Overdue Trip Report from July
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 4:36 am
Hey Guys! I never did a trip report after our visit in July. This was our first trip to STJ and we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary there. I'm ashamed of myself because I let one thing nearly ruin this trip and hurt my husband's feelings. I had based this entire trip around seeing...wait for it...a turtle. For nine months all I talked about was seeing a turtle, it was my main goal and it didn't happen. 
Well, technically I did kind of see a turtle. We were at Maho and a woman started screaming "TURTLE, TURTLE"! But she was pretty far away from me and I knew I couldn't make it over there. So, I swam in the direction I thought the turtle(s) were coming but no turtle. As the sun started to fade, we got out and took all our gear off and sat under the trees for a short time. When we were packing our things, I looked up and a turtle surfaced for less than a minute and went back down...I cried 
. I'm pretty sure that we are the only people who were there in July that pretty much saw nothing. After we got home and I read the trip reports and looked at the photos that everyone took, at the time we were there, I was depressed...bad. I didn't want to talk about the trip and didn't look at the pictures because they didn't have what I wanted in them. The moment that I realized that I was being totally stupid and had hurt Mike's feelings, was when he made a comment about the trip and I just blew it off. He looked at me and said, "you act like we had an awful time and the trip was a bust"...I cried ...again. Hello, my name is LynnieGirl and I am an Idiot!
So here is an abbreviated trip report:
We left Little Rock on Tuesday, July 16th, had a short stay in Atlanta then off to STT. The flight was uneventful except for the eight foot tall man that sat beside me. His legs were as long as I am tall (5’1 1/2"). I’m also a chunky monkey so my width and his leg height made it a cramped ride. Minutes after deplaning, I had the one bag we had checked and Mike was off to get our jeep from Amalie. I’d say in less than 20 minutes we were done and on our way to Red Hook. Funny thing about driving on the wrong side of the road for the first time in a place you’ve only been to once after you’ve been dropped off by a cruise ship, you don’t know where you’re going! Yes, we missed the fork in the road (twice) and after arriving before two o’clock, we made it to the car barge by four! After patting ourselves on the back for making it there, we had to wait an hour because only one barge was running.
But that’s okay; we could see our destination and were ready for another challenge.
The car barge was…fun. I was just happy that I didn’t get sick. We hit the ground running on STJ and boom, someone didn’t listen to his wife and he turned right coming off the barge and once again we were going in the wrong direction. But hey, the view was spectacular! After convincing the person I have spent 32 years with (30 of them married to him) to turn around and head the other direction, we were off to Coral Bay. The sun was going down and Bonny was waiting so we had to hustle. We met Bonny at Ekaete and were off to Sun Moon and Stars high up Calabash Boom. It was everything we had hoped for. We had a late dinner at Aqua Bistro and then went back up the mountain and sat on the porch star gazing.
We spent the first full day (7/17/13) exploring and finding our way around the island. We went shopping at Starfish and had spaghetti for dinner at SMS. Thursday (7/18/13) it rained and we did more exploring. We made it over to Mongoose Junction for a little shopping and lunch at the Ocean Grill. The service was great but the food was just okay. However the bartender did make a killer Painkiller. Later we headed over to the Tourist Trap and had pork nachos and tacos. Buster the rooster was under the weather so I didn’t’ get to meet him either (I’m batting a thousand on my animal sightings) but I did get to meet Larry, Cheryl, Geoff-Geoff and Neumaus (Geoff and Neumaus made our slide show). Friday (7/19/13) we hit Maho and my search for the turtles began. We had run-ins with bait fish and stingrays but no turtle. Well, there was the little butthead that stuck his head out of the water to laugh at me…sigh…We headed back to Coral Bay and had dinner at Aqua Bistro again.
Saturday (7/20/13) we went back into Cruz Bay and had lunch at Joe’s Rum Hut, Mike had to have a Big G. He liked the burger (he later proclaimed Skinny Legs the best burger) but the highlight for me was seeing Ziggy and his Mom on the beach. I live in the South and see pigs and hogs all the time; our mascot at the Uof A (Tusk IV) has worn a harness since he was a baby but I’ve never seen a pig wearing a harness walking on the beach. We left Joe’s and made our way over to the Beach Bar for a couple of Mango Daiquiris, then I ordered my hook bracelet from the Bamboo Studio. We made our way back home and had dinner in. Sunday (7/21/13) we had brunch as Miss Lucy’s and then made our way back to Maho and still no turtle! Monday (7/22/13) we got up early and headed to Francis. It is so neat when you are the first ones there and are the only ones there. We had a couple of little crabs that were curious about us so I stalked them for a photo. No turtles at Francis either but my goodness, just how big are these sea urchins? If they appear to be huge at that depth, imagine how big they really are. We saw a ton of fish and one in particular that was really big. At first I thought it was a sunfish but it wasn’t flat. It was really big and we heard a “boom” under water and it took off. And oh yeah, no turtle. After we got back to the villa, I ordered a mango cake from Baked in the Sun for our anniversary and we just vegged and swam in the pool.
Tuesday (7/23/13), our 30th anniversary! Mike and I have been together since we were 15 and 16 years old. We’ve been together so long, that we almost don’t remember not knowing each other. We went into Cruz Bay and had lunch at the Barefoot Cowboy, picked up our cake and headed back to the villa to get dressed for dinner. We made a reservation at ZoZo’s for the bar and it did not disappoint. We were joined by a newlywed couple and their friends and family. They were so cute and asked us how we stayed married for so long. We told them to talk to each other about everything and to enjoy each other. By Wednesday (7/24/13) our beach days were over because Mike had developed some kind of sun sickness. He broke out in a terrible rash and even taking a shower was painful for him. We went exploring again that day. We had lunch at Banana Deck, and then drove out to Vie’s. She was out of chicken so we just kept exploring. We had our last dinner at Aqua Bistro and went home to pack. Thursday (7/25/13) was our walk/drive of woe day. We got some extra time in the villa and then made our way to the car barge. We got one of the last spots and made our way back over to STT. This time, we only made one wrong turn and got to the airport about three hours early. Customs wasn’t terrible and we had lunch at the airport. Wheels were up by 4pm and we made good time to Atlanta. Once there our plane was delayed because of bad weather up north. We were supposed to be back in Little Rock by 10:30 but we didn’t make it back until after midnight.
I guess that wasn’t so “abbreviated” huh? We did have the time of our life and dream of going back as soon as we can. Next year Mike’s parents want to go to Florida so our STJ dreams will be on hold for at least one more year.
Thank you for all your help and guidance. Thank you for all the belly laughs and for sharing your stories and pieces of your lives here. I wish I could give you all a great big hug.
Below is a link to our pictures of Sun Moon and Stars Villa in Coral Bay. I have also put the link to our slideshow, so here is the disclaimer:
This was our first trip to St. John and we normally make all our shows well under 20 minutes however this one runs a "whopping" 35 minutes. But it was made for our family and us so the length didn't matter.
So, if there is nothing on television; your team has already won or lost; didn't play today or is on a bye week; if you love the ocean, beaches, seeing a pig on a beach, donkeys, hummingbirds, crabs, GREAT music and more donkeys, come join us in St. John. We hope you love it as much as we do!
~ Tammy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96657629@N08/
http://youtu.be/XhPnWbX6Vd8
Well, technically I did kind of see a turtle. We were at Maho and a woman started screaming "TURTLE, TURTLE"! But she was pretty far away from me and I knew I couldn't make it over there. So, I swam in the direction I thought the turtle(s) were coming but no turtle. As the sun started to fade, we got out and took all our gear off and sat under the trees for a short time. When we were packing our things, I looked up and a turtle surfaced for less than a minute and went back down...I cried . I'm pretty sure that we are the only people who were there in July that pretty much saw nothing. After we got home and I read the trip reports and looked at the photos that everyone took, at the time we were there, I was depressed...bad. I didn't want to talk about the trip and didn't look at the pictures because they didn't have what I wanted in them. The moment that I realized that I was being totally stupid and had hurt Mike's feelings, was when he made a comment about the trip and I just blew it off. He looked at me and said, "you act like we had an awful time and the trip was a bust"...I cried ...again. Hello, my name is LynnieGirl and I am an Idiot!So here is an abbreviated trip report:
We left Little Rock on Tuesday, July 16th, had a short stay in Atlanta then off to STT. The flight was uneventful except for the eight foot tall man that sat beside me. His legs were as long as I am tall (5’1 1/2"). I’m also a chunky monkey so my width and his leg height made it a cramped ride. Minutes after deplaning, I had the one bag we had checked and Mike was off to get our jeep from Amalie. I’d say in less than 20 minutes we were done and on our way to Red Hook. Funny thing about driving on the wrong side of the road for the first time in a place you’ve only been to once after you’ve been dropped off by a cruise ship, you don’t know where you’re going! Yes, we missed the fork in the road (twice) and after arriving before two o’clock, we made it to the car barge by four! After patting ourselves on the back for making it there, we had to wait an hour because only one barge was running.
But that’s okay; we could see our destination and were ready for another challenge. The car barge was…fun. I was just happy that I didn’t get sick. We hit the ground running on STJ and boom, someone didn’t listen to his wife and he turned right coming off the barge and once again we were going in the wrong direction. But hey, the view was spectacular! After convincing the person I have spent 32 years with (30 of them married to him) to turn around and head the other direction, we were off to Coral Bay. The sun was going down and Bonny was waiting so we had to hustle. We met Bonny at Ekaete and were off to Sun Moon and Stars high up Calabash Boom. It was everything we had hoped for. We had a late dinner at Aqua Bistro and then went back up the mountain and sat on the porch star gazing.
We spent the first full day (7/17/13) exploring and finding our way around the island. We went shopping at Starfish and had spaghetti for dinner at SMS. Thursday (7/18/13) it rained and we did more exploring. We made it over to Mongoose Junction for a little shopping and lunch at the Ocean Grill. The service was great but the food was just okay. However the bartender did make a killer Painkiller. Later we headed over to the Tourist Trap and had pork nachos and tacos. Buster the rooster was under the weather so I didn’t’ get to meet him either (I’m batting a thousand on my animal sightings) but I did get to meet Larry, Cheryl, Geoff-Geoff and Neumaus (Geoff and Neumaus made our slide show). Friday (7/19/13) we hit Maho and my search for the turtles began. We had run-ins with bait fish and stingrays but no turtle. Well, there was the little butthead that stuck his head out of the water to laugh at me…sigh…We headed back to Coral Bay and had dinner at Aqua Bistro again.
Saturday (7/20/13) we went back into Cruz Bay and had lunch at Joe’s Rum Hut, Mike had to have a Big G. He liked the burger (he later proclaimed Skinny Legs the best burger) but the highlight for me was seeing Ziggy and his Mom on the beach. I live in the South and see pigs and hogs all the time; our mascot at the Uof A (Tusk IV) has worn a harness since he was a baby but I’ve never seen a pig wearing a harness walking on the beach. We left Joe’s and made our way over to the Beach Bar for a couple of Mango Daiquiris, then I ordered my hook bracelet from the Bamboo Studio. We made our way back home and had dinner in. Sunday (7/21/13) we had brunch as Miss Lucy’s and then made our way back to Maho and still no turtle! Monday (7/22/13) we got up early and headed to Francis. It is so neat when you are the first ones there and are the only ones there. We had a couple of little crabs that were curious about us so I stalked them for a photo. No turtles at Francis either but my goodness, just how big are these sea urchins? If they appear to be huge at that depth, imagine how big they really are. We saw a ton of fish and one in particular that was really big. At first I thought it was a sunfish but it wasn’t flat. It was really big and we heard a “boom” under water and it took off. And oh yeah, no turtle. After we got back to the villa, I ordered a mango cake from Baked in the Sun for our anniversary and we just vegged and swam in the pool.
Tuesday (7/23/13), our 30th anniversary! Mike and I have been together since we were 15 and 16 years old. We’ve been together so long, that we almost don’t remember not knowing each other. We went into Cruz Bay and had lunch at the Barefoot Cowboy, picked up our cake and headed back to the villa to get dressed for dinner. We made a reservation at ZoZo’s for the bar and it did not disappoint. We were joined by a newlywed couple and their friends and family. They were so cute and asked us how we stayed married for so long. We told them to talk to each other about everything and to enjoy each other. By Wednesday (7/24/13) our beach days were over because Mike had developed some kind of sun sickness. He broke out in a terrible rash and even taking a shower was painful for him. We went exploring again that day. We had lunch at Banana Deck, and then drove out to Vie’s. She was out of chicken so we just kept exploring. We had our last dinner at Aqua Bistro and went home to pack. Thursday (7/25/13) was our walk/drive of woe day. We got some extra time in the villa and then made our way to the car barge. We got one of the last spots and made our way back over to STT. This time, we only made one wrong turn and got to the airport about three hours early. Customs wasn’t terrible and we had lunch at the airport. Wheels were up by 4pm and we made good time to Atlanta. Once there our plane was delayed because of bad weather up north. We were supposed to be back in Little Rock by 10:30 but we didn’t make it back until after midnight.
I guess that wasn’t so “abbreviated” huh? We did have the time of our life and dream of going back as soon as we can. Next year Mike’s parents want to go to Florida so our STJ dreams will be on hold for at least one more year.
Thank you for all your help and guidance. Thank you for all the belly laughs and for sharing your stories and pieces of your lives here. I wish I could give you all a great big hug.
Below is a link to our pictures of Sun Moon and Stars Villa in Coral Bay. I have also put the link to our slideshow, so here is the disclaimer:
This was our first trip to St. John and we normally make all our shows well under 20 minutes however this one runs a "whopping" 35 minutes. But it was made for our family and us so the length didn't matter.
So, if there is nothing on television; your team has already won or lost; didn't play today or is on a bye week; if you love the ocean, beaches, seeing a pig on a beach, donkeys, hummingbirds, crabs, GREAT music and more donkeys, come join us in St. John. We hope you love it as much as we do!
~ Tammy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96657629@N08/
http://youtu.be/XhPnWbX6Vd8
We will visit our daughter and her husband they work on the Island , next sunday for 3 weeks in St Thomas, I think we will come everyday to St John.... 
