Griswold's in the VI - Day 7- CSI St. Thomas!
Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 8:34 am
Day 7; July 3rd – We eat our breakfast bars and decide to head to Magen’s Bay. We had not been here before, so we were all excited to see it! A lifeguard instructed us to snorkel on the far left side of the beach. 
This was THE BEST snorkeling I had all week, much to my surprise! Many, many schools of fish, barracudas, a school of what must have been tarpon (they were HUGE, 4 ft, gray/silver, big eyes, and rather “stupid” looking) and even a NURSE “FISH” (don’t tell HMG this was a nurse SHARK
). This was GREAT! We hung out here a good 2 hours or so. Should have stayed longer (read on)! Stopped at Udder Delight for some ice cream cones for the kids and an Udder Delight shake for Mom 
. WOW! All that I had expected! Hit Drake’s Seat on the way back. 
I would show the rest of the pics from here, but they were accidentally deleted while hubby was downloading
…
On the trip back to Coki was the only rain we encountered the entire trip. We should have heeded this message from above, who knew this was foreshadowing (read on)? At any rate, Coki was PACKED with cars
. We couldn’t find a spot near the beach, so we doubled-back up and down the hill to park on the side of the road. Mistake (read on)! The afternoon was great at Coki – this was formerly a favorite for all. We had lunch at a little beachside shack - - chicken kabob for me and jerk chicken sandwich for ODH. Notice I never say what the kids have, as it’s ALWAYS a cheeseburger 
! So, around 3:15 pm we head back to the car. It’s a little suspicious as we head down the hill in that a “kid” is hanging around the car behind ours and sets off their car alarm. He promptly runs away. Hmmm. We get to our car, and open the trunk to find all the wet clothes in the back bunched in a pile. Not the way I left it. Hmmm. HMG screams when she finds the rear window completely shattered! What the @*ck 
? Luckily nothing was stolen. I had put my blackberry in the VIOL forum koozie (why I don’t know – to keep it cool?), and they didn’t see it! SO, the FORUM KOOZIE SAVES THE DAY 
! I called 911 to connect me to the VI police to file a report, worrying the whole time since we didn’t elect to get insurance on the car. Oops. Meanwhile I manage to slam ODH’s finger in the door, further adding to his frustration 
. Oops. ADD boy is looking around for big rocks that could’ve been used to smash the window. He wants to give “clues” to the police since he believes they will want to track down the culprit. So sweet. Forty-five minutes later the police show up to file a report. She tells us this isn’t the best beach to visit in the afternoon, and that Magen’s is a better beach for tourists. No s*it Sherlock! So we try our best to clear the glass from the seats so we can make it back to the Marriott (and ODH can go back to Budget). The kids squish together in the front seat (which is fairly clean), and I gingerly sit/balance in the back on a piece of cardboard trying not to move.
So, we try to rescue the remains of the day at the pool while ODH makes the long trek back to Budget. He returns the car with no issue, although we are still awaiting the damages from this. If anyone from Budget is reading this, please have mercy on a bunch of hicks from the sticks! At any rate, they have no car to give us for the remainder of the vacation. So we have to taxi it .
ODH returns, we clean up, and head to The Shipwreck Tavern in Havensight as the kids have been eyeing the big shark in the front.
If you heard my post prior to leaving, we decided to extend our vacation by another day to include the 4th of July and not tell the kids. This is the moment that we tell them we’re staying for another day ! Needless to say, they are ecstatic at the prospect of seeing fireworks on the island! We have uneventful chicken sandwiches (burgers for the kids of course) and head home. Taxi fares to/from the Marriott to Havensight (maybe a 3 mi trip) are about $25 each way for the 4 of us. We can’t afford to go anywhere else, so we buy some juice for rum punches to drink in the room. Pretty sure this was yet another night in which I fell asleep with a drink in my hand 
. Fairly sure we watched Deadliest Catch on Discovery. Positive I didn’t make it all the way through.
This was THE BEST snorkeling I had all week, much to my surprise! Many, many schools of fish, barracudas, a school of what must have been tarpon (they were HUGE, 4 ft, gray/silver, big eyes, and rather “stupid” looking) and even a NURSE “FISH” (don’t tell HMG this was a nurse SHARK
). This was GREAT! We hung out here a good 2 hours or so. Should have stayed longer (read on)! Stopped at Udder Delight for some ice cream cones for the kids and an Udder Delight shake for Mom . WOW! All that I had expected! Hit Drake’s Seat on the way back. I would show the rest of the pics from here, but they were accidentally deleted while hubby was downloading
…On the trip back to Coki was the only rain we encountered the entire trip. We should have heeded this message from above, who knew this was foreshadowing (read on)? At any rate, Coki was PACKED with cars
. We couldn’t find a spot near the beach, so we doubled-back up and down the hill to park on the side of the road. Mistake (read on)! The afternoon was great at Coki – this was formerly a favorite for all. We had lunch at a little beachside shack - - chicken kabob for me and jerk chicken sandwich for ODH. Notice I never say what the kids have, as it’s ALWAYS a cheeseburger ! So, around 3:15 pm we head back to the car. It’s a little suspicious as we head down the hill in that a “kid” is hanging around the car behind ours and sets off their car alarm. He promptly runs away. Hmmm. We get to our car, and open the trunk to find all the wet clothes in the back bunched in a pile. Not the way I left it. Hmmm. HMG screams when she finds the rear window completely shattered! What the @*ck ? Luckily nothing was stolen. I had put my blackberry in the VIOL forum koozie (why I don’t know – to keep it cool?), and they didn’t see it! SO, the FORUM KOOZIE SAVES THE DAY ! I called 911 to connect me to the VI police to file a report, worrying the whole time since we didn’t elect to get insurance on the car. Oops. Meanwhile I manage to slam ODH’s finger in the door, further adding to his frustration . Oops. ADD boy is looking around for big rocks that could’ve been used to smash the window. He wants to give “clues” to the police since he believes they will want to track down the culprit. So sweet. Forty-five minutes later the police show up to file a report. She tells us this isn’t the best beach to visit in the afternoon, and that Magen’s is a better beach for tourists. No s*it Sherlock! So we try our best to clear the glass from the seats so we can make it back to the Marriott (and ODH can go back to Budget). The kids squish together in the front seat (which is fairly clean), and I gingerly sit/balance in the back on a piece of cardboard trying not to move. So, we try to rescue the remains of the day at the pool while ODH makes the long trek back to Budget. He returns the car with no issue, although we are still awaiting the damages from this. If anyone from Budget is reading this, please have mercy on a bunch of hicks from the sticks! At any rate, they have no car to give us for the remainder of the vacation. So we have to taxi it
. ODH returns, we clean up, and head to The Shipwreck Tavern in Havensight as the kids have been eyeing the big shark in the front.
If you heard my post prior to leaving, we decided to extend our vacation by another day to include the 4th of July and not tell the kids. This is the moment that we tell them we’re staying for another day
! Needless to say, they are ecstatic at the prospect of seeing fireworks on the island! We have uneventful chicken sandwiches (burgers for the kids of course) and head home. Taxi fares to/from the Marriott to Havensight (maybe a 3 mi trip) are about $25 each way for the 4 of us. We can’t afford to go anywhere else, so we buy some juice for rum punches to drink in the room. Pretty sure this was yet another night in which I fell asleep with a drink in my hand . Fairly sure we watched Deadliest Catch on Discovery. Positive I didn’t make it all the way through.