19 January 2015 | U.S. Virgin Islands
Day 1 - 1/19/2015
We departed Cape Elizabeth, ME at about 2:30 am...bound for Logan Airport in Boston. Picked up Lily, our driver and pick up on return, although that never happened! Details later.....
We arrived at about 4:45 am at Logan and said bye-bye to a jealous Lily, although she was happy to have the car for a week! We went through all the motions, got on the plane, switched in JFK, landed on St. Thomas at about 1:30 pm. We were instantly blasted with hot Caribbean air as we left the plane.....we were officially on "island time" now:) As we entered the terminal, we were offered free shots of rum! And pretty much unlimited too....I'd say we each downed 8-10 of various flavors....now we were primed.
We rented a jeep soft top and headed for the other end on St. Thomas to catch the "car barge" to St. John. Driving on the left....made just one mistake on the way....but it was a good one! No casualties though:) we stopped at a K-Mart on the way for a couple things, boy, now THAT's a treat! They are definitely on island time! slooooooow.....
We arrived just in time to catch the 3:30 ferry.....here we are headed across the bay....
After arriving in Cruz Bay, we departed the ferry in the jeep, did one circle around town and headed for Coral Bay on the far end of St. John. We arrived at the "Island Cottage" overlooking Coral Bay and were very pleased with our choice! It was an absolutely beautiful spot....here are a couple pictures from the deck....
After unpacking a few things, making a drink, and just chillin' for a few, we just hung out and decompressed and headed to bed early!
Day 2 - 1/20/2015
We woke up to roosters all over the hillsides competing to wake us humans! After hanging out and having coffee, we decided to take a walk down the hill to check out the area. On the way down, we ran into the donkeys we had heard all about. Also had a family of goats just across the street from our driveway. Couple of them were on our deck one morning when we woke up!
We went to the local market in Coral Bay, it had just opened a couple months ago and was REALLY well done. We checked out the other end of town as well where Coral Bay Marina is located and the bar "Skinny Legs". The whole scene is very laid back....just the way we had hoped:)
We walked back up to the cottage, got our wellness workout! We packed up a couple snacks and roadies and headed out in the jeep to explore this end of the island. Also rented some snorkel gear since we forgot to buy some at K-Mart when we were there! we ended up in the little cove called Kiddle Bay, very rocky, but a great intro into the marine life! We only stayed for an hour or so and then went exploring some more, stopping at the occasional beach to dip our toes & bodies in the beautiful Caribbean water:)
Day 3 - 1/21/2015
The next day we decided to head for the northern shore and check out some of those beaches. I also had something else up my sleeve that Cher wasn't aware of! This time we took a left up the mountain out of our driveway...what a trip that was! The steepness and switchbacks were amazing heading up to the top. This was the view when we got up there.....
We ended up on a beach in Lameshur Bay, which was actually back toward Coral Bay on the southern side of the island. This is where we set up camp and then did some snorkeling. It really was quite breathtaking....wish I had more pic's!
Afterwards, we were relaxing at the waters edge, and that's when I told Cher I had a question to "pop"....and she said YES!!! So it was a very memorable and happy day:) We couldn't be happier together. This was our post engagement selfie....
That evening we went out for dinner at the local restaurant, Aqua Bistro, and celebrated:) This was the view when we got back from the beach.... absolutely stunning!
Day 4 - 1/22/2015
Today we did more of the same...packed up the jeep and snorkel gear and a cooler full of refreshments and headed for another beach! We wanted to go looking for turtles....and we found them in Maho Bay, unfortunately we did not have a GoPro or underwater camera, so this is the only picture we have of beautiful Maho Bay....
Day 5 - 1/23/2015
This was to be our last full day on St. John:( Tomorrow we head back to St. Thomas for a couple days and then back to the great white north.
So today we drove around and explored some more, actually a lot. We ended up on a little slice of heaven called Hawksnest Bay by the end of the day. The beach was just about vacated, so we strolled down to the end and hung out until sunset. Cher was looking right at home in the elements as always!
We left just as it was getting dark and headed back to our hillside cottage for our last night on the island....at least until next time:)
Day 6 - 1/24/2015
We had to be out of the place by 10am, so we made the most of our last morning in this tropical paradise and just relaxed on the deck in between packing & cleaning.
We loaded up the jeep and headed for Cruz Bay to catch the next ferry for St.Thomas. We had already arranged for a place through Air BnB, and were anxious to see what we were in for! We got to St.Thomas and headed over the mountain to the other side of the island to meet the owner so he could "guide us" in, we would have NEVER found the place!
This was the view of Charlotte Amalie harbor on the way.....quite the view:)
So after meeting up with our BnB host, he led us down, down, down to his little slice of heaven. It was quite a change from our previous hillside cottage. This home was in the jungle, literally! And he was renting it out while he lived across the gorge in a shack! He said he actually preferred it over this place, which was awesome, except for the mold & mildew smell, plus lack of cleaning in about forever! He was new to the vacation home rental biz.....lot to learn. Anyway, it was really a lot of room and privacy for us and served the purpose for a couple days.
This is what it looked like driving in....
He gave us a tour of his property, which was really pretty amazing. He had built the place from scratch, almost lost it all in a hurricane, then rebuilt. The suspension bridge to across to his shack was an amazing engineering feat.
We unpacked and decided to go in search of beaches while there was still some daylight left. We ended up on Megan's Bay, which was a LOT different from when I was there 20+ years ago! I went for a quick dip & snorkel, nothing really to see, so that was that.
Day 7 - 1/25/2015
The next day we stumbled onto this rocky beach for a few hours....snorkeling was a little rough here! Can't quite remember where we ended up after this. I think we kept looking for that perfect lagoon. We found it on our last day:)
Day 8 - 1/25/2015
Today is the day we found that perfect, PRIVATE, lagoon to end an awesome vacation. It took everything our little jeep had to offer to get there too! We had to ask around a little to find the entrance to the "road"....more like a gully for storm water run-off! Anyhow, down down down we went and came out onto the most perfect little slice of paradise one could imagine. This is what we saw when we came out of the trees....
We spent the whole day here, magical is how I would describe it:)
Day 9 - 1/26/2015
Departure day:(....
So we didn't have to leave the island until 5:45 originally, but there was this pesky blizzard bearing down on the northeast. So for the last day or so, we had been rearranging flights and were now going into NY instead of Boston, but leaving a little earlier....1:30ish. We landed in NY just as the leading edge of the storm was arriving. We rented an SUV and hit the road headed for Maine! If we didn't get to Maine, we were expected to be stranded, wherever, until the 2-4 feet of snow was cleared....what a welcoming back!:(
We stopped in CT at Cher's mom & dad's house for a breather, said hi, announced our engagement, had some stew and dessert, and headed back out. The storm was in full swing now....all the highways were shutdown, but we kept going, hoping we wouldn't be forced off! By the time we crossed the Maine boarder, there was only a dusting on the ground. That was about 3:00 am...we woke up to over a foot later that day.
The storm sealed the deal, we WILL be retiring on a boat, in the Caribbean, sooner than later! Thinking a little lake cottage to come back to in the summers...."The Way Life Should BE"!