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Return to StJ Report - Part 2
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StjLoverEi
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 11:26 am
- Location: Chicago
Return to StJ Report - Part 2
Back again for days 2 and 3! Thanks for all of your kind words. I was having so much fun reading all of the other great trip reports on here that it was hard to get back to mine but here goes.
Monday morning I wake up to another gorgeous day. We packed up for the beach and headed out. First stop today was dropping off the flat spare tire to be fixed at E&C. Since this was right around the corner from Starfish Market we decided to stop in at Baked in the Sun. The idea was to get a picnic for lunch but we were hungry so we got bagels for breakfast instead. The owners (at least I think they were the owners) were so nice while we were waiting for our food. They asked us what adventures we had planned for today and suggested some things for us to do. Our adventure that day was Honeymoon Beach. We drove up to the top of the hill by the Virgin Islands National Park sign and walked down. It was a pretty short hike - it only took about 10-15 minutes to get down. One great thing about staying at Lavender Hill was the nice backpack-style beach chairs that they have. I was able to fit my snorkelling gear, a towel and a book in the back. Very convenient! The trail was empty and there had been no other cars in the parking lot so I was expecting to be the only ones on the beach. So I was pretty surprised to see about 30-40 people there when I got there! I'm thinking what kind of Off the Beaten Track place is this?
It turns out the New Horizons snorkelling boat was docked just off the beach. I don't think I would enjoy that kind of tour as it seemed crowded on the boat and they sat there for a long time after everybody was back on. Anyway the tour was gone after about an hour or so and we had the beach pretty much to ourselves - only 5-6 other people then.
Here's the beautiful beach.
And the boat full of snorkellers
I lounged around for a bit looking at the view.
And then I went to do some snorkelling of my own.
All of this fun made me tired and hungry again so we decided to head back for lunch. The walk UP to the car was a little more strenuous than the way down. It still wasn't bad, but I was really tired by the time I got back to the car. Then came the daily ritual of trying to de-sand ourselves. Later in the week we got smart and brought some bottles of water with us to help with this task. We still couldn't save our poor Jeep though. By the end of the week it looked like we poured sand into it! Anyway, then we stopped at Mongoose Junction for lunch. We popped our heads into Ocean Grill but it was already closed. We seem to be off on the dining schedules this week! So we went over to Sun Dog. I really liked this place! I had a BBC here that was really good and some mahi tacos. Mike had a passion fruit margarita and the jerk chicken tacos. Sorry I don't have any food porn but I'm usually tearing into my food before I think to take a picture of it! Then it was back to pick up the spare tire that we had fixed ($6 - such a deal!) and then back to Lavender Hill for nap time again. After nap time we went to dinner at Da Livio, across the street from the Lime Inn. I really liked this place! We had the trio appetizer which was caponata, pepperonata and eggplant parmesan. This was terrific. For dinner I had the pasta with shrimp and zucchini and Mike had the pasta with lobster. Well the pasta with lobster actually came with a whole Caribbean lobster tail - great stuff! Dessert was tiramisu which was good too. After dinner it was back to the condo and our nice comfy bed!
Tuesday morning I woke up to another gorgeous day. (Boy this trip report is getting repetitive!) After looking at the pictures from today I realized that this was bird watching day as you will soon see. I was not too hungry this morning - shocking - so we skipped breakfast and went straight to the beach. This morning's choice was Jumbie which was one of my favorites from our prior trip to St. John. There were quite a few people here this morning considering the limited parking. I liked Jumbie a lot because of the snorkelling but I was only able to do a little bit here that day because the water was so choppy. It's still a nice relaxing beach though.
There were lots of pelicans here. They are a lot of fun to watch as they dive-bomb for their breakfast.
The sun was popping in and out from behind the clouds so it was actually a little cool this morning. I did a little snorkelling but the waves were really coming in so we didn't stay here too much longer. Also - I was getting hungry again! We decided to head out to Skinny Legs for lunch. In lieu of food porn, you'll see the second bird of the day. This guy was underfoot at lunch hoping for some of my Blue Cheese burger I think.
Lunch was terrific. I also had a coconut cooler here that was really good too. I don't know why but this place really has an island feel to me.
After lunch we decided to try Francis Beach since we had not been there on our last trip. I can't believe we missed it before! After seeing it the first time I was totally amazed. I think that this is my favorit beach. It has such a large beach so it never seemed crowded. Plus the water is SO calm and the view is gorgeous. Also I saw my first sea turtles here!
Bird number 3.
There was a pretty heavy shower the afternoon that we were here which was actually a lot of fun. I mean, you're already wet, right? But it ended up cutting the afternoon short because the bugs SWARMED as soon as it was over. I don't know if it was the noseeums or mosquitos but we got tons of bug bites that afternoon. But it was worth it! I was so excited to see the turtles here because I didn't manage to spot any on my first trip.
Dinner tonight was at Zozo's. It was great because we just had to walk across the street! The views of St. Thomas here really make for a great atmosphere. This was probably my favorite meal. We had a bottle of wine here as well as some great mahi-mahi and grouper and a terrific melty-chocolate dessert. The service was very nice and the prices were similar to most of the other restaurants that we tried. So once we were full and exhausted again it was back to bed!
Monday morning I wake up to another gorgeous day. We packed up for the beach and headed out. First stop today was dropping off the flat spare tire to be fixed at E&C. Since this was right around the corner from Starfish Market we decided to stop in at Baked in the Sun. The idea was to get a picnic for lunch but we were hungry so we got bagels for breakfast instead. The owners (at least I think they were the owners) were so nice while we were waiting for our food. They asked us what adventures we had planned for today and suggested some things for us to do. Our adventure that day was Honeymoon Beach. We drove up to the top of the hill by the Virgin Islands National Park sign and walked down. It was a pretty short hike - it only took about 10-15 minutes to get down. One great thing about staying at Lavender Hill was the nice backpack-style beach chairs that they have. I was able to fit my snorkelling gear, a towel and a book in the back. Very convenient! The trail was empty and there had been no other cars in the parking lot so I was expecting to be the only ones on the beach. So I was pretty surprised to see about 30-40 people there when I got there! I'm thinking what kind of Off the Beaten Track place is this?
It turns out the New Horizons snorkelling boat was docked just off the beach. I don't think I would enjoy that kind of tour as it seemed crowded on the boat and they sat there for a long time after everybody was back on. Anyway the tour was gone after about an hour or so and we had the beach pretty much to ourselves - only 5-6 other people then. Here's the beautiful beach.
And the boat full of snorkellers
I lounged around for a bit looking at the view.
And then I went to do some snorkelling of my own.
All of this fun made me tired and hungry again so we decided to head back for lunch. The walk UP to the car was a little more strenuous than the way down. It still wasn't bad, but I was really tired by the time I got back to the car. Then came the daily ritual of trying to de-sand ourselves. Later in the week we got smart and brought some bottles of water with us to help with this task. We still couldn't save our poor Jeep though. By the end of the week it looked like we poured sand into it! Anyway, then we stopped at Mongoose Junction for lunch. We popped our heads into Ocean Grill but it was already closed. We seem to be off on the dining schedules this week! So we went over to Sun Dog. I really liked this place! I had a BBC here that was really good and some mahi tacos. Mike had a passion fruit margarita and the jerk chicken tacos. Sorry I don't have any food porn but I'm usually tearing into my food before I think to take a picture of it! Then it was back to pick up the spare tire that we had fixed ($6 - such a deal!) and then back to Lavender Hill for nap time again. After nap time we went to dinner at Da Livio, across the street from the Lime Inn. I really liked this place! We had the trio appetizer which was caponata, pepperonata and eggplant parmesan. This was terrific. For dinner I had the pasta with shrimp and zucchini and Mike had the pasta with lobster. Well the pasta with lobster actually came with a whole Caribbean lobster tail - great stuff! Dessert was tiramisu which was good too. After dinner it was back to the condo and our nice comfy bed!
Tuesday morning I woke up to another gorgeous day. (Boy this trip report is getting repetitive!) After looking at the pictures from today I realized that this was bird watching day as you will soon see. I was not too hungry this morning - shocking - so we skipped breakfast and went straight to the beach. This morning's choice was Jumbie which was one of my favorites from our prior trip to St. John. There were quite a few people here this morning considering the limited parking. I liked Jumbie a lot because of the snorkelling but I was only able to do a little bit here that day because the water was so choppy. It's still a nice relaxing beach though.
There were lots of pelicans here. They are a lot of fun to watch as they dive-bomb for their breakfast.
The sun was popping in and out from behind the clouds so it was actually a little cool this morning. I did a little snorkelling but the waves were really coming in so we didn't stay here too much longer. Also - I was getting hungry again! We decided to head out to Skinny Legs for lunch. In lieu of food porn, you'll see the second bird of the day. This guy was underfoot at lunch hoping for some of my Blue Cheese burger I think.
Lunch was terrific. I also had a coconut cooler here that was really good too. I don't know why but this place really has an island feel to me.
After lunch we decided to try Francis Beach since we had not been there on our last trip. I can't believe we missed it before! After seeing it the first time I was totally amazed. I think that this is my favorit beach. It has such a large beach so it never seemed crowded. Plus the water is SO calm and the view is gorgeous. Also I saw my first sea turtles here!
Bird number 3.
There was a pretty heavy shower the afternoon that we were here which was actually a lot of fun. I mean, you're already wet, right? But it ended up cutting the afternoon short because the bugs SWARMED as soon as it was over. I don't know if it was the noseeums or mosquitos but we got tons of bug bites that afternoon. But it was worth it! I was so excited to see the turtles here because I didn't manage to spot any on my first trip.
Dinner tonight was at Zozo's. It was great because we just had to walk across the street! The views of St. Thomas here really make for a great atmosphere. This was probably my favorite meal. We had a bottle of wine here as well as some great mahi-mahi and grouper and a terrific melty-chocolate dessert. The service was very nice and the prices were similar to most of the other restaurants that we tried. So once we were full and exhausted again it was back to bed!
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Robin in NC
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Kentuckygirl
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designbyroe
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