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Trip Report - Feb 23-Mar 1 - A very different trip (for us)
Trip Report - Feb 23-Mar 1 - A very different trip (for us)
After deciding to visit other places this year instead of going back to St John, we spent a week in the Keys in early Feb.It was a pretty disappointing trip and we really missed SJ so we started looking for ways to get back to our happy place. We started looking on Valentines Day for flights and found a direct RT flight from IAD for just 32,000 miles/each 9 days out. We quickly checked VRBO and found a last minute cancellation for a studio at Grande Bay which happened to be owned by the same person we had rented a 1 BR unit a couple years ago when looking to extend our stay for 3 days. He gave us a great deal and the location was great especially since it was President's week and 8 Tuff miles and I knew a car would not be available.
The morning we were leaving I woke up with a red sore on my eyelid but figured it was probably an insect bite and didn't think much more about it at the time. We decided that we would go super light with the luggage and packed our snorkel, fins, clothes and snacks in each of our carryons. Had a very easy flight and Rachel met us for the ride to Red Hook. What a delightful way to start a vacation.
We met the greeter and we quickly checked in, a small, very nicely furnished studio in the back section of Grande Bay then off to the Beach Bar and then Rumblines for a very good dinner, back to the unit and some coconut rum on the balcony.
The next morning I woke up with several more small sores but this time diagnosed myself with allergies and attempted to get in touch with my doctor (no luck). Had a very good breakfast sandwich at Cafe Living, the transition to new owners seems to have been seamless, everything is the same but the name. We were both really tired so we decided we'd start the day by walking to Frank Bay which we had never been to before. We always like to go to one new beach and one new restaurant on each trip. Not a destination I would drive to but there are a couple shady spots and several locals there with their dogs. I was told the snorkeling was good but we didn't bring our gear. For lunch we had one of the best surprises of the trip, we found P&Ps Restaurant and had the Roti which was absolutely wonderful! The couple running it are delightful and I can't even describe how good the roti was, I wanted to lick the plate. Both our "new" on the first day and we will without a doubt go back to P&Ps.
Saturday I woke up with even more sores and decided it was time for more than self diagnosis. We had smoothies from Our Market and took a cab to the Myrah Keating Smith Community Clinic. This ended up being our second nice surprise of the trip. Everyone, the receptionist and the nurses and the doctor were some of the nicest, most professional, competent and pleasant people I've ever dealt with in health care. My best emergency room visit ever
. I was diagnosed with shingles, told it would get worse and reassured that if I was vigilant about avoiding contact with pregnant women and young children that I could do whatever I wanted for the rest of our vacation except with the sores, no snorkeling. I was sent to Chelsea Pharmacy with 3 prescriptions ($219.00! worth) that they would call in so I could get on with my vacation.
What happened next illustrates one small reason why I love SJ so much. The clinic called a cab for us, when he arrived I asked if he could take us to Chelsea and then back to town. He said he would take us to the pharmacy and we could find another taxi to town when we were done. When we arrived we paid the $12 and gave him a $3 tip, he said he was going in to the hardware store and for us to check to see if he was still there when we were done. I told him the clinic said it should only take 5-10 min. In the meantime my wife Vicki decided to pick up sandwiches at Sam and Jacks so we could go to Hawksnest for the afternoon. The pharmacy was a little busy and they said it would be about 20 min, after about 15 the taxi driver came in the pharmacy to check and see how it was going. I told him it would be a while longer and it was fine if he needed to go. After several more minutes we had our lunch and my prescriptions and walked out to see the taxi still waiting. I thanked him and he drove us into town and when I got out to pay he just said, "no charge, have a wonderful afternoon" and drove off. I love the people of SJ!
Changed and gathered our things and off to Hawksnest for a relaxing afternoon. The next few days were all similar, coffee at the condo, breakfast at Cafe Livin and/or Our Market smoothies and taxi to the beach, Hawksnest or Cinnamon since the meds required me to drink a lot of liquids, facilities were nice to have. Wednesday on a whim we called around to see if anyone had a car available for the day and found a RX7 at Cool Breeze so we drove over to explore Catherinesburg, shopped at Bordeaux Mountain, Shipwreck Landing for lunch and then to Maho for the afternoon.
Food reviews:
lunch
Sam and Jacks - great sandwiches
Deli Grotto - new owners, same menu, still very good (it may have been my imagination but my Pink Cadillac didn't seem as big as previous years but still very good)
Woodys - blackened fish sandwich, still good but don't feel a need to go back
Shipwreck - love the fish and chips
P&Ps - can't stop thinking about the Roti's, next time we want to go for dinner
dinners
Rumblines - consistently good, perfect for us for our first night
La Tapa - probably our favorite restaurant, been every trip and never had anything but wonderful food and great wine list. 5 small plates were perfect for us, kinda pricey but wonderful, we also enjoy jazz night there
Zozo's - delicious, too cloudy for a sunset but the setting, the service and of course, the food, were just perfect as always
High Tide - amazing! went a couple years ago and don't remember anything about the food, now with the new owner it's been added to our "must go to each trip" restaurant list. We had 2 dinners here and we're very, very pleased with everything we had. Absolutely wonderful and reasonably priced
Morgan's Mango - our only disappointing meal, ordered the lobster, mine was ok, Vicki's was burned, not charred but burned black. Served by the kitchen staff, when we called over our server he immediately took her's back but it took about 10 minutes before they returned with her dinner. They were apologetic, gave us a free glass of wine but we probably won't be back.
Lime Inn - our first trip here and it was another great meal, enjoyed meeting and talking to Rick and we loved his recommendations of the whole snapper and the shrimp dijon. We definitely will be back.
Miscellaneous stuff:
Price for 4 days of taxis to beach/clinic including tips - $161. I was surprised and pleased how easy and affordable it was. Never waited more than 5 minutes for a taxi back to town.
The shingles kept getting worse for a couple days after starting meds but then miraculously started improving dramatically. I'm convinced it was primarily due to the healing waters of SJ.
Vicki who is a mosquito magnet didn't get a single bite the entire week!
We love staying in town and will do so for a portion of our next trip. I'm thinking 3 days in town, 1 week in a villa then 3 more nights in town might be perfect for us.
Despite not being able to snorkel and the shingles we both left thinking this might have been our favorite trip to our favorite island.
The morning we were leaving I woke up with a red sore on my eyelid but figured it was probably an insect bite and didn't think much more about it at the time. We decided that we would go super light with the luggage and packed our snorkel, fins, clothes and snacks in each of our carryons. Had a very easy flight and Rachel met us for the ride to Red Hook. What a delightful way to start a vacation.
We met the greeter and we quickly checked in, a small, very nicely furnished studio in the back section of Grande Bay then off to the Beach Bar and then Rumblines for a very good dinner, back to the unit and some coconut rum on the balcony.
The next morning I woke up with several more small sores but this time diagnosed myself with allergies and attempted to get in touch with my doctor (no luck). Had a very good breakfast sandwich at Cafe Living, the transition to new owners seems to have been seamless, everything is the same but the name. We were both really tired so we decided we'd start the day by walking to Frank Bay which we had never been to before. We always like to go to one new beach and one new restaurant on each trip. Not a destination I would drive to but there are a couple shady spots and several locals there with their dogs. I was told the snorkeling was good but we didn't bring our gear. For lunch we had one of the best surprises of the trip, we found P&Ps Restaurant and had the Roti which was absolutely wonderful! The couple running it are delightful and I can't even describe how good the roti was, I wanted to lick the plate. Both our "new" on the first day and we will without a doubt go back to P&Ps.
Saturday I woke up with even more sores and decided it was time for more than self diagnosis. We had smoothies from Our Market and took a cab to the Myrah Keating Smith Community Clinic. This ended up being our second nice surprise of the trip. Everyone, the receptionist and the nurses and the doctor were some of the nicest, most professional, competent and pleasant people I've ever dealt with in health care. My best emergency room visit ever
. I was diagnosed with shingles, told it would get worse and reassured that if I was vigilant about avoiding contact with pregnant women and young children that I could do whatever I wanted for the rest of our vacation except with the sores, no snorkeling. I was sent to Chelsea Pharmacy with 3 prescriptions ($219.00! worth) that they would call in so I could get on with my vacation.What happened next illustrates one small reason why I love SJ so much. The clinic called a cab for us, when he arrived I asked if he could take us to Chelsea and then back to town. He said he would take us to the pharmacy and we could find another taxi to town when we were done. When we arrived we paid the $12 and gave him a $3 tip, he said he was going in to the hardware store and for us to check to see if he was still there when we were done. I told him the clinic said it should only take 5-10 min. In the meantime my wife Vicki decided to pick up sandwiches at Sam and Jacks so we could go to Hawksnest for the afternoon. The pharmacy was a little busy and they said it would be about 20 min, after about 15 the taxi driver came in the pharmacy to check and see how it was going. I told him it would be a while longer and it was fine if he needed to go. After several more minutes we had our lunch and my prescriptions and walked out to see the taxi still waiting. I thanked him and he drove us into town and when I got out to pay he just said, "no charge, have a wonderful afternoon" and drove off. I love the people of SJ!
Changed and gathered our things and off to Hawksnest for a relaxing afternoon. The next few days were all similar, coffee at the condo, breakfast at Cafe Livin and/or Our Market smoothies and taxi to the beach, Hawksnest or Cinnamon since the meds required me to drink a lot of liquids, facilities were nice to have. Wednesday on a whim we called around to see if anyone had a car available for the day and found a RX7 at Cool Breeze so we drove over to explore Catherinesburg, shopped at Bordeaux Mountain, Shipwreck Landing for lunch and then to Maho for the afternoon.
Food reviews:
lunch
Sam and Jacks - great sandwiches
Deli Grotto - new owners, same menu, still very good (it may have been my imagination but my Pink Cadillac didn't seem as big as previous years but still very good)
Woodys - blackened fish sandwich, still good but don't feel a need to go back
Shipwreck - love the fish and chips
P&Ps - can't stop thinking about the Roti's, next time we want to go for dinner
dinners
Rumblines - consistently good, perfect for us for our first night
La Tapa - probably our favorite restaurant, been every trip and never had anything but wonderful food and great wine list. 5 small plates were perfect for us, kinda pricey but wonderful, we also enjoy jazz night there
Zozo's - delicious, too cloudy for a sunset but the setting, the service and of course, the food, were just perfect as always
High Tide - amazing! went a couple years ago and don't remember anything about the food, now with the new owner it's been added to our "must go to each trip" restaurant list. We had 2 dinners here and we're very, very pleased with everything we had. Absolutely wonderful and reasonably priced
Morgan's Mango - our only disappointing meal, ordered the lobster, mine was ok, Vicki's was burned, not charred but burned black. Served by the kitchen staff, when we called over our server he immediately took her's back but it took about 10 minutes before they returned with her dinner. They were apologetic, gave us a free glass of wine but we probably won't be back.
Lime Inn - our first trip here and it was another great meal, enjoyed meeting and talking to Rick and we loved his recommendations of the whole snapper and the shrimp dijon. We definitely will be back.
Miscellaneous stuff:
Price for 4 days of taxis to beach/clinic including tips - $161. I was surprised and pleased how easy and affordable it was. Never waited more than 5 minutes for a taxi back to town.
The shingles kept getting worse for a couple days after starting meds but then miraculously started improving dramatically. I'm convinced it was primarily due to the healing waters of SJ.
Vicki who is a mosquito magnet didn't get a single bite the entire week!
We love staying in town and will do so for a portion of our next trip. I'm thinking 3 days in town, 1 week in a villa then 3 more nights in town might be perfect for us.
Despite not being able to snorkel and the shingles we both left thinking this might have been our favorite trip to our favorite island.
You don't stop playing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop playing.
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Capn Dan and Ruby
- Posts: 1006
- Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2009 10:08 pm
- Location: PC Florida
If you take the road towards Gallow's Point and follow it to the split past Frank Bay, keep to the left and go straight up the hill to the bluff overlooking the bay where the car barge comes in that is where you will find P&Ps. When we were there they were only open Tues-Friday.
Yes, if you had told me on Saturday that this would have been my favorite trip I probably would have thought you were out of your mind. . . funny how things work out.
Yes, if you had told me on Saturday that this would have been my favorite trip I probably would have thought you were out of your mind. . . funny how things work out.
You don't stop playing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop playing.