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Just back! Trip report Days 3&4
Just back! Trip report Days 3&4
Day 3
So because we were in bed at a ridiculously early time last night, we are up at an equally ridiculous time this morning. The up side of that is that we are going to Trunk today, so we want to get there early. We checked the cruise ship schedule and there are no cruise ships in port. We get to the beach and are enamored with its beauty. There are only a few people there so we savor the view as we know it will start to fill up. We decide to jump right in and do the trail first thing. It really was great. The variety of fish and coral was beautiful. And the size of some of the fish was amazing!! My husband and kids ended up going out two more times that day. I did once more. The area past the red(pink) buoy out to the end of the island was also quite good. We saw a large group of tarpon out there. Every time we came back to shore the size of the crowd had doubled.
After a morning of snorkeling, we decided to go get some lunch at the snack bar. Just as they handed us our food the skies opened up and it was pouring! Now what? Well, we did the only thing we could do. We sat down at a picnic table and ate in the rain. I had the honey chicken and the rest of the family had, you guessed it, cheeseburgers!! Slightly soggy cheeseburgers, that is. Not the best meal we had on the island, but it was okay. Except for when the seagull did his business on my son's head. That was just mean.
Headed back to the beach for a bit. A group came in and set up right next to us. I mean practically on us. Their beach blanket was actually touching ours. Seriously folks, this is not Ocean City Maryland. If they would have walked ten feet past us they would have had plenty of room. We didn't stay much longer after that.
On the way back to the villa we stopped by Cool Breeze and Dale had a car for us. Hubby can now totally relax. St. John is not the place to be with bad brakes!! Also stopped by Starfish and picked up dinner supplies(more on that later). Pulled into Villa Bijou, cranked out a blender full of mango coladas and did some limin' IN(not by) the pool with Hubby and Dave Matthews. My son came across the weekly meeting of the Fraternal Order of Iguanas in the treetops next to the gazebo. We counted 11 that day!! Of course we had to name them, the first being Iggy. Okay, the creative juices just weren't flowing yet. The second was Twiggy. The third and fourth were Ziggy and Bob(Marley). The next three were Larry, Daryl and Daryl. Then we got tired and I needed a drink refill, so the last 4 were all Georges.
Late that evening we gathered in the gazebo and had a delicious dinner of frozen pizzas and refrigerated cookie dough cookies for dessert. It was one of our best dinners. We devoured that dinner in seconds flat. Now I'm not talking gourmet California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizzas. I'm talking 2 for $10, Shur Save frozen cheese pizzas. Honestly, I think shoe leather sandwiches would have tasted good after a long day of snorkeling, drinking and swimming. Daughter lost a tooth during dinner and there was some concern as to whether a tooth fairy could find us so far away from home. There was also some hope that the St. John tooth fairy might pay a little better than the Pennsylvania tooth fairy. Yes, she did find us and no, she doesn't pay any better. Now you know.
After the kids went to bed, hubby and I went for a swim and called it a night.
Day 4
Wow! We are getting good! 8:20 and we are out the door on our way over to the other side of the island. I enjoyed the ride over and my daughter did fine on this journey, so it must have been the ear problem that made her sick on the taxi ride in St. Thomas. We are heading to Salt Pond Bay today. We find the parking lot and there is only one other car there. We head down to the Bay and drop of our stuff, then continue on around the Salt Pond over to check out Drunk Bay. I loved this place! It had a sort of shipwreck/pirate feel to it. The coral art was really cool and there was so much of it! The waves were huge and it had such a different feel than anywhere else we had been on the island. Definitely worth the short hike. Daughter made a self portrait and son climbed around on the rocks. We spelled out our family name and then headed back to Salt Pond.
I liked this beach. I liked how the picnic tables lined the beach, but they sat back in amongst the trees, so you had your own private space. It was almost like the cabanas at a fancy Las Vegas resort pool, except with out the TVs, massage tables and cabana boys. Ok, so it was nothing like the cabanas at a fancy Las Vegas resort pool, but it was cool.
We decided to jump right in for a snorkel. We went out in the center first. Okay, this one freaked me out a bit. The water was very murky and cloudy that day. It had a sandy bottom and just blankets of brown sea grass/weed that would float on the bottom and just move back and forth with the current. It just had such an eerie feel to it. I was already feeling a little uncomfortable when I looked out in front of me and saw, wait for it, a shark! I'm not sure what kind of shark it was, but I know what kind it wasn't. It wasn't a nurse shark, and it wasn't a great white. It was probably about 3-4 ft long. With the murky water, it was there and then it was gone in 2 seconds. But in those 2 seconds I had about a 15 minute conversation with myself. It went something like this - "Oh my God. That's a shark. What do I do? Did my son see it? Is he freaking out? Do I swim away? Do I follow it? Do I try to show the kids? No! Don't tell the kids! Daughter almost had a cow when she saw the ray. What do think she'll do if she knows there are sharks out here! And Son said he didn't want to see any sharks. I've got to tell my husband. How cool!! I just saw a shar-ark! I just saw a shar-ark! Nana-nana-nah-nah! I wanna see it again. Holy crap, I just saw a shark." So I pick up my head and my son is looking straight down at some school of small fish and is completely oblivious to the shark. Husband and daughter are a few feet behind us, so they had no chance of seeing it. I pulled my husband aside and told him. He is SOOO jealous. We decide to move over to the left side by the rocks, not out of fear of the shark, but out of fear of how the kids, especially my daughter, would react to seeing one. The snorkeling was good here. Saw squid, octopus, big fish, colorful fish. It was still eerie over by the rocks because the coral is in such bad shape. I ended up seeing the shark(or another of the same type) again far out on the left side by the rocks. My husband was on the lookout, but I forgot to tell him that the shark wasn't down deep. It was just below the surface of the water, so you had to look out, not down, to see him. We head back to shore and I head straight for the cooler. What, only light beer in here?! I need something stronger. Husband and I decide to wait to tell the kids about the shark until the end of our trip when we are done snorkeling. We sit and lime for awhile then decide that we need lunch.
So off we go to Skinny Legs! Yeah, I finally get my painkiller!! I needed that. We order burgers and one cheese sandwich for lunch. We told our son that he really should be able to judge if Skinny's has the best burgers on island, because he has probably tried nearly all of them by now. Have we had a day without a burger yet? I don't think so. The burgers were quite good and so was our service, but it wasn't that busy. While checking out the selection of Skinny's t-shirts, owner Moe Chabuz came out of his office and we were able to chat with him for a few minutes. We told him we were first timers and he asked if we had been snorkeling yet. Somewhere in the conversation he mentioned that there is really nothing to fear out there. He said that in the 30 years he has lived on St. John he has never seen a shark. I was just dying to tell him that I just saw 2 right around the corner, but the kids were right there so I just had to bite my tongue!!
We finished our shopping then headed back over Centerline Rd, with a stop at Colombos's for a smoothie. Spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool, then made a simple spaghetti dinner. Since we were so close, we decided to take a drive over to the Westin and check it out after dinner. We were going to have a drink over there, but the kids were exhausted so we called it a day.
See next installment for Hawksnest, Francis and BVI sail trip!
So because we were in bed at a ridiculously early time last night, we are up at an equally ridiculous time this morning. The up side of that is that we are going to Trunk today, so we want to get there early. We checked the cruise ship schedule and there are no cruise ships in port. We get to the beach and are enamored with its beauty. There are only a few people there so we savor the view as we know it will start to fill up. We decide to jump right in and do the trail first thing. It really was great. The variety of fish and coral was beautiful. And the size of some of the fish was amazing!! My husband and kids ended up going out two more times that day. I did once more. The area past the red(pink) buoy out to the end of the island was also quite good. We saw a large group of tarpon out there. Every time we came back to shore the size of the crowd had doubled.
After a morning of snorkeling, we decided to go get some lunch at the snack bar. Just as they handed us our food the skies opened up and it was pouring! Now what? Well, we did the only thing we could do. We sat down at a picnic table and ate in the rain. I had the honey chicken and the rest of the family had, you guessed it, cheeseburgers!! Slightly soggy cheeseburgers, that is. Not the best meal we had on the island, but it was okay. Except for when the seagull did his business on my son's head. That was just mean.
Headed back to the beach for a bit. A group came in and set up right next to us. I mean practically on us. Their beach blanket was actually touching ours. Seriously folks, this is not Ocean City Maryland. If they would have walked ten feet past us they would have had plenty of room. We didn't stay much longer after that.
On the way back to the villa we stopped by Cool Breeze and Dale had a car for us. Hubby can now totally relax. St. John is not the place to be with bad brakes!! Also stopped by Starfish and picked up dinner supplies(more on that later). Pulled into Villa Bijou, cranked out a blender full of mango coladas and did some limin' IN(not by) the pool with Hubby and Dave Matthews. My son came across the weekly meeting of the Fraternal Order of Iguanas in the treetops next to the gazebo. We counted 11 that day!! Of course we had to name them, the first being Iggy. Okay, the creative juices just weren't flowing yet. The second was Twiggy. The third and fourth were Ziggy and Bob(Marley). The next three were Larry, Daryl and Daryl. Then we got tired and I needed a drink refill, so the last 4 were all Georges.
Late that evening we gathered in the gazebo and had a delicious dinner of frozen pizzas and refrigerated cookie dough cookies for dessert. It was one of our best dinners. We devoured that dinner in seconds flat. Now I'm not talking gourmet California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizzas. I'm talking 2 for $10, Shur Save frozen cheese pizzas. Honestly, I think shoe leather sandwiches would have tasted good after a long day of snorkeling, drinking and swimming. Daughter lost a tooth during dinner and there was some concern as to whether a tooth fairy could find us so far away from home. There was also some hope that the St. John tooth fairy might pay a little better than the Pennsylvania tooth fairy. Yes, she did find us and no, she doesn't pay any better. Now you know.
After the kids went to bed, hubby and I went for a swim and called it a night.
Day 4
Wow! We are getting good! 8:20 and we are out the door on our way over to the other side of the island. I enjoyed the ride over and my daughter did fine on this journey, so it must have been the ear problem that made her sick on the taxi ride in St. Thomas. We are heading to Salt Pond Bay today. We find the parking lot and there is only one other car there. We head down to the Bay and drop of our stuff, then continue on around the Salt Pond over to check out Drunk Bay. I loved this place! It had a sort of shipwreck/pirate feel to it. The coral art was really cool and there was so much of it! The waves were huge and it had such a different feel than anywhere else we had been on the island. Definitely worth the short hike. Daughter made a self portrait and son climbed around on the rocks. We spelled out our family name and then headed back to Salt Pond.
I liked this beach. I liked how the picnic tables lined the beach, but they sat back in amongst the trees, so you had your own private space. It was almost like the cabanas at a fancy Las Vegas resort pool, except with out the TVs, massage tables and cabana boys. Ok, so it was nothing like the cabanas at a fancy Las Vegas resort pool, but it was cool.
We decided to jump right in for a snorkel. We went out in the center first. Okay, this one freaked me out a bit. The water was very murky and cloudy that day. It had a sandy bottom and just blankets of brown sea grass/weed that would float on the bottom and just move back and forth with the current. It just had such an eerie feel to it. I was already feeling a little uncomfortable when I looked out in front of me and saw, wait for it, a shark! I'm not sure what kind of shark it was, but I know what kind it wasn't. It wasn't a nurse shark, and it wasn't a great white. It was probably about 3-4 ft long. With the murky water, it was there and then it was gone in 2 seconds. But in those 2 seconds I had about a 15 minute conversation with myself. It went something like this - "Oh my God. That's a shark. What do I do? Did my son see it? Is he freaking out? Do I swim away? Do I follow it? Do I try to show the kids? No! Don't tell the kids! Daughter almost had a cow when she saw the ray. What do think she'll do if she knows there are sharks out here! And Son said he didn't want to see any sharks. I've got to tell my husband. How cool!! I just saw a shar-ark! I just saw a shar-ark! Nana-nana-nah-nah! I wanna see it again. Holy crap, I just saw a shark." So I pick up my head and my son is looking straight down at some school of small fish and is completely oblivious to the shark. Husband and daughter are a few feet behind us, so they had no chance of seeing it. I pulled my husband aside and told him. He is SOOO jealous. We decide to move over to the left side by the rocks, not out of fear of the shark, but out of fear of how the kids, especially my daughter, would react to seeing one. The snorkeling was good here. Saw squid, octopus, big fish, colorful fish. It was still eerie over by the rocks because the coral is in such bad shape. I ended up seeing the shark(or another of the same type) again far out on the left side by the rocks. My husband was on the lookout, but I forgot to tell him that the shark wasn't down deep. It was just below the surface of the water, so you had to look out, not down, to see him. We head back to shore and I head straight for the cooler. What, only light beer in here?! I need something stronger. Husband and I decide to wait to tell the kids about the shark until the end of our trip when we are done snorkeling. We sit and lime for awhile then decide that we need lunch.
So off we go to Skinny Legs! Yeah, I finally get my painkiller!! I needed that. We order burgers and one cheese sandwich for lunch. We told our son that he really should be able to judge if Skinny's has the best burgers on island, because he has probably tried nearly all of them by now. Have we had a day without a burger yet? I don't think so. The burgers were quite good and so was our service, but it wasn't that busy. While checking out the selection of Skinny's t-shirts, owner Moe Chabuz came out of his office and we were able to chat with him for a few minutes. We told him we were first timers and he asked if we had been snorkeling yet. Somewhere in the conversation he mentioned that there is really nothing to fear out there. He said that in the 30 years he has lived on St. John he has never seen a shark. I was just dying to tell him that I just saw 2 right around the corner, but the kids were right there so I just had to bite my tongue!!
We finished our shopping then headed back over Centerline Rd, with a stop at Colombos's for a smoothie. Spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool, then made a simple spaghetti dinner. Since we were so close, we decided to take a drive over to the Westin and check it out after dinner. We were going to have a drink over there, but the kids were exhausted so we called it a day.
See next installment for Hawksnest, Francis and BVI sail trip!
Hey Decosuz,
My daughter is 13 now, but when she was younger I was always concerned about how she would react if she saw a shark while snorkeling. I didn't want her to feel intimidated. She probably saw her first shark 4 or 5 years ago. I remember she acted unsure, but I was there with her and I think she had a false sense of security holding my hand. She now motors along at her own speed and is very adventurous. Now, if I can keep up with her, she keeps me on my toes out there worrying if she will get too interested! She's very respectful, but curious about the marine life. I can't tell you how it feels when I'm standing on the beach and I see her swimming at mach speed following something. Kids really learn to be comfortable in those waters!
Keep the reports coming!
Budman
My daughter is 13 now, but when she was younger I was always concerned about how she would react if she saw a shark while snorkeling. I didn't want her to feel intimidated. She probably saw her first shark 4 or 5 years ago. I remember she acted unsure, but I was there with her and I think she had a false sense of security holding my hand. She now motors along at her own speed and is very adventurous. Now, if I can keep up with her, she keeps me on my toes out there worrying if she will get too interested! She's very respectful, but curious about the marine life. I can't tell you how it feels when I'm standing on the beach and I see her swimming at mach speed following something. Kids really learn to be comfortable in those waters!
Keep the reports coming!
Budman
chrisn - Not just a coconut smoothie, but a Lime in de Coconut smoothie. It was divine. By the way, I've been enjoying your VG trip report on the off-topic forum. Your Critter Boy sounds a lot like my 13 yr. old. In looking at our pictures, I found that about 50% of them are of lizards, geckos, hermit crabs, and iguanas.
Tracy - Howdy, neighbor!
Tracy - Howdy, neighbor!
Good report. The shark story made me LOL. 
We were too tired last year to stop at the smoothie stand, but this year it's going to be a must do. I'm tasting the Lime in da Coconut one right now. Can't wait for STJ. Looking forward to the rest of your trip. 
We were too tired last year to stop at the smoothie stand, but this year it's going to be a must do. I'm tasting the Lime in da Coconut one right now. Can't wait for STJ. Looking forward to the rest of your trip. When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Kentucky, because everything there happens 20 years after it happens anywhere else. – Mark Twain
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Kentuckygirl
- Posts: 1903
- Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:17 am
- Location: Kentucky
Another great installment! I loved the name the iguana game from the pool.
What's with those seagulls around the snack bar at Trunk? My sister had got a (not so great) burger there, had one bite, then a seagull swooped the meat right out of the bun. She would have been really upset if it had been a Skinny's burger!
What's with those seagulls around the snack bar at Trunk? My sister had got a (not so great) burger there, had one bite, then a seagull swooped the meat right out of the bun. She would have been really upset if it had been a Skinny's burger!
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msgcolleen
- Posts: 1497
- Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:33 am
- Location: Allen, Texas
I haven't had breakfast yet and I am ready for a Skinny burger and Columbo's Lime-n-Coconut smoothie "St. John style".
Loved your mind conversations! It's amazing what runs through your head when your ears are underwater and you can't believe what your eyes are seeing.
Fun report & thanks for cranking them out while it is still fresh and the real world has not sucked you back in yet!
Loved your mind conversations! It's amazing what runs through your head when your ears are underwater and you can't believe what your eyes are seeing.
Fun report & thanks for cranking them out while it is still fresh and the real world has not sucked you back in yet!
I've got 2 tickets to paradise~Pack your bags we'll leave tonight!
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