and threatening skies had really put a scare into some people. Side note: My wife and I have lived through the Blizzard of 78’, the No Name storm and many others up here in New England, so a little wind wasn’t going to deter us. We looked at it as an adventure. Side note #2: We know someone will think we were acting cavalier, but we weren’t, we know first hand what a hurricane can do.
So back to the villa we went, empty-handed. We got a phone call from our villa rep to ask if everything was ok. She told us they were going to wait until Monday morning to see what direction the hurricane was going to go in before they made any decisions regarding our stay at La Papaya. The power kept flickering throughout the evening, but we did not lose it totally. It was kind of frustrating to have to wait for the television to reset itself each time, because it meant we would miss out on portions of the weather updates.
So with limited options and a rising wind outside, we settled in to watch reruns on the tv until we slowly drifted off to sleep.







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[suzanna945]

There's no one else I'd rather be in a hurricane with on St. John than you, baby!

[loria]

great report~! are you guys from marblehead? I grew up there! (and capt john and sue lived there too--but you probably know that already)

[SOonthebeach]

I can hear the ominous music... dum, dum, dum.........

waiting on the edge of my seat to hear the rest of the adventure!

[gibber161]

Loria...yes, my wife is a townie (born and raised).