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Trip report May 15-25 (long)
Trip report May 15-25 (long)
Background: This trip we had 8 people total in our group and we were all arriving at various times. DH(Jason) and I in our early 30's, married 2 1/2 years and no kids. My parents, Keith and Vicky, married 33 years this July. My brother, Shawn and his girlfriend, Angelina in their late twenties and lastly my uncle, Dan, and his girlfriend, Toni. My uncle and his girlfriend had been to Mexico before, but this was their first trip to the Caribbean.
May 15th: Jason and I were the first to depart KC, we had chosen to venture down early to have a couple of days by ourselves. Alarm went off at 3:00am, dressed and left a final note for the dog sitter. In the car and heading to my parents house for my dad to take us to the airport. KCI was not busy at all that early on a Thursday. I hadn't traveled midweek in a long time and wow does that make a difference in the lines. We were on our plane by 6:15 and departed on time. Flying Delta through Atlanta, flight was so rough there wasn't even beverage service. Thankfully, we made it to Atlanta and had a short layover, grabbed a breakfast sandwich and waited. Our flight was delayed about 1/2 an hour out of Atlanta, but we were so happy to be traveling, we didn't even notice. Easy flight to Atlanta, seemed like Delta was trying to force feed us snacks which was funny. Watched 27 dresses and before we knew it we were landing. We made up the 30 minutes in flight and landed on time in STT at 2:30. During this flight we set by a very nice man from St. Thomas and between the movie and chatting with him, time flew. Before we landed, he made sure I had his cell phone number if I had any problems or questions while on island. He was born and raised on STT and a retired school teacher. Made if off the plane and into the warm air. Kansas City had yet to turn warm when we left so we were so happy to get that warmth. Walked into the airport and the band was playing. We'd never experienced that or the shots of rum that were at the booth before. We really began to feel like we were on vacation. We quickly organized into Jason getting our one checked bag and me buying rum to take with us. Tennis shoes off and flip flops on! About 15 minutes later we were in the taxi and on our way to Secret Harbour.
We chose Secret Harbour based on the reviews and especially those of Liamsaunt! We had a beachfront studio. We dropped about 50 people off before finally arriving at our destination! At least it felt like 50. In our taxi no one was happy to be there either. It was very weird. We had smiles plastered to our faces and everyone else was sullen.
We were greeted promptly at Secret Harbour, check in was quick and we were whisked away to our studio. Ice cold A/C inside, everything was clean and orderly.
We quickly changed clothes and headed to the beach bar. We grabbed a pina colada and a margarita and grabbed the first beach chair we found. Our feet in the sand and drinks in hand, we looked at each other and grinned. We were in paradise FINALLY!!
View from our porch
Dock (sort of) at Secret Harbour.
We enjoyed the beach for a bit and began to get pretty hungry. We headed to Red Hook via taxi. Duffy's Love Shack was our choice for dinner since we'd never been there before. A bleu cheese burger for me (didn't compare to Skinny Legs) and a fish sandwich for him. We enjoyed the dinner and the atmosphere of eating in the parking lot. After dinner we walked down to Marina Market to buy some provisions for our few days. We wanted to have plenty of drinks for when the rest of the crew arrived on Saturday. A local looked in my cart and saw the milk and commented, "put the milk back, we don't drink milk here, can't afford it"! It gave me a laugh. 75.00 later, which I didn't feel was too bad, we got a taxi back to SH. He was great and took us right down to our room. We quickly put our groceries away and got ready for bed. We wanted to be up early to get out and enjoy the beach. We had no plans for the next two days except to sun,snorkel and drink! Perfection for us!
More to come, I'll try to keep them shorter after this and with more pics!
May 15th: Jason and I were the first to depart KC, we had chosen to venture down early to have a couple of days by ourselves. Alarm went off at 3:00am, dressed and left a final note for the dog sitter. In the car and heading to my parents house for my dad to take us to the airport. KCI was not busy at all that early on a Thursday. I hadn't traveled midweek in a long time and wow does that make a difference in the lines. We were on our plane by 6:15 and departed on time. Flying Delta through Atlanta, flight was so rough there wasn't even beverage service. Thankfully, we made it to Atlanta and had a short layover, grabbed a breakfast sandwich and waited. Our flight was delayed about 1/2 an hour out of Atlanta, but we were so happy to be traveling, we didn't even notice. Easy flight to Atlanta, seemed like Delta was trying to force feed us snacks which was funny. Watched 27 dresses and before we knew it we were landing. We made up the 30 minutes in flight and landed on time in STT at 2:30. During this flight we set by a very nice man from St. Thomas and between the movie and chatting with him, time flew. Before we landed, he made sure I had his cell phone number if I had any problems or questions while on island. He was born and raised on STT and a retired school teacher. Made if off the plane and into the warm air. Kansas City had yet to turn warm when we left so we were so happy to get that warmth. Walked into the airport and the band was playing. We'd never experienced that or the shots of rum that were at the booth before. We really began to feel like we were on vacation. We quickly organized into Jason getting our one checked bag and me buying rum to take with us. Tennis shoes off and flip flops on! About 15 minutes later we were in the taxi and on our way to Secret Harbour.
We chose Secret Harbour based on the reviews and especially those of Liamsaunt! We had a beachfront studio. We dropped about 50 people off before finally arriving at our destination! At least it felt like 50. In our taxi no one was happy to be there either. It was very weird. We had smiles plastered to our faces and everyone else was sullen.
We were greeted promptly at Secret Harbour, check in was quick and we were whisked away to our studio. Ice cold A/C inside, everything was clean and orderly.
We quickly changed clothes and headed to the beach bar. We grabbed a pina colada and a margarita and grabbed the first beach chair we found. Our feet in the sand and drinks in hand, we looked at each other and grinned. We were in paradise FINALLY!!
View from our porch
Dock (sort of) at Secret Harbour.
We enjoyed the beach for a bit and began to get pretty hungry. We headed to Red Hook via taxi. Duffy's Love Shack was our choice for dinner since we'd never been there before. A bleu cheese burger for me (didn't compare to Skinny Legs) and a fish sandwich for him. We enjoyed the dinner and the atmosphere of eating in the parking lot. After dinner we walked down to Marina Market to buy some provisions for our few days. We wanted to have plenty of drinks for when the rest of the crew arrived on Saturday. A local looked in my cart and saw the milk and commented, "put the milk back, we don't drink milk here, can't afford it"! It gave me a laugh. 75.00 later, which I didn't feel was too bad, we got a taxi back to SH. He was great and took us right down to our room. We quickly put our groceries away and got ready for bed. We wanted to be up early to get out and enjoy the beach. We had no plans for the next two days except to sun,snorkel and drink! Perfection for us!
More to come, I'll try to keep them shorter after this and with more pics!
Great start Nic 
to make your pics smaller you should have a choice from your picture hosting site I use the 15 inch screen size not sure what that converts to in resolution think it may be something like 640 by 800 seems to be about the right size for trip reports. Milk comment was funny I always tell people back home we use rum on our Wheaties cause milks so expensive 
to make your pics smaller you should have a choice from your picture hosting site I use the 15 inch screen size not sure what that converts to in resolution think it may be something like 640 by 800 seems to be about the right size for trip reports. Milk comment was funny I always tell people back home we use rum on our Wheaties cause milks so expensive -
Berlingirl
- Posts: 499
- Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:09 pm
- Location: New England
Thanks for the great trip report, Nic! We always stay at Secret Harbour when we are on St. Thomas. Your pictures were like looking at home! There really is some pretty decent snorkeling right off the beach there!
Can't wait to read and see more. July cannot come soon enough. Oh, and by the way, it is waaaay hot here in Dallas now! Can't wait for the cool breezes of St. john!
-Bert
Can't wait to read and see more. July cannot come soon enough. Oh, and by the way, it is waaaay hot here in Dallas now! Can't wait for the cool breezes of St. john!
-Bert
The liver is evil, it must be punished!
