St. John Vacation - Day 11

Our last day of vacation started early, 7:30AM.

Our alarm went off and we hopped up and started packing and tidying.

D had washed all the muddy evidence of off-roading off the jeep the evening before, so it was all house stuff.

Laundry, dishes, packing, putting stuff  away etc.

We filled the bananquits sugar water one last time (by now, they had invited ALL their friends!!!... it was a bananaquit PARTY!)

(I know, this is a terrible picture, but I wanted to show how MANY there were.)

We said goodbye to our view and the house and the island and headed off to the car barge.

We got in line and the timing looked GREAT!  We had guessed (and if you guess wrong, you could be waiting a LONG time for the next ferry.)  We were maybe the 5th car in line... the car ferry fits probably about 20-25.  We got on and departed pretty quickly.  We were chugging away from STJ by 8:45.  

We got into Red Hook and Dad (D) expertly maneuvered through traffic to K-Mart where we purchased a new duffle bag to check (we ALMOST didn't make the 50lb. weight on the way here, and we didn't want to go through that again, so we decided to just check 2 bags this time).

The we picked our way through Charlotte Amalie back to The Green Iguana.  

Sue let us check in early (10:15), which was REALLY nice.  We put our bags in our room,

 got swimsuits on, and were heading to Magen's Bay by 10:40 and on the beach by 11:00.  (Again, nothing short of miraculous left-hand driving by Dad!!!)

Magen's (pronounced like the girl's name Megan) was a big bay, crowded with cruise ship day-trippers.  But we could walk down far enough to get away from it all.

The day was nice enough but we sure missed our beach chairs :o(

We swam and read and napped.

We ate lunch at the snack bar the swam, read, and napped some more.

All in all a perfect last day.

We met a young couple from Iowa on the beach and were able to give them some tips and encouraged them to make a day trip to STJ for the day.

We had to go find gas and TRIED to go shopping for a few souvenirs but parking proved to be a nightmare, so we gave up and went back to the hotel and showered and got ready for dinner.

We went to Cuzzin's (local, Caribbean fare) with another couple who was just BEGINNING their vacation and staying the night at Green Iguana.

Our flight is super early in the morning (be at the airport checking in at 6:00AM).

We will be at LAX by 3:45 if everything goes smoothly.

Then we jump back in to high speed life with Lando's CIF game up near Magic Mountain on Saturday night and Miss M's round of 32 League Cup game Sunday.

After having a nice long break, this actually sounds like a fun way to spend the weekend... we are looking forward to it!

Love you!!!!!!!!!

St. John Vacation - Day 8

Yesterday was an exploring day.

We 4 wheeled up Bordeaux Mountain road.

It was a little precarious, but D is an AWESOME drive, so I really felt very safe.

We came upon a septic pump truck (STINKY!!!) that was blocking the NARROW dirt road (we were wondering how HE made it up there???)... he had to back up to let us through.

We got a tiny bit lost, but it is pretty impossible to stay lost on a small island... and a lady who live up there pointed the way.  

We went to Skinny's (Skinny Legs) for lunch.

Known for their excellent burgers (in all the guide books).

After, we tried to go to Vie's beach again, but it was

 CLOSED... her personal, private beach is closed Sundays and Mondays... go figure?

We decided that as long as we had made the hour long trip to the east side of the island, we should stay over there and find a beach.

We went to Salt Pond Bay again and swam & read for about 2 hours, then the no-see-ums started to come out and bite, so we headed back to the jeep and drove home.

We decided to stop by Fish Bay before going home and look at a lot for sale (cheapest lot on the island)... we didn't actually find it yet, but we DID run into two ladies out walking their french bulldogs who asked us if we wanted to see something cool.

Of course we said YES!

They gave us directions (turn right, find deserted, brown, psycho house, find narrow path, 5 minutes to the beach).

We drove around for probably 1/2 hour TRYING to make sense of her directions.

Is THAT the psycho house?

No!... it can't be.  Could THAT be the trail?  No... it can't be. etc.

We finally DID find it and it was BARELY visible from the road... maybe 2 feet wide.

We couldn't BELIEVE this could be it.

But sure enough, a few yards down into the steep tree tunnel, there was a Virgin Islands National Park sign!!!!!!!  It was almost like they didn't want you to find this trail, but if you did, THEN they would tell you it was part of the park system. 

 Crazy!

So we climbed down the 5 minutes and were on this ENORMOUS deserted beach (Reef Bay).  We were the only people on it.

We had wanted to go there, but the only route was a 3 mile hike down (and 3 miles back up!)... so we thought we wouldn't get to see it.

It was beautiful... there were crashing waves and lovely white sand.

(And this REALLY secret trail to this beach made our other secret beaches seem like imposters - haha.)

Came home.  Made dinner.  Watched a movie.

Ahhhhh.

I'll write about today in a little while.

Day 4 Continued

We packed sandwiches at the house today and headed out around 10:45 or so.  We read about the beaches on the far east end of the island and looked over the road map, packed up the ice chest and jeep and headed out.

We took a long, winding, green & lush road across the entire island to Coral Bay.  

Through town we came upon donkeys 

and goats roaming the roads.  At one point there was a goat herd of a couple HUNDRED goats (I got the video camera out in time, but not the still camera. Boo!) ... pretty funny!

We then veered South and went to Little Lameshur Bay and Salt Pond Bay.  These were down long, unpaved, rocky roads that you really needed 4wd for... the jeep came in handy.  We snorkeled at Lameshur and Dad (D) got the hang of the cheapo underwater camera we bought at Starfish market.  About 20 people at this beach.  Mostly an older, retiree crowd.

Thunder boomed in the distance and some big clouds rolled in so we took that as our cue to head out.  We went to Salt Pond and hiked down to the bay (about 10 minutes).  It was steep and rocky.  This was a nice little bay.  A little rocky.  Only about 20 or so people there... a lot of hikers.  We were there just long enough to take a dip then hiked back and it started raining.

We took this opportunity to drive to the far East End in search of Hansen Bay.  We FOUND it but it was all barbed wired in and had 'no trespassing' signs.  We did a few u-turns but couldn't figure out HOW to actually GO to this little beach.  We stopped at Vie's Snack Shack to ask and found that you COULD go to this beach for $2.50 per person.  This little beach had been owned by Vie's family since 1894 (or something like that).  We walked through the little gate, through the small, above-ground cemetery (complete with basketball hoop???) 

and onto the small but lovely shore.  We snorkeled and saw a little troop of 18 squid staring at us as they floated together.  We met a couple from the Jersey Shores who owns a place on the island.  They told Mom (me) about a couple "secret" beaches we will visit in the coming days.  They also pointed us to some good snorkeling spots.  Although it seems to kind of be a dormant season, it was still great.

We came back to the house, showered and went out to La Tapa for paella.  On the way back to to the car, we stopped and watched a local soft ball game... it looked like maybe employees from 2 separate companies battling it out... we watched an inning.

Now we are back at the house to watch a movie and hit the hay.  We are beat from a LONG day at the beach & exploring (haha!).

Nightie Night!