Trip Report: first one in 7 years... part 1
Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 1:46 pm
I'd had every intention of writing trip reports for the past years we visited St. John but had never failed to fail at writing one - until now. Partly it's because English is my second language. That's no excuse, I know. I can write in English okay (believe me, it still requires an effort). I'm going to make sure my intentions this time will evolve into reports... for the first time but not for the last, hopefully.
My husband and I have been visiting St. John in May/June since 2002, so this is our 7th trip to the island we both love.
St. John, for me, is not an easy place to be. I'm a total bug magnet and quite susceptible to motion sickness. I can't believe that my husband never wears any repellent and never gets a single bite from any bugs. He can read in a moving car (when he is not driving, of course) - it makes me queasy just glancing at him doing that. As beautiful as the scenery of St. John is, I'm often admiring it with a bit of nausea as we drive the up & down & forever(!) winding roads of the island. I wonder how many of you are more like me and still go back to the island year after year.
--- Arrival & Blue Palm Villa ---
Neither my husband nor I is a morning person - except while we are on St. John, we miraculously become early risers. Getting up early for the flight to St. Thomas is always a pain. Well, at least I didn't have to worry about that kind of pain this year since I didn't get a minute of sleep the night before our departure. No, it wasn't due to my overly excited mind. I had begun feeling not well prior to the trip (great timing!) and it just got worse the night before our long awaited trip back to the island. I was in "real" pain. My painkiller-infused body (not that kind of "painkiller", of course) led to my dazed mind and it was like one moment I was home and the next moment I was somehow on St. John. Kind of trippy. This had a funny effect on our departure from St. John at the end of the trip: I was not as sad as I normally am about leaving - like I had never really gotten there in the first place. I was there though, and this trip report is not fiction (right?). The first couple of days are a little blurry but after that I magically got better and was in full force to enjoy our beloved island.
Yes, I remember taking this picture of the RH ferry. The sky was so bright and it didn't seem real to me.
Cruz Bay waterfront
We normally stay on St. John for about 10 days but this year we were fortunate to be able to stay for 2 weeks. We wanted to split our stay on each side of the island. We stayed at "Blue palm Villa" in Upper Carolina for the first week and then "Sea Stone" on Maria Bluff for the second.
Upon our arrival on Cruz Bay we met Erickson (property manager of Blue Palm) at the ferry dock. We picked up our jeep at St. John Car Rental, stopped by at Starfish, and were off to Blue Palm Villa. We rented it directly from the owners, Joan and Woody, who are VERY nice and graciously answered every question we had. They have on-island staff, Lois (liaison), who we didn't get to meet, and Erickson. Erickson is very proud of the work he's done for the house and gardens. Just like many other villa owners on St. John, Joan and Woody seemed to have had their share of problems with building process and they said Erickson is the primary reason that the villa got completed.
The red roofs of Blue Palm Villa. The road to the villa is all paved and easy.
View of Coral Bay from the deck
Erickson with the flowers he planted. He takes good care of the gardens and the villa.
The villa is much nicer in person than in the photos on their website. It looks new (it is only a couple of years old, I think), clean, and comfortable. It's not upscale but very nice and has a warm welcoming feel to it. Everything we used in the house was working properly, so we never had a chance to call Erickson to complain!
We ate our meals out here.
Because of the proximity to Centerline Road, you hear some traffic down below. It didn't bother us but it might if you are looking for a traffic noise-free villa. There was no construction noise that we heard while there. No roosters either.
The pool was the cleanest we have ever experienced on St. John. We waded in every day including the night we arrived at the villa from NY. Normally we are too tired from traveling to do that. Also, I rarely dip in a pool at night. It's too cold for me. I don't know... I must have been in enough of a daze to feel no cold or exhaustion. I just followed my husband to the pool without thinking. I remember seeing a shooting star while laying on the lounge chair (with cushions) looking up the sky. At the time, I was feeling more relieved than happy that I had made it to St. John. My husband was quietly ahhh-ing in the pool. He was listening to the chirping and peeping of the insects and frogs. He kept saying, "There is this one bug or frog that changes pitches..."
I love villas where I don't have to cook facing the wall. I made artichoke and ham pasta that night after the pool and we ate out on the deck. We went to bed about 10 p.m. (we wouldn't have even eaten supper yet at home at 10 p.m.!)
Great room from the kitchen.
I woke up around 1 a.m. and couldn't fall sleep again until about 5 a.m. I kept re-living the entire day in my head starting from the no-sleep night all the way through dipping in the pool at Blue Palm. It was like my mind was making sure that I was "really" here and was trying to appreciate the day I had spent rather blurrily. Remembering enjoying meeting Rachel, who drove us to a new (to us) RH ferry terminal, and Erickson, who is a cool guy. Good thing about all this is that I knew what I had wasn't contagious so I didn't have to be concerned about meeting people. I eventually fell asleep again for a little while.
We were up by 7 a.m. - 5 hours of sleep over two days... did I have enough strength to get to the beaches? Yes, I did. Well, sort of. I had brought the underwater housing for my Canon and was so looking forward to trying it out for the first time. I HAD to get to the beaches and snorkel!
To be continued...
Thank you very much for reading.
My husband and I have been visiting St. John in May/June since 2002, so this is our 7th trip to the island we both love.
St. John, for me, is not an easy place to be. I'm a total bug magnet and quite susceptible to motion sickness. I can't believe that my husband never wears any repellent and never gets a single bite from any bugs. He can read in a moving car (when he is not driving, of course) - it makes me queasy just glancing at him doing that. As beautiful as the scenery of St. John is, I'm often admiring it with a bit of nausea as we drive the up & down & forever(!) winding roads of the island. I wonder how many of you are more like me and still go back to the island year after year.
--- Arrival & Blue Palm Villa ---
Neither my husband nor I is a morning person - except while we are on St. John, we miraculously become early risers. Getting up early for the flight to St. Thomas is always a pain. Well, at least I didn't have to worry about that kind of pain this year since I didn't get a minute of sleep the night before our departure. No, it wasn't due to my overly excited mind. I had begun feeling not well prior to the trip (great timing!) and it just got worse the night before our long awaited trip back to the island. I was in "real" pain. My painkiller-infused body (not that kind of "painkiller", of course) led to my dazed mind and it was like one moment I was home and the next moment I was somehow on St. John. Kind of trippy. This had a funny effect on our departure from St. John at the end of the trip: I was not as sad as I normally am about leaving - like I had never really gotten there in the first place. I was there though, and this trip report is not fiction (right?). The first couple of days are a little blurry but after that I magically got better and was in full force to enjoy our beloved island.
Yes, I remember taking this picture of the RH ferry. The sky was so bright and it didn't seem real to me.
Cruz Bay waterfront
We normally stay on St. John for about 10 days but this year we were fortunate to be able to stay for 2 weeks. We wanted to split our stay on each side of the island. We stayed at "Blue palm Villa" in Upper Carolina for the first week and then "Sea Stone" on Maria Bluff for the second.
Upon our arrival on Cruz Bay we met Erickson (property manager of Blue Palm) at the ferry dock. We picked up our jeep at St. John Car Rental, stopped by at Starfish, and were off to Blue Palm Villa. We rented it directly from the owners, Joan and Woody, who are VERY nice and graciously answered every question we had. They have on-island staff, Lois (liaison), who we didn't get to meet, and Erickson. Erickson is very proud of the work he's done for the house and gardens. Just like many other villa owners on St. John, Joan and Woody seemed to have had their share of problems with building process and they said Erickson is the primary reason that the villa got completed.
The red roofs of Blue Palm Villa. The road to the villa is all paved and easy.
View of Coral Bay from the deck
Erickson with the flowers he planted. He takes good care of the gardens and the villa.
The villa is much nicer in person than in the photos on their website. It looks new (it is only a couple of years old, I think), clean, and comfortable. It's not upscale but very nice and has a warm welcoming feel to it. Everything we used in the house was working properly, so we never had a chance to call Erickson to complain!
We ate our meals out here.
Because of the proximity to Centerline Road, you hear some traffic down below. It didn't bother us but it might if you are looking for a traffic noise-free villa. There was no construction noise that we heard while there. No roosters either.
The pool was the cleanest we have ever experienced on St. John. We waded in every day including the night we arrived at the villa from NY. Normally we are too tired from traveling to do that. Also, I rarely dip in a pool at night. It's too cold for me. I don't know... I must have been in enough of a daze to feel no cold or exhaustion. I just followed my husband to the pool without thinking. I remember seeing a shooting star while laying on the lounge chair (with cushions) looking up the sky. At the time, I was feeling more relieved than happy that I had made it to St. John. My husband was quietly ahhh-ing in the pool. He was listening to the chirping and peeping of the insects and frogs. He kept saying, "There is this one bug or frog that changes pitches..."
I love villas where I don't have to cook facing the wall. I made artichoke and ham pasta that night after the pool and we ate out on the deck. We went to bed about 10 p.m. (we wouldn't have even eaten supper yet at home at 10 p.m.!)
Great room from the kitchen.
I woke up around 1 a.m. and couldn't fall sleep again until about 5 a.m. I kept re-living the entire day in my head starting from the no-sleep night all the way through dipping in the pool at Blue Palm. It was like my mind was making sure that I was "really" here and was trying to appreciate the day I had spent rather blurrily. Remembering enjoying meeting Rachel, who drove us to a new (to us) RH ferry terminal, and Erickson, who is a cool guy. Good thing about all this is that I knew what I had wasn't contagious so I didn't have to be concerned about meeting people. I eventually fell asleep again for a little while.
We were up by 7 a.m. - 5 hours of sleep over two days... did I have enough strength to get to the beaches? Yes, I did. Well, sort of. I had brought the underwater housing for my Canon and was so looking forward to trying it out for the first time. I HAD to get to the beaches and snorkel!
To be continued...
Thank you very much for reading.
