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A week in paradise , first-timer's trip Report - Day 1
A week in paradise , first-timer's trip Report - Day 1
Well, our first trip to STJ is sadly over. I'm going to go through the trip by days, since that just makes sense to the engineer in me. There should be plenty of photos, as I shot over 1000.
My wife and I took this trip in honor of our 15th anniversary and we left the kids at home. Even though this is the Day 1 report, we know we'll be back with the kids as soon as we can. Anyway....
We left Houston at 6:00 a.m. on American Airlines, with a 2.5 hour layover in Miami. Flights were all close to on-time and we arrived at STT around 3 p.m., only about 20 min. behind schedule. We had arranged for a private taxi through our villa agency (Carefree Getaways) and Ivan was waiting for us as advertised. I did this because we had travelled with just carry-on luggage and I hoped that with an on-time arrival of 2:35 we could have made the CA ferry by not having to wait for a full taxi. Oh well, it was nice not being crowded on the slightly harrowing taxi ride to Red Hook. We took all back roads, and I think a few alleyways on our journey. I'm not sure why they post 20 mph speed limit signs when everyone careens around the blind corners of St. Thomas at a minimum of 35 mph! A few muttered prayers to all things containing rum that awaiting the completion of our ride, and all was well with arrival in time for the 4 pm ferry.
Terry was our greeter, but had another couple to escort so her daughter-in-law Janae (sp. ?) took us to Conrad Suttons and dropped me off to get our jeep while giving my wife the tour around Cruz Bay. Janae just got a job teaching 2nd grade there on STJ, and my wife teaches elementary school so they had a lot to discuss. I asked my wife later if she knew where anything was that Janae showed her and she admitted that she was totally confused and didn't even know they had gone around the "block" about 3 times while I was at Suttons!
The jeep rental was completely painless, as I had kind of expected. Carmen was the only one on duty when we arrived and we walked around the red, soft-top Wrangler and she wrote down almost every little scratch and was very thorough. The rear, side-panels were zipped out and weren't even in the car. I asked, and was told if I wanted them to stop by tomorrow morning, but that most people didn't even want them...we didn't. I'll have some more on the Suttons later in the report, but in order to be totally clear up front I thought they were super-nice people who run a good business and we will definitely use them the next time we're on STJ. There was one small issue with the Jeep that really had no effect on our trip, and they got it taken care of with no hassles.
Our villa was the 'famous' Bongo Bongo, and it is a beautiful house. Pond Bay construction is definitely in the view and within earshot, but it wasn't a real issue for us. The house has everything you could think of needing and is awesome at night with the patio lights on, tiki torches lit, and some good tunes on the sound system (quietly of course so as not to disturb any neighbors!)
A quick tour of the villa and we put away our stuff and headed to the Beach Bar for our first painkillers, and we ended up sharing some nachos and called it a night!
Here are a few pictures from our first day:
My wife and I took this trip in honor of our 15th anniversary and we left the kids at home. Even though this is the Day 1 report, we know we'll be back with the kids as soon as we can. Anyway....
We left Houston at 6:00 a.m. on American Airlines, with a 2.5 hour layover in Miami. Flights were all close to on-time and we arrived at STT around 3 p.m., only about 20 min. behind schedule. We had arranged for a private taxi through our villa agency (Carefree Getaways) and Ivan was waiting for us as advertised. I did this because we had travelled with just carry-on luggage and I hoped that with an on-time arrival of 2:35 we could have made the CA ferry by not having to wait for a full taxi. Oh well, it was nice not being crowded on the slightly harrowing taxi ride to Red Hook. We took all back roads, and I think a few alleyways on our journey. I'm not sure why they post 20 mph speed limit signs when everyone careens around the blind corners of St. Thomas at a minimum of 35 mph! A few muttered prayers to all things containing rum that awaiting the completion of our ride, and all was well with arrival in time for the 4 pm ferry.
Terry was our greeter, but had another couple to escort so her daughter-in-law Janae (sp. ?) took us to Conrad Suttons and dropped me off to get our jeep while giving my wife the tour around Cruz Bay. Janae just got a job teaching 2nd grade there on STJ, and my wife teaches elementary school so they had a lot to discuss. I asked my wife later if she knew where anything was that Janae showed her and she admitted that she was totally confused and didn't even know they had gone around the "block" about 3 times while I was at Suttons!
The jeep rental was completely painless, as I had kind of expected. Carmen was the only one on duty when we arrived and we walked around the red, soft-top Wrangler and she wrote down almost every little scratch and was very thorough. The rear, side-panels were zipped out and weren't even in the car. I asked, and was told if I wanted them to stop by tomorrow morning, but that most people didn't even want them...we didn't. I'll have some more on the Suttons later in the report, but in order to be totally clear up front I thought they were super-nice people who run a good business and we will definitely use them the next time we're on STJ. There was one small issue with the Jeep that really had no effect on our trip, and they got it taken care of with no hassles.
Our villa was the 'famous' Bongo Bongo, and it is a beautiful house. Pond Bay construction is definitely in the view and within earshot, but it wasn't a real issue for us. The house has everything you could think of needing and is awesome at night with the patio lights on, tiki torches lit, and some good tunes on the sound system (quietly of course so as not to disturb any neighbors!)
A quick tour of the villa and we put away our stuff and headed to the Beach Bar for our first painkillers, and we ended up sharing some nachos and called it a night!
Here are a few pictures from our first day:
KT
-
cypressgirl
- Posts: 2178
- Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2006 2:42 pm
- Location: houston
Nice start to you TR. Bongo Bongo looks great and I'd love to see more photos of it, but that view of the pond and the construstion nearby is a tad unattractive. Were you made aware of that when you made your reservations?
I do that same connection from Houston on AA leaving at 6:00 and hoping for no delays so I can make the 4:00 ferry. It sure seems like a long day, but worth it when you finally get settled in your villa and soak in the views with a good drink. Too bad there's no direct flight from Houston. That seems so crazy to me.
I do that same connection from Houston on AA leaving at 6:00 and hoping for no delays so I can make the 4:00 ferry. It sure seems like a long day, but worth it when you finally get settled in your villa and soak in the views with a good drink. Too bad there's no direct flight from Houston. That seems so crazy to me.
Very Nice! Looking forward to the rest of the days' report and pictures!
Paul
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