Reminiscing: My first day of my first trip to STJ (LONG)
Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 9:56 am
It's a very cold Saturday morning here in East TN (from the 80s last week to the lovely 31 degrees that it is at this moment) and I am stuck inside and I am bored. I was digging through old photo albums and found my first album from my first trip to St. John. We were so dumb that first time, and I thought some of you might enjoy laughing at how stupid we were. I know I did.
This is long, so only forge ahead if you have some time to kill!
My first trip to St. John was supposed to be my honeymoon, in April of 2000. However, I was not the savvy traveller that I am today, and I had NO IDEA what I was doing. I attempted to get our tickets on Priceline and when it gave me the little checkbox for what airports I would fly into, I saw two choices: STT or STX. Well, dummy that I was I thought, "Oh, St. Thomas has 2 airports." So I checked them both. Well, guess what, I spent my honeymoon on St. Croix instead.
About 9 months later, US Air had a super fare sale to STT. $328 round trip from Knoxville. I grabbed it. So, in May 2001, we made our first trip to St. John.
I knew nothing about the island and we had only been on 1 island trip prior, St. Croix. I booked Siempre Azul villa because it was small and looked nice. Well, Siempre Azul is on a point above Friis Bay. For any who don't know, that is past Miss Lucy's going toward Salt Pond. That probably wasn't the smartest place to stay on our first trip, but it wasn't the only mistake we would make on that trip! We must have made that drive from Frris Bay over to Cruz bay a thousand times. Most of them at night.
Anyway, I woke up very early that first day (don't we all?). Here I am on my first morning of my first trip to St. John. Guess what I decided we would do that day. Did I decide we'd go to the ever popular Trunk Bay? No. Did I decide we'd go to the ever easy to access Hawksnest Bay? No. I decided we'd hike down to Reef Bay.
We grabbed our snorkel gear, towels, a couple of sandwiches, and 2 drinks. We made so many mistakes.
Mistake #1: I decided to wear flip flops that day.
We park near the sign and head down. Walking down was SO MUCH FUN. I was looking here and there, enjoying the trees, the ruins, the very "islandness" of it all. We walked the 2.5 miles down not thinking about the fact at that point that 2.5 miles down meant 2.5 miles back up. We get to the bottom and see a beautiful beach. This is paradise! We decide to snorkel a bit.
I can't tell you exactly where we decided to snorkel, but shallow rock and coral literally COVERED with urchins came all the way up to shore everywhere you could see. However, there was a nice sandy cut in the rock/coral providing a path that we used to go out to the bay.
Mistake #2: Not paying attention to how we got out into the bay so we could get back in.
We snorkeled a while and were having a big time until we decided to go back in. This is where the problems started. We couldn't find our way in. The shallow urchin covered rock was everywhere we looked. The water was only a couple of feet deep over the rock with waves constantly washing over it. We tried "hovering" over it and pulling ourselves along gently by our fingertips so we could sort of drift in close enough to get back to shore, but waves kept crashing down on us, pushing our bodies toward what we perceived as jagged rock covered with giant sea urchins (remember, we had very limited snorkeling experience). I just knew the next wave would shove me onto the jagged bottom where I would be impaled by the spines of a thousand urchins where I would then become shark food and die.
We drifted along like this for what seemed an eternity and we never seemed to get closer to shore. I remember after about 30 minutes of this exhausting routine, Matt and I were about 30 feet apart, resting on our fin tips, still waaaay out, and I laughed and said, "I can't believe we are going to drown in 2 feet of water."
Somehow, by dumb luck and the grace of God, we made it back to shore in one piece. We were EXHAUSTED. It had taken us literally and hour or so to get back in, this after the hike down and a good hour of snorkeling. We guzzled down our drinks and ate our sandwiches, still not thinking about the walk back up.
Mistake #3: We didn't take any water and we had just consumed all the fluid we had.
Well, after a rest, we decided to head back up. Okay, here is where the flip flops and the lack of water hit me. Stupid, stupid, stupid. We were hiking back up in the heat of the afternoon in flip flops with no water. I remember that last half mile so well. We were absolutely parched, sweating like pigs, my big toe had nearly been severed from the rest of my foot by my flip flops, my feet were even sweaty and I kept sliding off my flip flops, and my calves were cramping. We were in sheer misery. We kept stopping and looking at each other like, "Can you BELIEVE this?" All that got me up that hill was my desire for something to drink.
Somehow, we made it back up. I was DYING for a drink. I needed something NOW. We saw the smoothie truck. We stopped and got out. I greedily devoured the menu with my eyes looking for something that would quench my thirst. A smoothie or coke just wouldn't do it. There was nothing like juice or tea! Aaaauuugh. My throat was screaming. Oh, wait, lemonade. I saw lemonade. That was close enough. So I ordered a lemonade.
Mistake #4: Ordering a lemonade from the smoothie truck expecting a regular lemonade.
Now remember, this was 6 years ago. Lemonade at the smoothie truck may be a whole different experience today, but what I was served then was a brown liquid in a glass. I looked at it and I looked at Matt and we laughed. I said, "I don't care if this is goat pi**, I'm drinking it."
I still don't know what it was, but I can tell you it was NOT lemonade. I can also tell you that in that moment, it was the best drink I'd ever had in my whole life.
Well, we learned a lot of lessons on that trip in addition to the ones we learned on the Reef Bay Trail, like hiking that trail in flip flops will make your calves hurt so bad that you won't be able to stand up the next day or walk properly for 3 days or that it probably isn't a good idea to rent a boat from Ocean Runners and decide to captain yourselves to the Baths (again, by dumb luck and the grace of God, we made it to the Baths and back with no trouble, but in hindsight, what a DUMB thing to do).
Despite our many mishaps on that first trip, St. John managed to seep down into my soul and grab onto something so strongly that I haven't been able to shake it. So, here I am 6 years later making my 8th trip to the island.
But I can promise you that you won't see my butt on the Reef Bay Trail again....
This is long, so only forge ahead if you have some time to kill!
My first trip to St. John was supposed to be my honeymoon, in April of 2000. However, I was not the savvy traveller that I am today, and I had NO IDEA what I was doing. I attempted to get our tickets on Priceline and when it gave me the little checkbox for what airports I would fly into, I saw two choices: STT or STX. Well, dummy that I was I thought, "Oh, St. Thomas has 2 airports." So I checked them both. Well, guess what, I spent my honeymoon on St. Croix instead.
About 9 months later, US Air had a super fare sale to STT. $328 round trip from Knoxville. I grabbed it. So, in May 2001, we made our first trip to St. John.
I knew nothing about the island and we had only been on 1 island trip prior, St. Croix. I booked Siempre Azul villa because it was small and looked nice. Well, Siempre Azul is on a point above Friis Bay. For any who don't know, that is past Miss Lucy's going toward Salt Pond. That probably wasn't the smartest place to stay on our first trip, but it wasn't the only mistake we would make on that trip! We must have made that drive from Frris Bay over to Cruz bay a thousand times. Most of them at night.
Anyway, I woke up very early that first day (don't we all?). Here I am on my first morning of my first trip to St. John. Guess what I decided we would do that day. Did I decide we'd go to the ever popular Trunk Bay? No. Did I decide we'd go to the ever easy to access Hawksnest Bay? No. I decided we'd hike down to Reef Bay.
We grabbed our snorkel gear, towels, a couple of sandwiches, and 2 drinks. We made so many mistakes.
Mistake #1: I decided to wear flip flops that day.
We park near the sign and head down. Walking down was SO MUCH FUN. I was looking here and there, enjoying the trees, the ruins, the very "islandness" of it all. We walked the 2.5 miles down not thinking about the fact at that point that 2.5 miles down meant 2.5 miles back up. We get to the bottom and see a beautiful beach. This is paradise! We decide to snorkel a bit.
I can't tell you exactly where we decided to snorkel, but shallow rock and coral literally COVERED with urchins came all the way up to shore everywhere you could see. However, there was a nice sandy cut in the rock/coral providing a path that we used to go out to the bay.
Mistake #2: Not paying attention to how we got out into the bay so we could get back in.
We snorkeled a while and were having a big time until we decided to go back in. This is where the problems started. We couldn't find our way in. The shallow urchin covered rock was everywhere we looked. The water was only a couple of feet deep over the rock with waves constantly washing over it. We tried "hovering" over it and pulling ourselves along gently by our fingertips so we could sort of drift in close enough to get back to shore, but waves kept crashing down on us, pushing our bodies toward what we perceived as jagged rock covered with giant sea urchins (remember, we had very limited snorkeling experience). I just knew the next wave would shove me onto the jagged bottom where I would be impaled by the spines of a thousand urchins where I would then become shark food and die.
We drifted along like this for what seemed an eternity and we never seemed to get closer to shore. I remember after about 30 minutes of this exhausting routine, Matt and I were about 30 feet apart, resting on our fin tips, still waaaay out, and I laughed and said, "I can't believe we are going to drown in 2 feet of water."
Somehow, by dumb luck and the grace of God, we made it back to shore in one piece. We were EXHAUSTED. It had taken us literally and hour or so to get back in, this after the hike down and a good hour of snorkeling. We guzzled down our drinks and ate our sandwiches, still not thinking about the walk back up.
Mistake #3: We didn't take any water and we had just consumed all the fluid we had.
Well, after a rest, we decided to head back up. Okay, here is where the flip flops and the lack of water hit me. Stupid, stupid, stupid. We were hiking back up in the heat of the afternoon in flip flops with no water. I remember that last half mile so well. We were absolutely parched, sweating like pigs, my big toe had nearly been severed from the rest of my foot by my flip flops, my feet were even sweaty and I kept sliding off my flip flops, and my calves were cramping. We were in sheer misery. We kept stopping and looking at each other like, "Can you BELIEVE this?" All that got me up that hill was my desire for something to drink.
Somehow, we made it back up. I was DYING for a drink. I needed something NOW. We saw the smoothie truck. We stopped and got out. I greedily devoured the menu with my eyes looking for something that would quench my thirst. A smoothie or coke just wouldn't do it. There was nothing like juice or tea! Aaaauuugh. My throat was screaming. Oh, wait, lemonade. I saw lemonade. That was close enough. So I ordered a lemonade.
Mistake #4: Ordering a lemonade from the smoothie truck expecting a regular lemonade.
Now remember, this was 6 years ago. Lemonade at the smoothie truck may be a whole different experience today, but what I was served then was a brown liquid in a glass. I looked at it and I looked at Matt and we laughed. I said, "I don't care if this is goat pi**, I'm drinking it."
I still don't know what it was, but I can tell you it was NOT lemonade. I can also tell you that in that moment, it was the best drink I'd ever had in my whole life.
Well, we learned a lot of lessons on that trip in addition to the ones we learned on the Reef Bay Trail, like hiking that trail in flip flops will make your calves hurt so bad that you won't be able to stand up the next day or walk properly for 3 days or that it probably isn't a good idea to rent a boat from Ocean Runners and decide to captain yourselves to the Baths (again, by dumb luck and the grace of God, we made it to the Baths and back with no trouble, but in hindsight, what a DUMB thing to do).
Despite our many mishaps on that first trip, St. John managed to seep down into my soul and grab onto something so strongly that I haven't been able to shake it. So, here I am 6 years later making my 8th trip to the island.
But I can promise you that you won't see my butt on the Reef Bay Trail again....
and there's some blonde locks somewhere. Great story that I'm sure some Hollywood Movie Maker is looking for. Thanks for sharing...Einstein!!! 
