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Why Did We Wait So Long? Trip Report 10/15-10/22 Part II
Why Did We Wait So Long? Trip Report 10/15-10/22 Part II
Waking Up In Paradise (As the Rooster Crows):
The roosters were the first thing I remember hearing when I woke up, but for some reason I don't believe that they were responsible for waking me up.
I looked over at Leslie, she was awake too.
Then I looked at the clock.
5:30
Even though it was staring to show signs of getting light outside, I couldn't possibly be awake this early on vacation.
Maybe it was the roosters after all. I'll just roll over and finish my sleeping.
Nope, I'm wide awake. Leslie's getting out of bed.
"Are you OK?"
"Yes" she answers, with a big grin on her face. "I just don't feel tired. You?"
"No, me either, so I guess I may as well get up too".
So began our first full day in paradise. I can't say that we were out of bed before 6:00AM every day, but I will say that we were rarely in bed much later than that.
We started our first full day with breakfast on the deck, looking across Pillsbury Sound at what we'd soon be jokingly referring to as "that same old view".
The sun is already shining on STT, but is just making it's way over Gift Hill Rd. towards Cruz Bay
We didn't know how early St. John Car Rental opened, so after we'd eaten and cleaned up a little, we dawdled a bit at the villa. I took a swim in the pool while Leslie decided to take some pictures of the landscaping that surrounds the deck at Cielo Vista.
When it came time to head into town I was still a little gunshy about heading down Gift Hill Rd. the same way we came in the night before, so we headed down the hill instead, and took a left onto Centerline Rd. and went to Cruz Bay that way.
I was already getting a little more comfortable with driving, but Leslie decided to leave the additional driver signature on the rental agreement blank! The people working at the rental office were very nice and friendly. I told them that by giving me such a new vehicle (only 6K miles on it) they were putting the pressure on me, but she laughed and said I'd do just fine. She also let me know that I could park in their lot when in town if I wanted to. After seeing the steep gravel driveway and cramped parking area behind the building, I thought to myself "only as a last resort".
Since we were downtown we decided to walk around a bit. I was anxious to see more of the places in real life that I had been reading about. We walked from St. John Car Rental, through the Beach Bar, past Joe's Rum Shack, and found ourselves once again at the famous "Do Not Sit on the Stairs" sign. So we walked up them instead. We walked past a woman that kind of "looked" at me, and into St. John Spice. We were greeted by the woman working behind the counter. After browsing for a few minutes I asked her if she was by chance Ruth. She told me no, that Ruth was who was walking out of the store as we were walking in. When I did get to introduce myself to Ruth a few minutes later, she said that she had a feeling that I might heve been augie - I guess that explains the look! We then met Ron, and after deciding that we should let them get some work done rather than listening to us go on and on I bought a small shaker of Cruz Bay Grill Rub to use at the villa, and we promised we'd be back for more later in the week.
We continued our little sightseeing tour, walking to The Lumberyard Complex, then on to Mongoose Junction. Even though it was still early enough that many of the stores were not yet open, it was starting to get hot. So we had a novel idea: why don't we go to a beach?
We headed carefully out of town, back toward Cielo Vista. I'm still a little cautious driving at this point, especially at the intersection in Cruz Bay that decides how, or if, you'll leave town. I make my best guess and soon I see the (closed) Marina Market and know that we're on our way to Jacob's Ladder again...
Oh well, since we're going this way we may as well stop at the Starfish Marketplace. Picked up a few things at Starfish, and a few at Chelsea Drugstore then we were heading up the hill. This time, since I was expecting the wild, hilly corners they didn't seem quite as bad and certainly less intimidating.
Knowing that there were some cruise ships in St. Thomas that day, and since we weren't getting an early start, we decided to go somewhere away from the north shore beaches, and after consulting "Feet, fins, and four wheel drive" we settled on Salt Bay Pond for our first beach/snorkel trip.
With the "animated" map they give you, and FFFWD, we could find our way around, but not as confidently this early in the stay as we'd be able to later in the week. But as we were on island time, and since we couldn't really go too far wrong in any direction, we boldly went, and boldly backtracked, and boldly second guessed our hunches, and sometimes even boldly asked for help. But if not sooner, then not really too much later we arrived at a parking lot that we figured was probably the one at the head of the trail to Salt Pond Bay. We asked a group of ladies coming from the other direction if that was the case, and when they confirmed that it was we congratulated ourselves on our navigational prowess.
So we get to Salt Pond Bay and the beach is packed! I mean, there must have been eight people there if you count the ones that were in the water! We got in and swam towards the mooring buoys, and within six minutes of entering the water we saw a southern stingray on the bottom. Leslie loves stingrays, so the whole trip was now officially a success!
DISCLAIMER/LESSONS LEARNED #1: I have a very nice underwater housing that is designed for my specific model digital camera (Olympus C5050Z). I have used it many times scuba diving and it works great, and even without external strobes and such I have taken some fairly nice pictures with that setup. Since I was "just" snorkeling this trip, I decided, in the name of packing lighter, to leave the housing and its carrying case at home and bought a waterproof pouch, rated to 30 feet or so of depth, that my camera can fit in. Bad move. With some difficulty I was able to get the camera to turn off and on underwater, and the bag never leaked, so nothing got destroyed. But the pictures I took underwater turned out awful. I wasn't really able to see either the viewfinder or the LCD display on the back of the camera, so framing shots, which can be tricky with moving subjects under water under even the best circumstances, was extremely hit or miss, mostly the latter. And the surface of the bag did not do a very good job of diffusing the internal flash either. Bottom line: I never even bothered taking the camera under water the rest of the week. The good news: Many of the trip reports posted here, and the links to online photo albums contain spectacular shots of any and everything you'll ever likely see under the water, so if I mention a creature and you don't know what it looks like, chances are you'll be able to find a much better picture of it than I could have provided anyway. Also: I will bring my housing with me on any subsequent trip where I plan to be in the water.
After floating over the grass beds for a while we swam over to the right side of the bay (as you are on the beach looking towards the water). We saw parrotfish of several varieties, squirrelfish, hogfish, tangs, damsels, and much more.
After taking a break for a bit to get a snack and drink we talked to a couple from Maryland, Sharon and Lewis, that were camped out fairly close to us on the beach. Lewis had seen a turtle between the buoys earlier - that's why we went that way to start, but we didn't see it. He told us that he had seen it again while we were over near the rocks, so when we headed out again, we once more started in the middle of the beach. This time we did have to go a bit further out, but we saw him munching on the grass on the bottom, then we trailed behind him for a little while until he headed for deeper water.
We headed for the rocks on the other end of the beach and were just slowly making our way back to shore. I saw a small four-eyed butterfly fish and got Leslie's attention to show it to her. When we stopped hovering over it, and looked up to continue making our way in, there was another turtle, a little smaller than the first one we'd seen, about three feet away from us, also on the surface. He(?) and I just looked at each other for what seemed like a minute, kind of like "what are YOU doing here?" looks on our faces, then he dove and swam away. Some (above water) Salt Pond Bay pictures:
After our second snorkel we decided to dry to head back "home". We made the short hike back to the jeep, then took Salt Pond Rd. back to Centerline and headed west. Along the way, we stopped where the big(ish) rock on the side of the road is and took a few pictures of Coral Bay. A few years ago we had a group that rented jeeps for the day in STT, came over on the car barge, and after spending some time at Trunk and Cinnamon, did a quick circumnavigation of the island, all on North Shore and Centerline Roads. We stopped at this same spot and took pictures of the same view, but I never knew where it was. After I found this forum I went back and looked at my old pictures and figured it was probably Coral Bay, but this confirmed it for us!
Back at the villa we rinsed all of the gear off, then took a dip in the pool.
We took some pictures out towards STT, hoping to get that perfect "sun dipping below the horizon" sunset photo. That never quite worked out for us this trip, but they are interesting to look at anyway, and the quest for the "perfect" one will be just one more reason to return...
I cut up some potatoes and seasoned them with olive oil, and some other spices I found in the pantry and wrapped them in foil and put them on the grill. A bit later I took a couple of chicken breasts and sprinkled them with the Cruz Bay Grill Rub and put them on the grill also - they smelled SO good while they were cooking! We steamed some snow peas to go with them, and we had a great ending to our day enjoying a good meal, some cold drinks, an unbetable view, and just being there together in paradise!
The roosters were the first thing I remember hearing when I woke up, but for some reason I don't believe that they were responsible for waking me up.
I looked over at Leslie, she was awake too.
Then I looked at the clock.
5:30
Even though it was staring to show signs of getting light outside, I couldn't possibly be awake this early on vacation.
Maybe it was the roosters after all. I'll just roll over and finish my sleeping.
Nope, I'm wide awake. Leslie's getting out of bed.
"Are you OK?"
"Yes" she answers, with a big grin on her face. "I just don't feel tired. You?"
"No, me either, so I guess I may as well get up too".
So began our first full day in paradise. I can't say that we were out of bed before 6:00AM every day, but I will say that we were rarely in bed much later than that.
We started our first full day with breakfast on the deck, looking across Pillsbury Sound at what we'd soon be jokingly referring to as "that same old view".
The sun is already shining on STT, but is just making it's way over Gift Hill Rd. towards Cruz Bay
We didn't know how early St. John Car Rental opened, so after we'd eaten and cleaned up a little, we dawdled a bit at the villa. I took a swim in the pool while Leslie decided to take some pictures of the landscaping that surrounds the deck at Cielo Vista.
When it came time to head into town I was still a little gunshy about heading down Gift Hill Rd. the same way we came in the night before, so we headed down the hill instead, and took a left onto Centerline Rd. and went to Cruz Bay that way.
I was already getting a little more comfortable with driving, but Leslie decided to leave the additional driver signature on the rental agreement blank! The people working at the rental office were very nice and friendly. I told them that by giving me such a new vehicle (only 6K miles on it) they were putting the pressure on me, but she laughed and said I'd do just fine. She also let me know that I could park in their lot when in town if I wanted to. After seeing the steep gravel driveway and cramped parking area behind the building, I thought to myself "only as a last resort".
Since we were downtown we decided to walk around a bit. I was anxious to see more of the places in real life that I had been reading about. We walked from St. John Car Rental, through the Beach Bar, past Joe's Rum Shack, and found ourselves once again at the famous "Do Not Sit on the Stairs" sign. So we walked up them instead. We walked past a woman that kind of "looked" at me, and into St. John Spice. We were greeted by the woman working behind the counter. After browsing for a few minutes I asked her if she was by chance Ruth. She told me no, that Ruth was who was walking out of the store as we were walking in. When I did get to introduce myself to Ruth a few minutes later, she said that she had a feeling that I might heve been augie - I guess that explains the look! We then met Ron, and after deciding that we should let them get some work done rather than listening to us go on and on I bought a small shaker of Cruz Bay Grill Rub to use at the villa, and we promised we'd be back for more later in the week.
We continued our little sightseeing tour, walking to The Lumberyard Complex, then on to Mongoose Junction. Even though it was still early enough that many of the stores were not yet open, it was starting to get hot. So we had a novel idea: why don't we go to a beach?
We headed carefully out of town, back toward Cielo Vista. I'm still a little cautious driving at this point, especially at the intersection in Cruz Bay that decides how, or if, you'll leave town. I make my best guess and soon I see the (closed) Marina Market and know that we're on our way to Jacob's Ladder again...
Oh well, since we're going this way we may as well stop at the Starfish Marketplace. Picked up a few things at Starfish, and a few at Chelsea Drugstore then we were heading up the hill. This time, since I was expecting the wild, hilly corners they didn't seem quite as bad and certainly less intimidating.
Knowing that there were some cruise ships in St. Thomas that day, and since we weren't getting an early start, we decided to go somewhere away from the north shore beaches, and after consulting "Feet, fins, and four wheel drive" we settled on Salt Bay Pond for our first beach/snorkel trip.
With the "animated" map they give you, and FFFWD, we could find our way around, but not as confidently this early in the stay as we'd be able to later in the week. But as we were on island time, and since we couldn't really go too far wrong in any direction, we boldly went, and boldly backtracked, and boldly second guessed our hunches, and sometimes even boldly asked for help. But if not sooner, then not really too much later we arrived at a parking lot that we figured was probably the one at the head of the trail to Salt Pond Bay. We asked a group of ladies coming from the other direction if that was the case, and when they confirmed that it was we congratulated ourselves on our navigational prowess.
So we get to Salt Pond Bay and the beach is packed! I mean, there must have been eight people there if you count the ones that were in the water! We got in and swam towards the mooring buoys, and within six minutes of entering the water we saw a southern stingray on the bottom. Leslie loves stingrays, so the whole trip was now officially a success!
DISCLAIMER/LESSONS LEARNED #1: I have a very nice underwater housing that is designed for my specific model digital camera (Olympus C5050Z). I have used it many times scuba diving and it works great, and even without external strobes and such I have taken some fairly nice pictures with that setup. Since I was "just" snorkeling this trip, I decided, in the name of packing lighter, to leave the housing and its carrying case at home and bought a waterproof pouch, rated to 30 feet or so of depth, that my camera can fit in. Bad move. With some difficulty I was able to get the camera to turn off and on underwater, and the bag never leaked, so nothing got destroyed. But the pictures I took underwater turned out awful. I wasn't really able to see either the viewfinder or the LCD display on the back of the camera, so framing shots, which can be tricky with moving subjects under water under even the best circumstances, was extremely hit or miss, mostly the latter. And the surface of the bag did not do a very good job of diffusing the internal flash either. Bottom line: I never even bothered taking the camera under water the rest of the week. The good news: Many of the trip reports posted here, and the links to online photo albums contain spectacular shots of any and everything you'll ever likely see under the water, so if I mention a creature and you don't know what it looks like, chances are you'll be able to find a much better picture of it than I could have provided anyway. Also: I will bring my housing with me on any subsequent trip where I plan to be in the water.
After floating over the grass beds for a while we swam over to the right side of the bay (as you are on the beach looking towards the water). We saw parrotfish of several varieties, squirrelfish, hogfish, tangs, damsels, and much more.
After taking a break for a bit to get a snack and drink we talked to a couple from Maryland, Sharon and Lewis, that were camped out fairly close to us on the beach. Lewis had seen a turtle between the buoys earlier - that's why we went that way to start, but we didn't see it. He told us that he had seen it again while we were over near the rocks, so when we headed out again, we once more started in the middle of the beach. This time we did have to go a bit further out, but we saw him munching on the grass on the bottom, then we trailed behind him for a little while until he headed for deeper water.
We headed for the rocks on the other end of the beach and were just slowly making our way back to shore. I saw a small four-eyed butterfly fish and got Leslie's attention to show it to her. When we stopped hovering over it, and looked up to continue making our way in, there was another turtle, a little smaller than the first one we'd seen, about three feet away from us, also on the surface. He(?) and I just looked at each other for what seemed like a minute, kind of like "what are YOU doing here?" looks on our faces, then he dove and swam away. Some (above water) Salt Pond Bay pictures:
After our second snorkel we decided to dry to head back "home". We made the short hike back to the jeep, then took Salt Pond Rd. back to Centerline and headed west. Along the way, we stopped where the big(ish) rock on the side of the road is and took a few pictures of Coral Bay. A few years ago we had a group that rented jeeps for the day in STT, came over on the car barge, and after spending some time at Trunk and Cinnamon, did a quick circumnavigation of the island, all on North Shore and Centerline Roads. We stopped at this same spot and took pictures of the same view, but I never knew where it was. After I found this forum I went back and looked at my old pictures and figured it was probably Coral Bay, but this confirmed it for us!
Back at the villa we rinsed all of the gear off, then took a dip in the pool.
We took some pictures out towards STT, hoping to get that perfect "sun dipping below the horizon" sunset photo. That never quite worked out for us this trip, but they are interesting to look at anyway, and the quest for the "perfect" one will be just one more reason to return...
I cut up some potatoes and seasoned them with olive oil, and some other spices I found in the pantry and wrapped them in foil and put them on the grill. A bit later I took a couple of chicken breasts and sprinkled them with the Cruz Bay Grill Rub and put them on the grill also - they smelled SO good while they were cooking! We steamed some snow peas to go with them, and we had a great ending to our day enjoying a good meal, some cold drinks, an unbetable view, and just being there together in paradise!
Come see us!
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designbyroe
- Posts: 1348
- Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:27 pm
- Location: Chilaxin on White Bay at least in my mind
Augie - too bad about the underwater photos.
I hope you didnt post an "Underwater housing vs. waterproof pouch" question here that I missed, because I wouldve advised you to bite the bullet and bring the housing based on similar experience. If memory serves, this has been discussed here in the past with Bob and Anita.
I hope you didnt post an "Underwater housing vs. waterproof pouch" question here that I missed, because I wouldve advised you to bite the bullet and bring the housing based on similar experience. If memory serves, this has been discussed here in the past with Bob and Anita.
When we come to place where the sea and the sky collide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
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Rachelle & Joe
- Posts: 677
- Joined: Sat Nov 18, 2006 4:23 pm
- Location: ohio
trip report
Hi, Thanks for the report!!! the pic's were great! we stayed at cielo last year! were the owners Nancy & Chris there??? great people!!! we loved the villa & view, but next year trying something different for a different feel & view at Miles Away on Rendezvous can't wait but will return to cielo one day for sure! our pic's of villa r under photo's 2006. Thanks again & looking forward to more! Rachelle & Joe ..... Did u put sugar out for the Banquita's?! we actually ran out & were on a mission to buy more only to find out all the stores were out at the time! we brought some of those lil' packets from home & even used them!!! those lil' cuties were alway's hungary!!!! 
Nancy & Chris weren't there while we were. I was looking forward to meeting them. They certainly have done a great job in providing everything you could possibly need at their villa!
We did put sugar out for the bananaquits and sugar water out for the hummingbirds - and you're right - those litlle suckers can put it away!
We did put sugar out for the bananaquits and sugar water out for the hummingbirds - and you're right - those litlle suckers can put it away!
Come see us!
Steve,
I am really enjoying your reports! As a former "resident" of Cielo Vista, I love hearing about any reference to your stay there. LOVE the nightime photo looking across the pool to the patio & inside the villa. Really romantic. And I LOVE your night shot looking towards St. Thomas with all the lights beginning to glow. It really brings back warm memories - as does your reference to the "warm-blooded" alarm clocks. Too funny! I remember starting off my report with those same references.
So happy to hear that you had awesome sightings at Salt Pond. What a great first day for you both!
Can't wait for your next installment...keep 'em coming!
Sue
I am really enjoying your reports! As a former "resident" of Cielo Vista, I love hearing about any reference to your stay there. LOVE the nightime photo looking across the pool to the patio & inside the villa. Really romantic. And I LOVE your night shot looking towards St. Thomas with all the lights beginning to glow. It really brings back warm memories - as does your reference to the "warm-blooded" alarm clocks. Too funny! I remember starting off my report with those same references.
So happy to hear that you had awesome sightings at Salt Pond. What a great first day for you both!
Can't wait for your next installment...keep 'em coming!
Sue
Another great installment! I love the flower photos. And, I agree with you, there really wasn't an opportunity for a killer sunset shot this time.
I have to tell you too, you guys look really familiar to me. I am watching your report to see if we were on the same beach at one point or something.
I have to tell you too, you guys look really familiar to me. I am watching your report to see if we were on the same beach at one point or something.
It's like looking in your soup and finding a whole different alphabet.
