Muhaha trip report Days 7-8 (1/28/11-1/29/11) final days
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 1:49 pm
Link to Days 1-2: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=19212
Link to Days 3-4: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=19214
Link to Days 5-6: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=19218
Day 7:
I'm batting perfect on sunrises and also getting concerned that when I return home that I will be waking up at 4:15 CT. The wife doesn't drag her butt out of bed this morning until after 7am (just kidding dear, really), so I have plenty of time to ponder on our last full day on the island. For the past two days it has been weighing heavily on my mind whether we will return to STJ for our next vacation. We are considering returning to the South Pacific, or possibly someplace like Costa Rica. As I watch the sun rise in the sky and paint the islands with color, I have no idea what we'll do.
Once the wife awakes, we enjoy our usual breakfast and coffee on the deck and decide that our last full day will be spent at our favorite beach, Francis. We decide that we will have lunch at the Maho campground, so we only pack our water stuff and chairs and off we go!
We noted in the morning that the swells were gone and that the water looked as smooth as bath water. Francis does not disappoint and is as perfect as ever.
I really need to find out if the Olympus has a faster shutter setting
We head into the water with the gameplan of heading to the right along the beach, stopping at the big cactus, and left hooking into the bay to the first buoy. The buoy is a never-fail turtle spot.
As we make our way, the first stop of interest is a small underwater ledge right up against the shore (where the smooth rocks start just after the beach). Nothing really spectacular about this spot, except that it is a bit sentimental as our kids were mesmorized on our last trip by the ledge and the bounty of fish that hide in it's crevices.
We make it to the big cactus and spot this little punk rocker hiding under a rock.
Hang a quick left and swim for the buoy...when we arrive, like clockwork we spot a turtle. Not just any turtle, but a really really big one. We estimate that he was 7 feet head to tail.
We spent a half hour with him and shot a ton of video, thankful that I had bought a second battery for the Olympus before vacation. Eventually he either got bored or creeped out by us and kicked in the afterburners, leaving us in the dust. At this point we were completely satisfied with our day no matter what else happens. We decide to head directly to the beach where we will hang out and then head to lunch. About halfway back to the beach, we spot these 2 guys in the sand below us.
We love rays, and now we could die happy. I was literally thinking how lucky we were to see the big turtle and these two rays within 5 minutes of each other, and actually wondered what other surprises we would see. I turned to look around and immediately panicked as an enormous creature filled my vision. I grabbed the wifes arm, she turned and screamed in her snorkel. A giant eagle ray was 20 feet away, near the surface, and heading our way. It scared the bejeebers out of us as it was unexpected, we both later discussed and found that our first gut reaction was big shark in the milliseconds before we comprehended what was coming at us. Anyways, the ray gently turned to our right and began a gentle circle. He was a bit intimidating as he was fully 8 feet in wing span, and we estimate at least 15 feet from head to tip of tail. He circled us over and over and over. I shot 5 minutes of video and then grabbed a few pics. Unfortunately, he had stirred up the water pretty good with his motions so these pics are pretty cloudy:
We then started our swim back into shore, and I was contemplating the ridiculous luck on this snorkel. At that moment it occured to me, without any doubt, we would indeed return to STJ on our next vacation. Debate over - this is what I love. It was like a revelation of sorts.
As we approached the sandy beach we came across this fella in about 4 feet of water. You can't tell in the pictures, but he was in a sort of frenzy and chasing the larger fish. I couldn't tell if this wa territorial behavior or if he was hunting. But, for sure it was icing on the cake.
We climbed out of the water and sat in our chairs for a while. We broke out into wordless laughter for what seemed like 5 minutes, both totally happy with our morning. Hunger called so we drove up the hill to Maho and to our chagrin discovered that the restaraunt is not open for lunch. We have to head down the stairs to the beach and grab a cold sandwich at the snack shack. We enjoy our sandwich at a table under the trees along the beach, when I hear a loud *plop* hit the table next to us. I look up and discover the tree canopy above us is rustling with iguanas. Now, I think the iguana is singly the most cool and bad-ass looking land animal on the planet. However, I had never given any though to how it does it's "business". Trust me, if my black lab had been in the tree somehow, she would have not made much worse of a mess than the iguana did. We wisely decided to leave the table area and eat our lunch while climbing the stairs back up to head back to Francis.
Back at the beach, we decided for our last island snorkel we will go in reverse - first straight to the buoy, then to the cactus, then along Mary's Point to the tip. Once again we get halfway between the buoy and the beach when we run into the big guy again.
After spending more time watching the beautiful gliding we headed on out to the buoy and what do you know, we run into these two:
Now the day is just plain ridiculous. I could not have drafted the script for our last day any better. Well, maybe throw in a nekked mermaid or two - that would have been in my movie, but that is another story.
We snorkel to the end of Mary's Point, which was fantastic. The coral may be average, but there certainly are lot's of schools of fish of all sizes. The fish are so plentiful at Francis. We are starting to get a bit tired when we hit the point and start to swim back along the shore. There is a pretty stiff current and we are exhausted by the time we make it to the beach. We chill for a while before heading back to the villa for showers.
The elusive Feral Cows, something we have not managed to find until now
Then it is off to Cruz Bay for the Beach Bar. My bride's favorite all time salad on earth is the steak salad at the BB. I have the manly burger and fries and we both enjoy drinks and some live music before heading back to the villa. Now, this is the stage of the trip where you sadly think of everything you do as "the last time I (insert activity here)". I know you all think the same thing as you enjoy one last night of stargazing, or one last soak in the hot tub. While sad, it wasn't tragically so as we both felt very satisfied at the perfect week we have had on the island.
Day 8:
Yep, up at dawn. We spend the next 3 hours leisurely enjoying our coffee and breakfast and watching the boats pass below off of Johnson's Reef and the sun rise to paint the colors on Lovango Key, Denis beach below, and Jumbie below. Then we spend less than an hour packing and straightening the villa. We recall in amazement at how quickly this process moves along without the kids along to "help". We lock up and head to Cruz Bay for shopping, it is time to find a necklace for my mother in appreciation for the time she spent with our kids while we were away. I can't help but wonder if she is tied and gagged and locked in a closet while the kids install a provisional government, reminiscient of The Lord of the Flies.
I make it about 15 minutes shopping when the wife detects my cool vacation demeanor slowly fading, replaced by the tension I always get while shopping. She alertly directs me to the Beach Bar where she will meet me after the shopping expedition. Several painkillers later, we reunite and head over on our "drive of woe" to the car barge.
The last place I expected to have the vacation topped off with nuts and cherries is the car barge. But halfway between STJ and STT we spot 3 dolphins swimming alongside the ferry. Ok, officially this trip was perfect.
The line at customs was non-existent, the flight on time, the connection on time, and we land at O'Hare 5 minutes early. The car actually starts, no dead battery from below zero weather, a quick trip home. Wake the kids and hug them.
A very special trip for both of us.
Link to Days 3-4: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=19214
Link to Days 5-6: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=19218
Day 7:
I'm batting perfect on sunrises and also getting concerned that when I return home that I will be waking up at 4:15 CT. The wife doesn't drag her butt out of bed this morning until after 7am (just kidding dear, really), so I have plenty of time to ponder on our last full day on the island. For the past two days it has been weighing heavily on my mind whether we will return to STJ for our next vacation. We are considering returning to the South Pacific, or possibly someplace like Costa Rica. As I watch the sun rise in the sky and paint the islands with color, I have no idea what we'll do.
Once the wife awakes, we enjoy our usual breakfast and coffee on the deck and decide that our last full day will be spent at our favorite beach, Francis. We decide that we will have lunch at the Maho campground, so we only pack our water stuff and chairs and off we go!
We noted in the morning that the swells were gone and that the water looked as smooth as bath water. Francis does not disappoint and is as perfect as ever.
I really need to find out if the Olympus has a faster shutter setting
We head into the water with the gameplan of heading to the right along the beach, stopping at the big cactus, and left hooking into the bay to the first buoy. The buoy is a never-fail turtle spot.
As we make our way, the first stop of interest is a small underwater ledge right up against the shore (where the smooth rocks start just after the beach). Nothing really spectacular about this spot, except that it is a bit sentimental as our kids were mesmorized on our last trip by the ledge and the bounty of fish that hide in it's crevices.
We make it to the big cactus and spot this little punk rocker hiding under a rock.
Hang a quick left and swim for the buoy...when we arrive, like clockwork we spot a turtle. Not just any turtle, but a really really big one. We estimate that he was 7 feet head to tail.
We spent a half hour with him and shot a ton of video, thankful that I had bought a second battery for the Olympus before vacation. Eventually he either got bored or creeped out by us and kicked in the afterburners, leaving us in the dust. At this point we were completely satisfied with our day no matter what else happens. We decide to head directly to the beach where we will hang out and then head to lunch. About halfway back to the beach, we spot these 2 guys in the sand below us.
We love rays, and now we could die happy. I was literally thinking how lucky we were to see the big turtle and these two rays within 5 minutes of each other, and actually wondered what other surprises we would see. I turned to look around and immediately panicked as an enormous creature filled my vision. I grabbed the wifes arm, she turned and screamed in her snorkel. A giant eagle ray was 20 feet away, near the surface, and heading our way. It scared the bejeebers out of us as it was unexpected, we both later discussed and found that our first gut reaction was big shark in the milliseconds before we comprehended what was coming at us. Anyways, the ray gently turned to our right and began a gentle circle. He was a bit intimidating as he was fully 8 feet in wing span, and we estimate at least 15 feet from head to tip of tail. He circled us over and over and over. I shot 5 minutes of video and then grabbed a few pics. Unfortunately, he had stirred up the water pretty good with his motions so these pics are pretty cloudy:
We then started our swim back into shore, and I was contemplating the ridiculous luck on this snorkel. At that moment it occured to me, without any doubt, we would indeed return to STJ on our next vacation. Debate over - this is what I love. It was like a revelation of sorts.
As we approached the sandy beach we came across this fella in about 4 feet of water. You can't tell in the pictures, but he was in a sort of frenzy and chasing the larger fish. I couldn't tell if this wa territorial behavior or if he was hunting. But, for sure it was icing on the cake.
We climbed out of the water and sat in our chairs for a while. We broke out into wordless laughter for what seemed like 5 minutes, both totally happy with our morning. Hunger called so we drove up the hill to Maho and to our chagrin discovered that the restaraunt is not open for lunch. We have to head down the stairs to the beach and grab a cold sandwich at the snack shack. We enjoy our sandwich at a table under the trees along the beach, when I hear a loud *plop* hit the table next to us. I look up and discover the tree canopy above us is rustling with iguanas. Now, I think the iguana is singly the most cool and bad-ass looking land animal on the planet. However, I had never given any though to how it does it's "business". Trust me, if my black lab had been in the tree somehow, she would have not made much worse of a mess than the iguana did. We wisely decided to leave the table area and eat our lunch while climbing the stairs back up to head back to Francis.
Back at the beach, we decided for our last island snorkel we will go in reverse - first straight to the buoy, then to the cactus, then along Mary's Point to the tip. Once again we get halfway between the buoy and the beach when we run into the big guy again.
After spending more time watching the beautiful gliding we headed on out to the buoy and what do you know, we run into these two:
Now the day is just plain ridiculous. I could not have drafted the script for our last day any better. Well, maybe throw in a nekked mermaid or two - that would have been in my movie, but that is another story.
We snorkel to the end of Mary's Point, which was fantastic. The coral may be average, but there certainly are lot's of schools of fish of all sizes. The fish are so plentiful at Francis. We are starting to get a bit tired when we hit the point and start to swim back along the shore. There is a pretty stiff current and we are exhausted by the time we make it to the beach. We chill for a while before heading back to the villa for showers.
The elusive Feral Cows, something we have not managed to find until now
Then it is off to Cruz Bay for the Beach Bar. My bride's favorite all time salad on earth is the steak salad at the BB. I have the manly burger and fries and we both enjoy drinks and some live music before heading back to the villa. Now, this is the stage of the trip where you sadly think of everything you do as "the last time I (insert activity here)". I know you all think the same thing as you enjoy one last night of stargazing, or one last soak in the hot tub. While sad, it wasn't tragically so as we both felt very satisfied at the perfect week we have had on the island.
Day 8:
Yep, up at dawn. We spend the next 3 hours leisurely enjoying our coffee and breakfast and watching the boats pass below off of Johnson's Reef and the sun rise to paint the colors on Lovango Key, Denis beach below, and Jumbie below. Then we spend less than an hour packing and straightening the villa. We recall in amazement at how quickly this process moves along without the kids along to "help". We lock up and head to Cruz Bay for shopping, it is time to find a necklace for my mother in appreciation for the time she spent with our kids while we were away. I can't help but wonder if she is tied and gagged and locked in a closet while the kids install a provisional government, reminiscient of The Lord of the Flies.
I make it about 15 minutes shopping when the wife detects my cool vacation demeanor slowly fading, replaced by the tension I always get while shopping. She alertly directs me to the Beach Bar where she will meet me after the shopping expedition. Several painkillers later, we reunite and head over on our "drive of woe" to the car barge.
The last place I expected to have the vacation topped off with nuts and cherries is the car barge. But halfway between STJ and STT we spot 3 dolphins swimming alongside the ferry. Ok, officially this trip was perfect.
The line at customs was non-existent, the flight on time, the connection on time, and we land at O'Hare 5 minutes early. The car actually starts, no dead battery from below zero weather, a quick trip home. Wake the kids and hug them.
A very special trip for both of us.
) on the hot fudge sundae of married life!