Umbrellas? We don't need no stinkin' umbrellas!(Pt. III)
Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 6:41 pm
Link to Pt. I - http://virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum ... 206#205206
Link to Pt. II - http://virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum ... hp?t=17483
Thursday 7/25 - We woke up once again to clouds, rain, and wind...
It looked like the north shore beaches would still be blown out, so we decided to stay "local" on the south shore. Even though I'd bought some coffee at St. John Spice the day before, I forgot to get filters. So it was back down to Big Ben's Deli for a cup of coffee, which was OK because we were buying sandwiches from them anyway, that we were taking with us for lunch.
[St. John for Dummies tip: If you have a dry bag with you, it's a good idea to put your sandwiches, which are wrapped in deli paper, in the dry bag, rather than just directly into the cooler with ice and drinks]
We headed west on Salt Pond Road, passing all of the usual landmarks along the way. There were already a few cars in the Salt Pond Bay parking lot, despite the early hour - I guess everyone was looking for north shore alternatives!
The road to Lameshure was as adventurous as ever, and even had more/bigger/deeper puddles of water courtesy of all of the recent rains. We were the first ones at Little Lameshure and we backed the Jeep under the branches of a tree, just a few steps away from a picnic table - perfect.
Then we got a pleasant surprise - the sun came out! For a few hours at least, it looked like a normally glorious St. John day!
And we wasted no time getting in the water to take advanage of that!
After a nice long snorkel we all headed back to the beach for some limin'
After drying off a little we decided to have lunch. I had discovered my sandwich error when we got to the beach, and moving the food to the dry bag probably helped some, but the sandwiches, especially mine - which was loaded with extras, were a little (OK, more than a little) soggy. But this guy didn't seem to mind eating the bread that we deemed too wet:
After we'd let our lunch settle a bit we went back out into the water.
We stayed in until we were cold/tired/waterlogged, then made our way back to our refuge in the shade of the trees. It had been a great day, and we enjoyed just hanging out and extending it.
Eventually we decided that unless we planned on staying overnight we'd better head back. We retraced our route from the morning and saw evidence that there had been A LOT of folks (relatively speaking of course) at Salt Pond Bay today.
Once we got home, rinsed the gear, and got cleaned up, it was time to start getting dinner ready. Once I assured Leslie that I had it under control, she took advantage of the breezes coming off of Coral Bay to chill out for a while;
A dinner of grilled filet mignon, grilled potatoes, and steamed veggies, accompanied by some of the VI's finest distilled spirits, made a great ending to a great day!
Link to Pt. II - http://virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum ... hp?t=17483
Thursday 7/25 - We woke up once again to clouds, rain, and wind...
It looked like the north shore beaches would still be blown out, so we decided to stay "local" on the south shore. Even though I'd bought some coffee at St. John Spice the day before, I forgot to get filters. So it was back down to Big Ben's Deli for a cup of coffee, which was OK because we were buying sandwiches from them anyway, that we were taking with us for lunch.
[St. John for Dummies tip: If you have a dry bag with you, it's a good idea to put your sandwiches, which are wrapped in deli paper, in the dry bag, rather than just directly into the cooler with ice and drinks]
We headed west on Salt Pond Road, passing all of the usual landmarks along the way. There were already a few cars in the Salt Pond Bay parking lot, despite the early hour - I guess everyone was looking for north shore alternatives!
The road to Lameshure was as adventurous as ever, and even had more/bigger/deeper puddles of water courtesy of all of the recent rains. We were the first ones at Little Lameshure and we backed the Jeep under the branches of a tree, just a few steps away from a picnic table - perfect.
Then we got a pleasant surprise - the sun came out! For a few hours at least, it looked like a normally glorious St. John day!
And we wasted no time getting in the water to take advanage of that!
After a nice long snorkel we all headed back to the beach for some limin'
After drying off a little we decided to have lunch. I had discovered my sandwich error when we got to the beach, and moving the food to the dry bag probably helped some, but the sandwiches, especially mine - which was loaded with extras, were a little (OK, more than a little) soggy. But this guy didn't seem to mind eating the bread that we deemed too wet:
After we'd let our lunch settle a bit we went back out into the water.
We stayed in until we were cold/tired/waterlogged, then made our way back to our refuge in the shade of the trees. It had been a great day, and we enjoyed just hanging out and extending it.
Eventually we decided that unless we planned on staying overnight we'd better head back. We retraced our route from the morning and saw evidence that there had been A LOT of folks (relatively speaking of course) at Salt Pond Bay today.
Once we got home, rinsed the gear, and got cleaned up, it was time to start getting dinner ready. Once I assured Leslie that I had it under control, she took advantage of the breezes coming off of Coral Bay to chill out for a while;
A dinner of grilled filet mignon, grilled potatoes, and steamed veggies, accompanied by some of the VI's finest distilled spirits, made a great ending to a great day!
