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July 2011 trip report!
July 2011 trip report!
i just asked my wife if she ever posted are trip report and she said no but its on the pc so here ya go......
Day 1 - Travel Day
The anticipation is over we are on our way!!! We flew from Chicago to Atlanta and then to St Thomas. We each had a carry on and one large checked bag with food (oatmeal, pasta, mac and cheese, cookies, crackers, popcorn and lot and lots of cliff bars). We called Dependable once we had our luggage and they picked us up and brought us to the office. We signed the forms and examined the vehicle. It did have a lot of dents and scratches but it drove fine. We were on our way at 5:30pm from Dependable. Our plan was to get food on St Thomas at cost you less but do to the amount of traffic we didn't have time. We got to Red Hook and took the 6:30pm car barge over to St John.
A representative from our villa (Fair Winds and Following Seas) met us at the dock. She took us to the Star Fish Market for some food and then to the villa. The prices are much higher than our home town, but we were very happy to see all of the organic options and had expected that prices would be high. One thing we did not account for was water. By this time it was dark and we had no idea where anything was. The roads were scary, we were tired had headaches from not eating and honestly feared for our lives driving to our villa. FWFS is up Calabash Boom in Coral Bay. I have never been on such a steep climb in a vehicle. At one point I thought the car might actually tip backwards! By the time we got to the villa Derrick and I as well as my brother in law (Trevor) and his girl friend (Serena) all thought for sure we would not make it back up to the villa! Once at the villa we explored for a bit picked which rooms we wanted and went to bed looking forward to the next day.
Day 2
We woke up to an amazing view! WOW it is gorgeous here! Our villa had views Tortola and the East end of the Island. We left the villa around 9am and took our first drive down the north shore to our destination and first beach Trunk Bay. We walked up to the beach and I couldn't believe my eyes. The water was so beautiful! We swam for a bit and had planned on renting snorkel equipment from Crabby's the next day. The water was to amazing so we rented snorkel gear for the day from Trunk Bay. We saw some beautiful coral and fish and then went for lunch at the Trunk Bay lunch spot. I ate the chicken sandwich which was tender and juicy! I highly recommend it. Hubby had a cheeseburger and said it was very good as well. I watched as the birds swarmed and attacked an innocent man. First one took a bite out of his hamburger and then another came from behind and he dropped it onto the ground. Poor guy, he swung his towel around like Indiana Jones and said "if I can't eat it you aren't either!" He tossed it in the garbage and bought another one. This time he kept it covered with his napkin while walking to the table to eat.
We swam for a bit longer and then cleaned up and hit Cruz Bay for some shopping. We stopped in a few shops and waved to our 3 year old son on the Spice Cam. I had made reservations for dinner at Zozo's at 6:15 so we could see the sunset. There were clouds blocking the sun but it was still a beautiful setting. Two weeks before we arrived in St John my brother in law told us that he wanted to propose to his girlfriend on the island! Hubby and I were very excited and helped as much as we could with the planning. We put the ring in our carry-on so that she wouldn't see it. I had made the staff at Zozo's aware when I made the reservations that he would be proposing there so they had a heads up. When we arrived we sat in the bar/lounge until our table was ready. Once the table was ready we made way down were the wait staff greeted us. They were tremendous! Everyone was wonderful and helpful. I had the Orange Salad that was very tasty. Derrick and Trevor each had the pistachio crusted Mahi - hands down this was the best fish I have ever eaten! At the end of the dinner Trevor excused himself to the restroom as did my husband which is when he gave him the ring. My brother in law gave the ring to the server and asked that they put it on the dessert plate and set it in front of Serena. When the desert (tiramisu) arrived so did the ring sitting on the plate. Serena just looked at it and wondered why on earth there would be a ring on her plate. LOL Then Trever (my brother in law) picked up the ring knelt down and proposed! Instant tears and she said YES!
We went back to the villa for the evening and noticed something on the wall next to our bed. We took a closer look and to my dismay it was a scorpion! Quickly I went online and researched scorpions in St John. I read that unless you are allergic to the scorpion you should be fine if stung. My brother in law had the most nerve and bravely smashed the scorpion with a magazine. He hit it so hard that the tail actually flew off and landed on the bed (hubby's side) lol. I was pretty freaked out and we did a search through the villa looking for more. I couldn't find any so we went to the main house to hang out for a while. That is when we saw a big walking stick on the sliding glass door. We have them here in Wisconsin, but I have never seen one that big! They are amazing creatures and fascinated us for the most part. My husband thinking he was funny went to the screen door and opened it as if to let the stick in. Just then the stick flew into the house and flew over my brother in laws head onto the window! Again Trevor was the brave one. He took the bbq tongs and clamped onto the flying stick and brought it outside. The second day proved to be very eventful indeed!
Day 3
We ate steel cut oatmeal for breakfast at the villa and left early to get to Cinnamon Bay before the crowds. We hung out on the beach, swam and snorkeled. The weather was picture perfect as was the water. We saw some nice coral and pretty fish.
Then we headed to Skinny Leg's for lunch. I had a chicken sandwich which was good, but not as good as at Trunk Bay. The food was good but not the best we had on the island. There is some fun little shops there though that you can browse through before/after or while waiting for your food.
After lunch we went to Hawsknest Bay. There's a lot of nice coral and again some pretty fish. The beaches are amazing! Just sitting on the beach letting the waves come up your legs and the sun warm your skin is the best feeling!
We hiked Peace Hill trail and saw a ton of hermit crabs. The kept rolling onto the trail while we were walking. It was sort of like donkey kong lol. It was a nice little hike and ended at Dennis Bay. It is a nice little bay but not conducive for us to swim in. We looked around and found some seashells and hiked back to our car.
Dinner was spaghetti back at the villa. We made homemade garlic croutons instead of garlic toast and it turned out very good. We've packed so much into our days that we all crashed early.
Day 4
We started this morning by making pancakes and smoothies at the villa. We packed up our beach gear and headed to the Leinster Bay trail. We snorkeled in the bay out to Waterlemon Cay. We saw some giant star fish and 3 sting rays. Of course we forgot the underwater camera in the beach bag that day. We snorkeled around Waterlemon and heard some of the boaters yell out that there was a dolphin spotted in the bay. We stayed in the water and looked around but didn't see it until we were out of the water.
We ate at Del Grotto for lunch. I had the Grotto Chicken Sandwich and would highly recommend it. It was a hot day and it was nice to take advantage of the inside seating with air conditioning.
After lunch we swam at Jumbie Bay. Derrick and Trevor snorkeled while Serena and I looked for seashells. They said the snorkel was okay. They saw some neat coral but not a ton of fish.
We then stopped at Lilly's market for some food and more water. We really liked Lilly's. The prices weren't too much higher than in Cruz Bay.
We finished the night by having drinks at the Aqua Bistro Bar. It was a fun atmosphere and we met the cook from the Donkey Diner. We had planned on eating there before we left and now were more excited after meeting him.
Day 5.
Today we ate breakfast at the Donkey Diner. The food was very good! Everyone was pleased with their meals and the amount of food.
After breakfast we hiked the Annaberg trail. We took some pictures and loved all the history. We decided to make hiking our focus of the day so then we went and hiked the Salt Pond trail to Drunk Bay. Drunk Bay was really a fun place to visit. The wind was amazing and all of the creativity just makes it spectacular! From there we stopped at Blue Cobblestone Bay to snorkel.
Next stop Rams Head! We hiked to the top and saw an incredible view of the Atlantic! It is just gorgeous at the top. The trail isn't difficult but be careful of the cactus. They are scattered everywhere and some are right on the trail so if your not watching you could walk into them. On the way back to the car we stopped at Salt Pond and swam and snorkeled. We saw some crabs and a lot of large seashells in the water.
Day 6.
We had breakfast at the villa. Eggs, toast, grapefruit and coffee. That gave us some energy for our fully packed day. We started by hiking the Maho Goat trail to little Maho. We rented a kayak for 2 people it cost us $45. We headed down to the beach where I heard a blood curdling scream from Serena. She came face to face with our first Iguana of the trip! I was so excited to finally see one!!! The iguana was so fun, it didn't care we were there, it just went along with it's business.
We got into our kayaks and took off for Whistling Cay. The water was rough so when we got to Whistling Cay we walked around looking for a good spot to get into the water. It was just too choppy and there were a lot of sea urchins on one side which we almost walked into. We kayaked back to Francis Bay and went for a snorkel. Derrick and I snorkeled the right side of the bay and saw 8-10 sea turtles in a short period of time. They were grazing on the grass and came up for some air right in front of us. As we were watching the turtles I noticed a sting ray swim by as well.
We went back to Maho and swam for a bit. While there we ran into another iguana. This one seemed to follow people a bit. I think he's been fed by guests at Maho before.
We went to the Mongoose Junction for some shopping and lunch. We at at Del Grotto again and again the food was great! When we like a place we usually end up going back a few times.
After lunch we visited the Westin. In my opinion the beach was overrated; however they had a ton of iguana roaming around. I think we had to have seen 15 of them.
Next stop Reef Bay trail! We started the trail with the intent on just going to see the petroglyph and then come back up. We hiked down and the forest became very dense. It was a peaceful and beautiful walk. We reached one point and saw some deer. They were very close to us and didn't give us a second glance. At that point we remembered ah they must not have deer season here! lol We got to the petroglyph trail and took some pictures. At this point we were afraid that it might start to get dark and we would have a hard time finding our way back up so we hustled. It started to rain briefly (literally like 2 minutes of light rain). We all assumed we would be eaten alive by bugs but to my surprise I didn't see one! Not one mosquito, or spider! I had mentally prepared myself that there would be a lot of mosqitos on the island but honestly hardly saw any! Here in Wisconsin you go out your door and it's like the bugs hear a dinner bell ring.
On the way back to Coral Bay we stopped on the top of Bordox Mountain. There are some spectacular views from there! We also visited with some friendly donkey.
We ate at Aqua Bistro and absolutely LOVED it! We were seated by Dave when we arrived. Our waitress Christie was fun and spunky! We ate until we could eat no more and then stopped at Lilly's for some more water.
Day 7.
We woke up sad knowing that this would be our last full day on St John. We went to Donkey Diner for breakfast again but they were not open.
So since we loved Del Grotto we thought we would also love the breakfast there. Not so much. Lunch is great there but breakfast was not impressive.
We started our day by hiking Lindt Point trail to Honeymoon beach. We were alone on the beach and it was heavenly. The boys snorkeled for a bit until Trevor saw a Jelly Fish. The boys were out of the water in the blink of an eye! We hiked back to our car but I took a wrong turn on the trail and ended up taking a much longer trip back up. Oops.
We knew we wanted to visit Cinnamon Bay and Trunk Bay one more time before we left so that's were we headed.
Cinnamon Bay was peaceful. We snorkeled around and then just relaxed on the beach. We brought some lawn chairs out and sat in the water enjoying the beauty and majestic water.
When we arrived at Trunk Bay we ran into Dave from the Aqua Bistro. He recognized us right away which was a fun treat for us. He was teaching some cruise ship folks how to snorkel. He said he has 3 jobs which from what we heard from the locals is a pretty normal way of life.
We snorkeled at Trunk Bay and saw squid, barracuda, a 4-5 foot tarpon and a wide variety of fish. It was a gorgeous day and the fish were everywhere. We had some friendly fish that swam in circles around us at one point. I am normally afraid of fish but didn't feel threatened by any of them.
Dinner was again at Aqua Bistro. Again the food was amazing. I had the Parmesan Chicken Sandwich and Key Lime Pie for dessert.
We watched the sun set from Coral Bay and returned our snorkel equipment to Crabby's.
We took our last drive up Calabash Boom. I actually think we are going to miss the thrill of driving on the Island when we get home. We went to bed feeling fulfilled on what we had done and seen but still so sad that we had to leave the next day.
Day 8.
We left the villa early and ate breakfast at Baked in the Sun. The breakfast is very good and they have terrific coffee.
We took the car barge to St Thomas and waved back to the Island that had been so good to us. Once on St Thomas we drove a bit to see the town and stopped for some shopping. The atmosphere is totally different on St Thomas. People were friendly but defently had sales on their mind. Everyone was offering something or a better deal than the next. I did buy some jewelry and a bag. The boys were waiting for us while we were shopping and were offered drugs 3 times. It was pretty funny to us but a little scary as well. We had some ice cream and headed to Dependable.
We completed the paperwork and where on our way to the airport. The representative we had taking us to the airport from Dependable was great. I'm not sure her name but she was fun to ride with on our final moments of Island time.
We got to the airport and went to print our tickets. They came out and had different times on them...I was puzzled at first and then realized that our layover in Miami was canceled and we would need to spend the night in Miami instead of arriving in Chicago. We weren't happy because I really missed my son and didn't want any set backs on my way to see him. After talking to the agent at American Airlines she told us since they had canceled our flight they would set up a hotel for us. This made the news that we would be home a little later easier to take.
When we arrived in Miami we got our luggage and talked to a first class representative because he didn't look busy. He set us up at the Holiday Inn and got our vouchers for dinner and breakfast! We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant and loved our waiter. He was a hoot! The food was great as well.
The next morning we woke up and went to the airport early. We had some coffee and breakfast from Starbucks for free.
We landed in Chicago and in 4 short hours we were home with our boy!
Overall the trip was amazing. The beaches are more beautiful than a camera can capture. The water was perfect and the fish seemed to put on shows for us at times. The food was wonderful, and the people were fun. The drive was thrilling and the donkeys, goats, mongoose, land crabs and iguanas were everywhere!
thanks for reading!
we are already planning another trip for either 3rd week in june or 2nd week in july! 2012. cant wait. i want to go for 9 days this time
Day 1 - Travel Day
The anticipation is over we are on our way!!! We flew from Chicago to Atlanta and then to St Thomas. We each had a carry on and one large checked bag with food (oatmeal, pasta, mac and cheese, cookies, crackers, popcorn and lot and lots of cliff bars). We called Dependable once we had our luggage and they picked us up and brought us to the office. We signed the forms and examined the vehicle. It did have a lot of dents and scratches but it drove fine. We were on our way at 5:30pm from Dependable. Our plan was to get food on St Thomas at cost you less but do to the amount of traffic we didn't have time. We got to Red Hook and took the 6:30pm car barge over to St John.
A representative from our villa (Fair Winds and Following Seas) met us at the dock. She took us to the Star Fish Market for some food and then to the villa. The prices are much higher than our home town, but we were very happy to see all of the organic options and had expected that prices would be high. One thing we did not account for was water. By this time it was dark and we had no idea where anything was. The roads were scary, we were tired had headaches from not eating and honestly feared for our lives driving to our villa. FWFS is up Calabash Boom in Coral Bay. I have never been on such a steep climb in a vehicle. At one point I thought the car might actually tip backwards! By the time we got to the villa Derrick and I as well as my brother in law (Trevor) and his girl friend (Serena) all thought for sure we would not make it back up to the villa! Once at the villa we explored for a bit picked which rooms we wanted and went to bed looking forward to the next day.
Day 2
We woke up to an amazing view! WOW it is gorgeous here! Our villa had views Tortola and the East end of the Island. We left the villa around 9am and took our first drive down the north shore to our destination and first beach Trunk Bay. We walked up to the beach and I couldn't believe my eyes. The water was so beautiful! We swam for a bit and had planned on renting snorkel equipment from Crabby's the next day. The water was to amazing so we rented snorkel gear for the day from Trunk Bay. We saw some beautiful coral and fish and then went for lunch at the Trunk Bay lunch spot. I ate the chicken sandwich which was tender and juicy! I highly recommend it. Hubby had a cheeseburger and said it was very good as well. I watched as the birds swarmed and attacked an innocent man. First one took a bite out of his hamburger and then another came from behind and he dropped it onto the ground. Poor guy, he swung his towel around like Indiana Jones and said "if I can't eat it you aren't either!" He tossed it in the garbage and bought another one. This time he kept it covered with his napkin while walking to the table to eat.
We swam for a bit longer and then cleaned up and hit Cruz Bay for some shopping. We stopped in a few shops and waved to our 3 year old son on the Spice Cam. I had made reservations for dinner at Zozo's at 6:15 so we could see the sunset. There were clouds blocking the sun but it was still a beautiful setting. Two weeks before we arrived in St John my brother in law told us that he wanted to propose to his girlfriend on the island! Hubby and I were very excited and helped as much as we could with the planning. We put the ring in our carry-on so that she wouldn't see it. I had made the staff at Zozo's aware when I made the reservations that he would be proposing there so they had a heads up. When we arrived we sat in the bar/lounge until our table was ready. Once the table was ready we made way down were the wait staff greeted us. They were tremendous! Everyone was wonderful and helpful. I had the Orange Salad that was very tasty. Derrick and Trevor each had the pistachio crusted Mahi - hands down this was the best fish I have ever eaten! At the end of the dinner Trevor excused himself to the restroom as did my husband which is when he gave him the ring. My brother in law gave the ring to the server and asked that they put it on the dessert plate and set it in front of Serena. When the desert (tiramisu) arrived so did the ring sitting on the plate. Serena just looked at it and wondered why on earth there would be a ring on her plate. LOL Then Trever (my brother in law) picked up the ring knelt down and proposed! Instant tears and she said YES!
We went back to the villa for the evening and noticed something on the wall next to our bed. We took a closer look and to my dismay it was a scorpion! Quickly I went online and researched scorpions in St John. I read that unless you are allergic to the scorpion you should be fine if stung. My brother in law had the most nerve and bravely smashed the scorpion with a magazine. He hit it so hard that the tail actually flew off and landed on the bed (hubby's side) lol. I was pretty freaked out and we did a search through the villa looking for more. I couldn't find any so we went to the main house to hang out for a while. That is when we saw a big walking stick on the sliding glass door. We have them here in Wisconsin, but I have never seen one that big! They are amazing creatures and fascinated us for the most part. My husband thinking he was funny went to the screen door and opened it as if to let the stick in. Just then the stick flew into the house and flew over my brother in laws head onto the window! Again Trevor was the brave one. He took the bbq tongs and clamped onto the flying stick and brought it outside. The second day proved to be very eventful indeed!
Day 3
We ate steel cut oatmeal for breakfast at the villa and left early to get to Cinnamon Bay before the crowds. We hung out on the beach, swam and snorkeled. The weather was picture perfect as was the water. We saw some nice coral and pretty fish.
Then we headed to Skinny Leg's for lunch. I had a chicken sandwich which was good, but not as good as at Trunk Bay. The food was good but not the best we had on the island. There is some fun little shops there though that you can browse through before/after or while waiting for your food.
After lunch we went to Hawsknest Bay. There's a lot of nice coral and again some pretty fish. The beaches are amazing! Just sitting on the beach letting the waves come up your legs and the sun warm your skin is the best feeling!
We hiked Peace Hill trail and saw a ton of hermit crabs. The kept rolling onto the trail while we were walking. It was sort of like donkey kong lol. It was a nice little hike and ended at Dennis Bay. It is a nice little bay but not conducive for us to swim in. We looked around and found some seashells and hiked back to our car.
Dinner was spaghetti back at the villa. We made homemade garlic croutons instead of garlic toast and it turned out very good. We've packed so much into our days that we all crashed early.
Day 4
We started this morning by making pancakes and smoothies at the villa. We packed up our beach gear and headed to the Leinster Bay trail. We snorkeled in the bay out to Waterlemon Cay. We saw some giant star fish and 3 sting rays. Of course we forgot the underwater camera in the beach bag that day. We snorkeled around Waterlemon and heard some of the boaters yell out that there was a dolphin spotted in the bay. We stayed in the water and looked around but didn't see it until we were out of the water.
We ate at Del Grotto for lunch. I had the Grotto Chicken Sandwich and would highly recommend it. It was a hot day and it was nice to take advantage of the inside seating with air conditioning.
After lunch we swam at Jumbie Bay. Derrick and Trevor snorkeled while Serena and I looked for seashells. They said the snorkel was okay. They saw some neat coral but not a ton of fish.
We then stopped at Lilly's market for some food and more water. We really liked Lilly's. The prices weren't too much higher than in Cruz Bay.
We finished the night by having drinks at the Aqua Bistro Bar. It was a fun atmosphere and we met the cook from the Donkey Diner. We had planned on eating there before we left and now were more excited after meeting him.
Day 5.
Today we ate breakfast at the Donkey Diner. The food was very good! Everyone was pleased with their meals and the amount of food.
After breakfast we hiked the Annaberg trail. We took some pictures and loved all the history. We decided to make hiking our focus of the day so then we went and hiked the Salt Pond trail to Drunk Bay. Drunk Bay was really a fun place to visit. The wind was amazing and all of the creativity just makes it spectacular! From there we stopped at Blue Cobblestone Bay to snorkel.
Next stop Rams Head! We hiked to the top and saw an incredible view of the Atlantic! It is just gorgeous at the top. The trail isn't difficult but be careful of the cactus. They are scattered everywhere and some are right on the trail so if your not watching you could walk into them. On the way back to the car we stopped at Salt Pond and swam and snorkeled. We saw some crabs and a lot of large seashells in the water.
Day 6.
We had breakfast at the villa. Eggs, toast, grapefruit and coffee. That gave us some energy for our fully packed day. We started by hiking the Maho Goat trail to little Maho. We rented a kayak for 2 people it cost us $45. We headed down to the beach where I heard a blood curdling scream from Serena. She came face to face with our first Iguana of the trip! I was so excited to finally see one!!! The iguana was so fun, it didn't care we were there, it just went along with it's business.
We got into our kayaks and took off for Whistling Cay. The water was rough so when we got to Whistling Cay we walked around looking for a good spot to get into the water. It was just too choppy and there were a lot of sea urchins on one side which we almost walked into. We kayaked back to Francis Bay and went for a snorkel. Derrick and I snorkeled the right side of the bay and saw 8-10 sea turtles in a short period of time. They were grazing on the grass and came up for some air right in front of us. As we were watching the turtles I noticed a sting ray swim by as well.
We went back to Maho and swam for a bit. While there we ran into another iguana. This one seemed to follow people a bit. I think he's been fed by guests at Maho before.
We went to the Mongoose Junction for some shopping and lunch. We at at Del Grotto again and again the food was great! When we like a place we usually end up going back a few times.
After lunch we visited the Westin. In my opinion the beach was overrated; however they had a ton of iguana roaming around. I think we had to have seen 15 of them.
Next stop Reef Bay trail! We started the trail with the intent on just going to see the petroglyph and then come back up. We hiked down and the forest became very dense. It was a peaceful and beautiful walk. We reached one point and saw some deer. They were very close to us and didn't give us a second glance. At that point we remembered ah they must not have deer season here! lol We got to the petroglyph trail and took some pictures. At this point we were afraid that it might start to get dark and we would have a hard time finding our way back up so we hustled. It started to rain briefly (literally like 2 minutes of light rain). We all assumed we would be eaten alive by bugs but to my surprise I didn't see one! Not one mosquito, or spider! I had mentally prepared myself that there would be a lot of mosqitos on the island but honestly hardly saw any! Here in Wisconsin you go out your door and it's like the bugs hear a dinner bell ring.
On the way back to Coral Bay we stopped on the top of Bordox Mountain. There are some spectacular views from there! We also visited with some friendly donkey.
We ate at Aqua Bistro and absolutely LOVED it! We were seated by Dave when we arrived. Our waitress Christie was fun and spunky! We ate until we could eat no more and then stopped at Lilly's for some more water.
Day 7.
We woke up sad knowing that this would be our last full day on St John. We went to Donkey Diner for breakfast again but they were not open.
So since we loved Del Grotto we thought we would also love the breakfast there. Not so much. Lunch is great there but breakfast was not impressive.We started our day by hiking Lindt Point trail to Honeymoon beach. We were alone on the beach and it was heavenly. The boys snorkeled for a bit until Trevor saw a Jelly Fish. The boys were out of the water in the blink of an eye! We hiked back to our car but I took a wrong turn on the trail and ended up taking a much longer trip back up. Oops.
We knew we wanted to visit Cinnamon Bay and Trunk Bay one more time before we left so that's were we headed.
Cinnamon Bay was peaceful. We snorkeled around and then just relaxed on the beach. We brought some lawn chairs out and sat in the water enjoying the beauty and majestic water.
When we arrived at Trunk Bay we ran into Dave from the Aqua Bistro. He recognized us right away which was a fun treat for us. He was teaching some cruise ship folks how to snorkel. He said he has 3 jobs which from what we heard from the locals is a pretty normal way of life.
We snorkeled at Trunk Bay and saw squid, barracuda, a 4-5 foot tarpon and a wide variety of fish. It was a gorgeous day and the fish were everywhere. We had some friendly fish that swam in circles around us at one point. I am normally afraid of fish but didn't feel threatened by any of them.
Dinner was again at Aqua Bistro. Again the food was amazing. I had the Parmesan Chicken Sandwich and Key Lime Pie for dessert.
We watched the sun set from Coral Bay and returned our snorkel equipment to Crabby's.
We took our last drive up Calabash Boom. I actually think we are going to miss the thrill of driving on the Island when we get home. We went to bed feeling fulfilled on what we had done and seen but still so sad that we had to leave the next day.
Day 8.
We left the villa early and ate breakfast at Baked in the Sun. The breakfast is very good and they have terrific coffee.
We took the car barge to St Thomas and waved back to the Island that had been so good to us. Once on St Thomas we drove a bit to see the town and stopped for some shopping. The atmosphere is totally different on St Thomas. People were friendly but defently had sales on their mind. Everyone was offering something or a better deal than the next. I did buy some jewelry and a bag. The boys were waiting for us while we were shopping and were offered drugs 3 times. It was pretty funny to us but a little scary as well. We had some ice cream and headed to Dependable.
We completed the paperwork and where on our way to the airport. The representative we had taking us to the airport from Dependable was great. I'm not sure her name but she was fun to ride with on our final moments of Island time.
We got to the airport and went to print our tickets. They came out and had different times on them...I was puzzled at first and then realized that our layover in Miami was canceled and we would need to spend the night in Miami instead of arriving in Chicago. We weren't happy because I really missed my son and didn't want any set backs on my way to see him. After talking to the agent at American Airlines she told us since they had canceled our flight they would set up a hotel for us. This made the news that we would be home a little later easier to take.
When we arrived in Miami we got our luggage and talked to a first class representative because he didn't look busy. He set us up at the Holiday Inn and got our vouchers for dinner and breakfast! We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant and loved our waiter. He was a hoot! The food was great as well.
The next morning we woke up and went to the airport early. We had some coffee and breakfast from Starbucks for free.
We landed in Chicago and in 4 short hours we were home with our boy!
Overall the trip was amazing. The beaches are more beautiful than a camera can capture. The water was perfect and the fish seemed to put on shows for us at times. The food was wonderful, and the people were fun. The drive was thrilling and the donkeys, goats, mongoose, land crabs and iguanas were everywhere!
thanks for reading!
we are already planning another trip for either 3rd week in june or 2nd week in july! 2012. cant wait. i want to go for 9 days this time
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msgcolleen
- Posts: 1497
- Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:33 am
- Location: Allen, Texas
WOW! You did it all! Thanks for the great trip report and so glad you get to enjoy it all again this summer!
Did you enjoy Fair Winds and Following Seas?
Congrats to Trevor and Serena! A St. John honeymoon would be awesome!
Did you enjoy Fair Winds and Following Seas?
Congrats to Trevor and Serena! A St. John honeymoon would be awesome!
I've got 2 tickets to paradise~Pack your bags we'll leave tonight!
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Thanks for sharing your report. I enjoyed reading it and picturing each place you mentioned. You certainly saw and did a lot. Sounds like a great trip. We've been to St John 3 times and still have many of the things you did on our list to do. Definitely going to put Aqua Bistro on our list - sounds great.
For your next trip, you might consider refilling your water jugs at the water place in Cruz Bay. We buy a 2 cases of water when we arrive, then the days we are in Cruz Bay, we go fill them up. Its pretty cheap to fill a gallon jug (maybe 50 cents - can't remember exactly). It saves some money and less plastic bottles to keep buying. This only works if you plan to go into Cruz Bay during your trip.
For your next trip, you might consider refilling your water jugs at the water place in Cruz Bay. We buy a 2 cases of water when we arrive, then the days we are in Cruz Bay, we go fill them up. Its pretty cheap to fill a gallon jug (maybe 50 cents - can't remember exactly). It saves some money and less plastic bottles to keep buying. This only works if you plan to go into Cruz Bay during your trip.
will post more pics...
this was me and my brother first time at trunk bay!
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this was me and my brother first time at trunk bay!
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my brother and his fiance serena
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all of us at zozo's
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all of us at zozo's
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at waterlemon...
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Fair Winds and Following Seas was very nice. very steep hill to it though. kinda fun after first shock of it. lolmsgcolleen wrote:WOW! You did it all! Thanks for the great trip report and so glad you get to enjoy it all again this summer!
Did you enjoy Fair Winds and Following Seas?
Congrats to Trevor and Serena! A St. John honeymoon would be awesome!
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my brothers snorkeling skills. lol
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someone needs a hug!
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about to land at st. thomas
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im king of lenister bay!
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water was about 15 feet deep ..this turtle was huge!
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from our balcony at the villa...
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trunk bay....
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marys point by lenister bay...
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trunk bay....
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marys point by lenister bay...
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