Trip Report - 2/9/08 - 2/16/08 -- long
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 7:30 pm
Hey Everyone,
We went to STJ for one week. Had a wonderful time. Probably one of our best vacations. A little background on us. We are a married couple, just celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. I am 43 and my hubby is 47. We don't have any kids, just a cat, so we can pretty much do what we want. We are both in high stress jobs (me - IT, hubby - cable), and we live in Northeast Ohio, so we look forward to February tropical vacations. We found STJ after an cruise excursion to Trunk Bay. Just fell in love with the island and vowed we would go back for a week. Well, it took us 2 years after that first time to get back there.
Our trip was a Saturday to Saturday. We started the day getting up at around 3:30 am for a 7am flight out of CLE. We had a connection in Charlotte (we don't take connections anywhere where there could be snow!). Everything was on-time, we were even early. Taxi into Red Hook was no problem, we landed at 1:45 pm, and was on the 3pm ferry to St. John! Our condo manager, Gus, was waiting for us at the ferry (tried to get my mom to see us on the web-cam, there must have been a delay, cuz she couldn't see us..). Retrieved the car at Cool Breeze car rental (was supposed to be Spencers, but whatever, a car is a car), and up to the villa. We stayed in the Upper Deck condos, at a condo called Coral Breeze. It's a nice development of about 11 condos, with a pool. It had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, small, but very nice. Great deck view of Chocolate Hole and Rendevous Bay. We had pre-ordered with Katilady for a package deal, and that was there waiting for us (beer!!!), so we were ready to go. My hubby went out and found Starfish Market and brought us back some bottled water and something to eat for dinner. I was suffering from a migraine, due to the long travel day, but started to perk up after I got something to eat. Since it was such a long day, we didn't feel like venturing out, so we just sat out on the deck, watched the sunset, then called it a night.
Day 2: Today we decided to re-acclimate ourselves with snorkeling at Trunk Bay. We figured we were familiar with it, and it would be an easy way to get used to it again. We bring all of our own snorkeling gear, and it's great. We had a little bit of trouble navigating around Cruz Bay, but once we got used to it, and figured out how to get out and on the other side, no worries. Found Trunk Bay, wasn't too crowded, and did some snorkeling. Did the usual underwater trail, and I got to try out my new underwater camera. LOVED IT! I got an Olympus 790 especially for this trip, and worth every penny. If you are thinking of an underwater camera, definitely consider it. Also, get the floating wrist strap, takes the stress out of worrying about dropping it. We snorkeled for about an hour, then decided to have lunch (we had packed our cooler at the condo), while we were having lunch, the wind started to kick up, people started to flee. Went back down on the beach only to see lots of black clouds coming our way. Packed up our stuff, got to the car, and it DOWN POURED! So, we just headed back to the villa, and decided that we'd go in the pool. Pool was nice. Then we got cleaned up, went to Starfish Market and picked up some more groceries for the week. Decided that we wanted to cook dinner in, so we got some steak kabobs and potatos, fixin's for a salad, more beer, and went back and cooked. YUM.
Day 3: We decided we would continue past Trunk and try out Cinnamon. Got to Cinnamon and found quite a walk awaiting us to get to the beach. (we've both got knee problems, me more so, so walking can be a bit tricky for me). Well, we made the trek, snorkel gear and all, and realized that the beach is HUGE. Where do we snorkel? All the way down at the other end... YIKES! I'm not walking all the way down there! Okay, so we get back in our car, and continue down the road, and found Maho Beach. This turned out to be our FAVORITE beach. Close to the road, nice sand, perfect! Found a place to park, found a nice spot under some trees and set up camp. Saw people snorkeling, so we decide we are going to go out. Went all the way past the point, and around the corner. Very good snorkeling! Saw some barracuda, lots of cool fish. We had packed a lunch again, so we ate, then met a nice couple from Philly that we talked to for a while, they had been snorkeling on the other side of Maho, and saw the turtles, so we went out again to find the turtles. In the middle of Maho there's not much to see except for the turtle, so if you don't see them, there's not much else, but we finally found them!!! They were pretty cool. We followed them a while, till we got tired, then packed up and back to the villa for pool time. Went into town tonight and found the Sun Dog in Mongoose Junction. Best Bushwackers. We discovered bushwackers years ago in Pensacola Beach, and have been trying ever since to find someplace that made them like they do in Pensacola. The Sun Dog won the prize. Sat at the Bar at Morgan's Mango until they opened for dinner, talking to a group from Boston, then had dinner. They've got good food there. I had a filet, and Eric had a seafood dish. Was really good. It had started to rain just as we were heading back to the villa, didn't stop this time, so we continued to the villa and called it a night. Pretty interesting trying to get up those hills when they are wet!
Day 4: Today we thought we'd find Solomon Beach. We followed the directions in the book I'd brought with us: St. John, feet-fins and four-wheel drive. Found the trail, and decided it's a little to steep for us, maybe another time. Then we thought we'd try Waterlemon. Drove down there, and found it very rough, as the wind was whipping pretty good. Turned back and went to Maho again. Excellent snorkeling today at Maho. Saw many barracuda and lots of HUGE fish, and a school of fish swam right through us. That was really funny! Ate lunch again at the beach, and was just sitting there enjoying the scenery, when we heard this blood curtling scream come from just a little ways down. An iguana had leapt out of the jungle, right beside this woman, and decided that he was gonna take a swim. He was huge! A couple of kids on the beach thought it would be fun to chase him, so he made it down to the end of the beach, where they couldn't get to him, and got out of the water there. He was really cool to see. Went back to the villa after a while, and cooked hamburgers on the grill, watched the sun set on our deck and just hung out. Started raining buckets again tonight. Okay so tonight was the first of our only bad experience. At around 6:00pm tonight, a bunch of construction men "moved" into the condo next door to us. This was different. However, it got to be very annoyning, as the noise continued until well after 11pm. Well, the next morning, they all got up around 5AM, only to have someone come and pick them up in a pickup truck at 6am. What is up with this, we think... Let's see what happens tonight...
Day 5: After our early morning "wake up call", we finally fell back to sleep and slept in a little. The day was not turning out to be very nice, it was very windy, cloudy, and rainy. We took the opportunity and drove into Coral Bay today. Loved it over there!!! Stopped at the top to take pictures, and Eric bought a ring at Tutu Much (she's pretty nice). Got into Coral Bay around lunch time, and had a burger at Skinny Legs. YUM! Drove back into Cruz Bay for a little shopping, had a drink at the Beach Bar, then went to JJ's for a couple appetizers for dinner. Still very windy, and on and off rain all day. Here come the construction workers again, at 6pm, setting themselves up for the night. Okay, now I'm getting ticked. We call the manager of our condo, he comes to talk to them. Yeah, some help. Although, they stopped making noise around 10pm tonight.
Day 6: Back to Maho Beach this morning. We really like this beach. Snorkled the middle again, and found the turtles right away. Then went over to the right side and snorkled more. Ate lunch, then snorkled the left side of Maho with our new friends from Philly. Really cool over there. Saw a blow fish, and lots of different fish, and more barracuda. Tonight we ate dinner at Compass Rose, I had a steak, Eric had lamb, after dinner, drove back into town, stopped at Sun Dog for a bushwacker, ran into our Philly friends, they were trying to find somewhere to park for dinner. Went back to the villa to watch Survivor (I'm a Survivor junkie...). Last full day tomorrow..
I'm sick now of talking about the noise next door, so I'll spare you.
Day 7: Slept late this morning, and after breakfast, set out for Salt Pond Bay. Had fun snorkeling there, however, it was a little cloudy at times. Went to the store after we left there and got some steaks for dinner, not much excitement today. But it's been a GREAT vacation, very relaxing, fun snorkeling. The only downside was the construction crew next door.
Going Home: We had a 5:30 flight out of STT, thought we could take it easy and leave later, however, we had to have our car back by 10am, that was kind of bummer, so we packed up and headed out. Lots of people waiting to leave, found our Philly friends again, Sally told me that at 10pm last night (they were staying in Peter Bay), that 2 black SUV's with tinted windows showed up in the development.. (could it have been Kenny???), I'm going with yes! Anyways, did the "walk of woe" got to the airport pretty early, and just waited it out. Unremarkable flight home, got into CLE at 11:30, UGH. Our cat was really glad to see us.
We had a great vacation. Sorry if it was boring reading for you, but we had a great time, we are already talking about coming back next February and staying over on the Coral Bay side. Much quieter.
Thanks for making me feel so comfortable here, you guys are all great!
I'll post some of my pictures later. We are still trying to dig out of the snow. We got about 16 inches of snow since yesterday!!!
that's about all we can do is laugh!
We went to STJ for one week. Had a wonderful time. Probably one of our best vacations. A little background on us. We are a married couple, just celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. I am 43 and my hubby is 47. We don't have any kids, just a cat, so we can pretty much do what we want. We are both in high stress jobs (me - IT, hubby - cable), and we live in Northeast Ohio, so we look forward to February tropical vacations. We found STJ after an cruise excursion to Trunk Bay. Just fell in love with the island and vowed we would go back for a week. Well, it took us 2 years after that first time to get back there.
Our trip was a Saturday to Saturday. We started the day getting up at around 3:30 am for a 7am flight out of CLE. We had a connection in Charlotte (we don't take connections anywhere where there could be snow!). Everything was on-time, we were even early. Taxi into Red Hook was no problem, we landed at 1:45 pm, and was on the 3pm ferry to St. John! Our condo manager, Gus, was waiting for us at the ferry (tried to get my mom to see us on the web-cam, there must have been a delay, cuz she couldn't see us..). Retrieved the car at Cool Breeze car rental (was supposed to be Spencers, but whatever, a car is a car), and up to the villa. We stayed in the Upper Deck condos, at a condo called Coral Breeze. It's a nice development of about 11 condos, with a pool. It had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, small, but very nice. Great deck view of Chocolate Hole and Rendevous Bay. We had pre-ordered with Katilady for a package deal, and that was there waiting for us (beer!!!), so we were ready to go. My hubby went out and found Starfish Market and brought us back some bottled water and something to eat for dinner. I was suffering from a migraine, due to the long travel day, but started to perk up after I got something to eat. Since it was such a long day, we didn't feel like venturing out, so we just sat out on the deck, watched the sunset, then called it a night.
Day 2: Today we decided to re-acclimate ourselves with snorkeling at Trunk Bay. We figured we were familiar with it, and it would be an easy way to get used to it again. We bring all of our own snorkeling gear, and it's great. We had a little bit of trouble navigating around Cruz Bay, but once we got used to it, and figured out how to get out and on the other side, no worries. Found Trunk Bay, wasn't too crowded, and did some snorkeling. Did the usual underwater trail, and I got to try out my new underwater camera. LOVED IT! I got an Olympus 790 especially for this trip, and worth every penny. If you are thinking of an underwater camera, definitely consider it. Also, get the floating wrist strap, takes the stress out of worrying about dropping it. We snorkeled for about an hour, then decided to have lunch (we had packed our cooler at the condo), while we were having lunch, the wind started to kick up, people started to flee. Went back down on the beach only to see lots of black clouds coming our way. Packed up our stuff, got to the car, and it DOWN POURED! So, we just headed back to the villa, and decided that we'd go in the pool. Pool was nice. Then we got cleaned up, went to Starfish Market and picked up some more groceries for the week. Decided that we wanted to cook dinner in, so we got some steak kabobs and potatos, fixin's for a salad, more beer, and went back and cooked. YUM.
Day 3: We decided we would continue past Trunk and try out Cinnamon. Got to Cinnamon and found quite a walk awaiting us to get to the beach. (we've both got knee problems, me more so, so walking can be a bit tricky for me). Well, we made the trek, snorkel gear and all, and realized that the beach is HUGE. Where do we snorkel? All the way down at the other end... YIKES! I'm not walking all the way down there! Okay, so we get back in our car, and continue down the road, and found Maho Beach. This turned out to be our FAVORITE beach. Close to the road, nice sand, perfect! Found a place to park, found a nice spot under some trees and set up camp. Saw people snorkeling, so we decide we are going to go out. Went all the way past the point, and around the corner. Very good snorkeling! Saw some barracuda, lots of cool fish. We had packed a lunch again, so we ate, then met a nice couple from Philly that we talked to for a while, they had been snorkeling on the other side of Maho, and saw the turtles, so we went out again to find the turtles. In the middle of Maho there's not much to see except for the turtle, so if you don't see them, there's not much else, but we finally found them!!! They were pretty cool. We followed them a while, till we got tired, then packed up and back to the villa for pool time. Went into town tonight and found the Sun Dog in Mongoose Junction. Best Bushwackers. We discovered bushwackers years ago in Pensacola Beach, and have been trying ever since to find someplace that made them like they do in Pensacola. The Sun Dog won the prize. Sat at the Bar at Morgan's Mango until they opened for dinner, talking to a group from Boston, then had dinner. They've got good food there. I had a filet, and Eric had a seafood dish. Was really good. It had started to rain just as we were heading back to the villa, didn't stop this time, so we continued to the villa and called it a night. Pretty interesting trying to get up those hills when they are wet!
Day 4: Today we thought we'd find Solomon Beach. We followed the directions in the book I'd brought with us: St. John, feet-fins and four-wheel drive. Found the trail, and decided it's a little to steep for us, maybe another time. Then we thought we'd try Waterlemon. Drove down there, and found it very rough, as the wind was whipping pretty good. Turned back and went to Maho again. Excellent snorkeling today at Maho. Saw many barracuda and lots of HUGE fish, and a school of fish swam right through us. That was really funny! Ate lunch again at the beach, and was just sitting there enjoying the scenery, when we heard this blood curtling scream come from just a little ways down. An iguana had leapt out of the jungle, right beside this woman, and decided that he was gonna take a swim. He was huge! A couple of kids on the beach thought it would be fun to chase him, so he made it down to the end of the beach, where they couldn't get to him, and got out of the water there. He was really cool to see. Went back to the villa after a while, and cooked hamburgers on the grill, watched the sun set on our deck and just hung out. Started raining buckets again tonight. Okay so tonight was the first of our only bad experience. At around 6:00pm tonight, a bunch of construction men "moved" into the condo next door to us. This was different. However, it got to be very annoyning, as the noise continued until well after 11pm. Well, the next morning, they all got up around 5AM, only to have someone come and pick them up in a pickup truck at 6am. What is up with this, we think... Let's see what happens tonight...
Day 5: After our early morning "wake up call", we finally fell back to sleep and slept in a little. The day was not turning out to be very nice, it was very windy, cloudy, and rainy. We took the opportunity and drove into Coral Bay today. Loved it over there!!! Stopped at the top to take pictures, and Eric bought a ring at Tutu Much (she's pretty nice). Got into Coral Bay around lunch time, and had a burger at Skinny Legs. YUM! Drove back into Cruz Bay for a little shopping, had a drink at the Beach Bar, then went to JJ's for a couple appetizers for dinner. Still very windy, and on and off rain all day. Here come the construction workers again, at 6pm, setting themselves up for the night. Okay, now I'm getting ticked. We call the manager of our condo, he comes to talk to them. Yeah, some help. Although, they stopped making noise around 10pm tonight.
Day 6: Back to Maho Beach this morning. We really like this beach. Snorkled the middle again, and found the turtles right away. Then went over to the right side and snorkled more. Ate lunch, then snorkled the left side of Maho with our new friends from Philly. Really cool over there. Saw a blow fish, and lots of different fish, and more barracuda. Tonight we ate dinner at Compass Rose, I had a steak, Eric had lamb, after dinner, drove back into town, stopped at Sun Dog for a bushwacker, ran into our Philly friends, they were trying to find somewhere to park for dinner. Went back to the villa to watch Survivor (I'm a Survivor junkie...). Last full day tomorrow..
I'm sick now of talking about the noise next door, so I'll spare you.Day 7: Slept late this morning, and after breakfast, set out for Salt Pond Bay. Had fun snorkeling there, however, it was a little cloudy at times. Went to the store after we left there and got some steaks for dinner, not much excitement today. But it's been a GREAT vacation, very relaxing, fun snorkeling. The only downside was the construction crew next door.
Going Home: We had a 5:30 flight out of STT, thought we could take it easy and leave later, however, we had to have our car back by 10am, that was kind of bummer, so we packed up and headed out. Lots of people waiting to leave, found our Philly friends again, Sally told me that at 10pm last night (they were staying in Peter Bay), that 2 black SUV's with tinted windows showed up in the development.. (could it have been Kenny???), I'm going with yes! Anyways, did the "walk of woe" got to the airport pretty early, and just waited it out. Unremarkable flight home, got into CLE at 11:30, UGH. Our cat was really glad to see us.
We had a great vacation. Sorry if it was boring reading for you, but we had a great time, we are already talking about coming back next February and staying over on the Coral Bay side. Much quieter.
Thanks for making me feel so comfortable here, you guys are all great!
I'll post some of my pictures later. We are still trying to dig out of the snow. We got about 16 inches of snow since yesterday!!!
that's about all we can do is laugh!
Thanks enjoyed the report! looking foward to pic's! tinted suv's m-m-m-m maybe???????