Trip Report: first one in 7 years... part 5
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 12:27 pm
--- Day 10 ---
Early morning showers left us rainbows to enjoy with our coffee.
Today we really wanted to get to Gibney, which is our favorite beach. Got there 9:30 a.m. and it was completely deserted (!) for about 10 minutes. We love this beach for its nice fine sand, shade the trees provide, and generally calm water that extends fairly shallow for a long stretch. Because of the limited parking, it never gets really crowded. This was the beach where we hung out the longest. Snorkeling here is very good also. We always park ourselves on the right side, where the old Oppenheimer house is, and snorkel along the right walls.
Gobys (or Gobies?) on Brain Coral
Blenny
We just love wading in the water at Gibney - we could (and did) spend hours here. After snorkeling, we took a nap in the shade, waded in the water, rested on the beach with drinks, and then in the water again. This is the beach where I long to be when I'm home surrounded by concrete.
Husband feeling heavenly
We weren't very sorry to leave Gibney and get back to the villa because this was the view waiting for us at Sea Stone.
Mr. Iggy was there as he was everyday.
Sea Stone has iron gates designed with a leaf pattern at the entrance. Later that afternoon, we heard a fairly loud rattling sound coming from the gate area. My husband and I looked at each other saying, "What it that?". When we went out to check, it was Mr. Iggy trying to climb up the gates to the roof. He was rather clumsy doing so, which made us giggle. He wouldn't have known that we were laughing at him, I guess, but we giggled quietly just out of respect. He made it to the roof and disappeared for a while. Of course, we heard another rattling later that day and it was him climbing down the gates. Since that, whenever we heard the rattling or noises coming from the roof (not loud and we initially thought it was birds), we knew exactly what they were. Mr. Iggy knows the property very well and seemed to have his well-established routines there.
As stoic as he always looked, I could almost see an "expression" on his face in this.
I made curry that evening and we ate in as we watched the Yankees vs. Twins game. Don't hate us for being Yankee fans. They lost that night anyway.
--- Day 11 ---
It was 9 a.m. at Honeymoon. We love arriving at deserted beaches in the morning. The light is not as boldly bright as it is mid-day but there is something so serene, almost mystical, about them. We walked all the way to the left and sat for a while to soak up the atmosphere.
Eventually, we started snorkeling towards Salomon.
Snorkeling here was very nice and we saw a lot of different creatures. I found a Goldentail Moray immediately. I was hoping to see them that day since I had seen them here last year. I was trying to get my husband's attention but he was too far away. I didn't tell him that I saw a Goldentail until later when I found another one. Didn't want to deal with a whiny hubby in the water.
Goldentail Moray
Foureye Butterflyfish
Puddingwife
Graysby
A pair of Trumpetfish
Salomon Beach
At the end of the snorkel, I found another Goldentail Moray that was followed around by what looked to be a Graysby. It's always fun to watch the interaction between two individuals from different species sticking together. Well, the affair looked one-sided to me but what do I know - I'm not a fish. One may have been just acting cool.
We saw two catamaran boats arriving at Honeymoon around 11 a.m. and, soon after, the beach became very lively. I thought, "Well, still it's the spacious sea, so no worry." and kept snorkeling. As I was staying very still trying to take a picture of some fish, I felt someone bump me pretty good and I figured it probably was my husband (and I was ready to give him a "look") but it wasn't. She didn't even acknowledge me and then splashed her fins right in front of my face nearly knocking off my mask as she swam away. My husband swam over to me and said, "She was practically on top of you." I said, "Well, maybe the sea is not vast enough for me after all..." Maybe she was curious what I was taking a picture of. Soon we were out of the water.
As we were hanging out on the beach, we noticed the people who came on the catamarans began swimming back to their boat. They were gone by 12:30 p.m. and the beach quieted down. We were wading in the shallows and saw a stingray swimming right by us. It kept swimming towards a young couple near us and then the guy said out loud, "It's a Manta Ray!", which made me wince for a second. But then, who cares - we all enjoy the waters of St. John as we'd like.
The walk back to the Caneel parking lot was hot but at least the trail was flat. Caneel has beautiful properties.
We weren't sure what we wanted for dinner that night but I wanted something light and simple. We eventually decided to go to Happy Fish for some sushi.
We ordered a lot of sushi there and this is some of them.
I am from a coastal town in Japan. I grew up eating fabulous sushi (but I didn't realize that until I left there), so, naturally, I have very high standards when it comes to sushi. Please keep that in mind! I thought the sushi at Happy Fish was so-so. Sushi is not all about the fish. Their sushi rice didn't seem quite right to me. Freshness of their seafood varied depending on the item. Some were fresher than the others. Generally I prefer simple nigiri sushi to fancy creative rolls - I believe most Japanese do. You can somewhat hide the freshness of the seafood in elaborate rolls but not with nigiri sushi (I don't mean that's what they were doing at Happy Fish, so don't get me wrong!). I noticed that as extensive as their sushi menu appeared to be, especially in rolls, if you are not in the mood for eel or tuna, there weren't that many other choices left. I wouldn't expect the same quality I get in Japan in their sushi, but even so, it was still just okay to me but not bad at all by any means. Sorry, Happy Fish. I'm so hard on you!
Some of you might be getting tired of my "long" reports. I will try to finish them up in one or two more installments this week! So let me say, "To be continued..." again, for now. Thank you very much for reading.
Early morning showers left us rainbows to enjoy with our coffee.
Today we really wanted to get to Gibney, which is our favorite beach. Got there 9:30 a.m. and it was completely deserted (!) for about 10 minutes. We love this beach for its nice fine sand, shade the trees provide, and generally calm water that extends fairly shallow for a long stretch. Because of the limited parking, it never gets really crowded. This was the beach where we hung out the longest. Snorkeling here is very good also. We always park ourselves on the right side, where the old Oppenheimer house is, and snorkel along the right walls.
Gobys (or Gobies?) on Brain Coral
Blenny
We just love wading in the water at Gibney - we could (and did) spend hours here. After snorkeling, we took a nap in the shade, waded in the water, rested on the beach with drinks, and then in the water again. This is the beach where I long to be when I'm home surrounded by concrete.
Husband feeling heavenly
We weren't very sorry to leave Gibney and get back to the villa because this was the view waiting for us at Sea Stone.
Mr. Iggy was there as he was everyday.
Sea Stone has iron gates designed with a leaf pattern at the entrance. Later that afternoon, we heard a fairly loud rattling sound coming from the gate area. My husband and I looked at each other saying, "What it that?". When we went out to check, it was Mr. Iggy trying to climb up the gates to the roof. He was rather clumsy doing so, which made us giggle. He wouldn't have known that we were laughing at him, I guess, but we giggled quietly just out of respect. He made it to the roof and disappeared for a while. Of course, we heard another rattling later that day and it was him climbing down the gates. Since that, whenever we heard the rattling or noises coming from the roof (not loud and we initially thought it was birds), we knew exactly what they were. Mr. Iggy knows the property very well and seemed to have his well-established routines there.
As stoic as he always looked, I could almost see an "expression" on his face in this.
I made curry that evening and we ate in as we watched the Yankees vs. Twins game. Don't hate us for being Yankee fans. They lost that night anyway.
--- Day 11 ---
It was 9 a.m. at Honeymoon. We love arriving at deserted beaches in the morning. The light is not as boldly bright as it is mid-day but there is something so serene, almost mystical, about them. We walked all the way to the left and sat for a while to soak up the atmosphere.
Eventually, we started snorkeling towards Salomon.
Snorkeling here was very nice and we saw a lot of different creatures. I found a Goldentail Moray immediately. I was hoping to see them that day since I had seen them here last year. I was trying to get my husband's attention but he was too far away. I didn't tell him that I saw a Goldentail until later when I found another one. Didn't want to deal with a whiny hubby in the water.
Goldentail Moray
Foureye Butterflyfish
Puddingwife
Graysby
A pair of Trumpetfish
Salomon Beach
At the end of the snorkel, I found another Goldentail Moray that was followed around by what looked to be a Graysby. It's always fun to watch the interaction between two individuals from different species sticking together. Well, the affair looked one-sided to me but what do I know - I'm not a fish. One may have been just acting cool.
We saw two catamaran boats arriving at Honeymoon around 11 a.m. and, soon after, the beach became very lively. I thought, "Well, still it's the spacious sea, so no worry." and kept snorkeling. As I was staying very still trying to take a picture of some fish, I felt someone bump me pretty good and I figured it probably was my husband (and I was ready to give him a "look") but it wasn't. She didn't even acknowledge me and then splashed her fins right in front of my face nearly knocking off my mask as she swam away. My husband swam over to me and said, "She was practically on top of you." I said, "Well, maybe the sea is not vast enough for me after all..." Maybe she was curious what I was taking a picture of. Soon we were out of the water.
As we were hanging out on the beach, we noticed the people who came on the catamarans began swimming back to their boat. They were gone by 12:30 p.m. and the beach quieted down. We were wading in the shallows and saw a stingray swimming right by us. It kept swimming towards a young couple near us and then the guy said out loud, "It's a Manta Ray!", which made me wince for a second. But then, who cares - we all enjoy the waters of St. John as we'd like.
The walk back to the Caneel parking lot was hot but at least the trail was flat. Caneel has beautiful properties.
We weren't sure what we wanted for dinner that night but I wanted something light and simple. We eventually decided to go to Happy Fish for some sushi.
We ordered a lot of sushi there and this is some of them.
I am from a coastal town in Japan. I grew up eating fabulous sushi (but I didn't realize that until I left there), so, naturally, I have very high standards when it comes to sushi. Please keep that in mind! I thought the sushi at Happy Fish was so-so. Sushi is not all about the fish. Their sushi rice didn't seem quite right to me. Freshness of their seafood varied depending on the item. Some were fresher than the others. Generally I prefer simple nigiri sushi to fancy creative rolls - I believe most Japanese do. You can somewhat hide the freshness of the seafood in elaborate rolls but not with nigiri sushi (I don't mean that's what they were doing at Happy Fish, so don't get me wrong!). I noticed that as extensive as their sushi menu appeared to be, especially in rolls, if you are not in the mood for eel or tuna, there weren't that many other choices left. I wouldn't expect the same quality I get in Japan in their sushi, but even so, it was still just okay to me but not bad at all by any means. Sorry, Happy Fish. I'm so hard on you!
Some of you might be getting tired of my "long" reports. I will try to finish them up in one or two more installments this week! So let me say, "To be continued..." again, for now. Thank you very much for reading.
