Our Last Day on the Cruise – A Return to the Virgin Islands

Day 13 – Today we’ll be visiting our third Virgin Island – St. Croix – with our only plans just to lay low. So, after a lazy morning and breakfast we left the ship to check out the very small town (harbor area) of Fredericksted. Nice little area with your typical Caribbean tourist vendors. Didn’t spend much time there, but Joanie did find a skirt she liked.

Anyway, went back to the ship to get our gear for the beach and then took a short taxi ride to Sand Castle Beach. There was also a hotel and restaurant there. For $25, we got ourselves two lounge chairs, an umbrella, access to the hotels pool, outdoor shower and 2 rum punches. Sold!

Had a great time at the beach. Met and talked with a few other couples from the ship that were at this beach. And just swam, read and had a very nice, and cool time (courtesy of a great breeze and ceiling fans) at lunch at the sea view restaurant right there at the beach. It was a really hot day today – not extra humid – just extra hot. We were in the water more than we were under the umbrellas. Anyway for lunch Joanie had a hummus plate and I had fish tacos – both made pretty dang good with some great hot sauce they had.

After another hour or so on the beach, and in the water, we finished the day with some excellent Mango Coladas under those same cool ceiling fans.

Took the taxi back to the ship and now preparing for our last night on board – one more dinner – maybe take in the Comedian tonight – and exchange emails with our Aussie friends.

Tomorrow – San Juan Puerto Rico!

A Great Day on St. Martin! (Our favorite island!)

Day 12 - On the elevator ride down to meet Eric and Mary, we had a funny little thing happen. Joanie and I got into a crowded elevator, and were facing each other fairly close. I joking said out loud, “Hi, I’m Greg”…. And she of course said “Hi, I’m Joanie”…. And then I kissed her. The rest of the elevator laughed, and this woman standing right next to me said “Jealous, jealous”, so I turned to her, face to face and said, “Hi, I’m Greg”. She laughed and hugged me – it was really funny.

Anyway, back on the pier we meet up with “our Aussies” and hired a cab. Leo was our driver, a great guy it turned out. He drove us to the French side capital of Marigot, where we spend a little time at the seaside “free market” which sold local arts, crafts, clothing and of course, some good old fashioned t-shirts from China. But for the most part, it was a really nice market. And by the way – Yay – another day of great weather!!!

From there we went to Grand Case – a small beachside town know for it’s incredible French/Creole cuisine. Unfortunately, we got there too early for lunch, but I just had to sample something. So at this local waterfront restaurant named Le Soleil, I ordered Blue Cheese and Gingerbread. Man, it was awesome! Who would have thought those items would pair well. It was a delicious snack… and even the non-hungry people couldn’t resist when I offered to share.

Then, on to Orient Beach on the north east side of the island, which is where I fell in love…. with the beach and the food. Leo dropped us off at this restaurant called Kakao, right on the sand. They also rented umbrellas and lounge chairs, so we found our place and proceeded to kick back within this amazing place. Simply heaven. I mean, if I believed in heaven, this is what I would want it to be like!

We immediately made a deal with Leo to stay an extra hour – there was no way we couldn’t have done so. Anyway, we swam, lounged and even saw topless women (after all, this is a French country). And the rest of the scenery was even awesome-er!

So again, no one was really hungry for a sit down meal, but after checking out their menu, I HAD to order something, and I made a great choice. It was Filo encrusted Brie cheese, with apples and prosciutto. It was incredible – the best food I think I’ve ever eaten on sand.

But alas, our time was running out. Back in the van with Leo for the 20 minute drive back to the dock. Did some more shopping – picked up some great Guavaberry Rum – and then back to our room. Joanie just had to go back for some more shopping, and I showered up, grabbed a cappuccino and headed to the Solarium again for a relaxing time reading and writing this blog.

I’m just getting used to this Caribbean lifestyle. Aaaaaahhhh. (Oh yeah, and tonight – it’s Lobster night!) J

A Relaxed Visit to Antigua

Day 11 - On Antigua, we decided to go on one of the Royal Caribbean excursions. It was a catamaran trip to a reef, then to a beach for a swim and then back to the ship. Three hours total. It was fun – the snorkeling was pretty good – the best thing I saw was a pretty large school (about 150) blue tangs – really pretty. The stop at the beach was nothing to speak of, but the rest of the ride back to the ship was fun… rum punches, some fun people from Brazil, and a fun crew, playing music, dancing, and one of the crew members was the best limbo dancer I ever saw. It was amazing how low he could go.

Back on the ship, we just took the rest of the day easy. The island and main town (St. John’s) didn’t seem to offer much, especially compared to yesterday on St. Lucia. Had lunch on board, sat on deck, read, a few more “mandatory” rum drinks (a Planters Punch and another Goombai Smash).

Watched “Sideways” in our room (one of my favorite all time movies) and had a late dinner. Saw Eric and Mary after dinner, and we decided to spend the day together tomorrow on St. Martin – touring the island by sharing a taxi. Looking forward to the next day…. As we opened our balcony door and turned out lights. Another aaaaaaahhh.

Finally… A Beautiful Day! On Beautiful St. Lucia

Day 10 – Today our plans don’t involve a rental car and getting lost, so we’re already starting out in the right direction. The day started early, at about 5:30am to be precise, when we woke up to see St. Lucia’s famous Pitons off our balcony. These are two, 2,000 foot peaks that jet almost straight up from the ocean. It was pretty cloudy, but you could see on of the peaks tops. Already, St. Lucia was giving us more than Barbados did.

When we left the ship we went looking for a taxi, and found the people at the harbor to be very friendly. We also found another couple from the ship that was going to the same place we were going – Rodney Bay. The ride took about 20 minutes and the island is beautiful…. Hilly and incredibly lush. And the best news was that the day started to get sunny – mostly sunny in fact. By far and away, our best weather day of the entire vacation. Finally!!!

When we arrived at Rodney Bay, we were actually able to go to a hotel, the Rex St. Lucian, and use the beach and other facilities there. We did have to pay $20 for two lounge chairs and an umbrella, but that was well worth it. And that was about it – the rest of the day – about 5 hours or so – was spent on that beach.

We swam, took pictures, read, talked with other shipmates we saw at the beach, and like on Mexican beaches, there were plenty of vendors. But they were for the most party very friendly and sported dreadlocks.

And the beach at Rodney Bay was beautiful – truly one of the most scenic beaches I’ve ever enjoyed. To me, it was the perfect Caribbean day. For lunch, we gathered up our valuable and walked down the street looking for some local restaurants, but none of them were open at the time, which was about Noon. Fortunately, back at the hotel there was a beautiful restaurant right on the beach. It was a buffet and fairly pricey and we wanted to avoid “hotel” food, but it turned out being delicious…. Jamaican jerk chicken, St. Lucian curried fish, rice, green fig potato salad and other stuff. We asked for some hot sauce and they brought us this great Barron’s Hot Sauce, which we bought a bottle of to take home. Turned out to be almost perfect as well.

And since a person can only take so much perfection, it was time to think about heading back.

We got a ride by being offered to squeeze in with an African Family of about 10 from St. Louis and Chicago. The ride home in their shuttle bus was fun. Back at the dock we did some shopping (I bought a cap) and then spent the later part of the afternoon in the Solarium –reading and drinking another couple of Goombai Smashes.

Right before dinner, around 6:30, we went to the top deck and watched our first sunset of the entire trip. Hard to believe the clouds have prevented us from having a sunset for all these days, so it was really nice to finally get to enjoy a beautiful Caribbean sunset.

We had dinner again next to our Aussie friends – Eric and Mary – really nice down-under folks. And by the way, the food at dinner has been really good. Breakfasts and lunches have been okay – but dinners are first rate.

We then slowly made our way back to our room, watched a movie and fell asleep. Best day of the cruise so far!

Barbados – YUCK!

Day 9 - Man did Barbados suck for us! After our morning shipboard routine, we rented a car and headed towards the Flower Forest. Driving on the left wasn’t a big deal (got used to that on the Virgin Islands). And driving with the steering wheel on the right didn’t take long to get used to either. But these Barbarians (I mean Barbadians) haven’t figured out street signs yet! Needless to say, we got lost trying to get to the Flower Forest, so we finally backtracked to the “main” highway and headed north to another one of our destinations – Speightstown – which also sucked. As soon as we stopped in that town in some random parking lot to consult our map, a local approached us, offering us “advice”. After being very annoying in a sort of friendly, overly-touchy way, we ended up giving him $5 for the advice and small piece of Aloe he gave Joanie. Probably just bought not being out-right robbed.

We decided that Spits-town was also a bust and decided to cut our losses and head home to the ship. Easier said that done. Even though we only had to stay on one “main” highway, it did have roundabouts and we obviously took one wrong turn, which lead to another and another and another wrong turn. We were not in the best parts of Barbados, and that’s saying a lot! But we just couldn’t find our way out – no signs to indicate where we were. We did stop to ask directions a couple of times, which paid some dividends, but not enough to get us home. We finally realized it was only time and a bit of good luck that will get us home. We were both very glad it was early in the day and not getting late. That would have been scary.

We finally spotted the ship and headed in that direction – even getting a bit lost getting there – but finally we go rid of that dam car, and the daytime nightmare ended. It was unbelievable – changed my mind as to how I’m going to approach visiting third world nations from now on. Sad to say, I might be staying at the all-American all-inclusives… or just stick with Hawaii when we desire a visit to the tropics.

Spent the afternoon hanging out in the Solarium on board the Ship, sipping Goombai Smashes… rum, coconut rum, pineapple juice and sweet and sour – yum!

The day may have started out with a “yuck”, but it’s winding down with a “yum”. Finally going in the right direction!

A Day at Sea

Day 8 – Needless to say, a very relaxed day. Walk and workout in the morning – breakfast – hanging out – lunch – shuffle board – hanging out…. You get the picture. Early dinner and a quiet evening. Very uneventful, and very nice!

Leaving St. John and the Kids…

Day 7 – Packed up in the morning, and before leaving, we played a fun little game of Trivial Pursuit. It was Joanie and me against Ryan (and Chelsea and Sara J). The more worldly adults won.

Then drove down to meet our ferry boat to St. Thomas, but of course, it had broken down. So, we waited an extra half an hour, and paid an additional $25 to catch another ferry.

Once back on St. Thomas we returned to Bolongo Bay and had lunch at Iggie’s one last time. Great location and ambiance for a restaurant – food is okay – drinks are fine. Anyway, said goodbye to our Virgin Islands and headed to the airport.

Once we arrived, everything happened pretty quickly. Joanie and I had to head to one line and the kids to another… so we said our goodbyes for the next week or so. Joanie and I left the kids as they were in line to check their bags and head to security. We had to go through Customs (heading into Puerto Rico) and then Security. While we were in line, we got a call from our airline (Cape Air – a small 9 passenger Cessna for our 30 minute flight). They were waiting for us! So, Joanie kindly asked a couple of groups of people if we could take cuts – and they were both gracious in letting us move up. So out to the tarmac and we boarded the plane. Couldn’t sit next to each other because they boarded us all by weight. The flight was uneventful, but still Joanie and I were both a tiny bit anxious flying on such a small plane – into the clouds, tossed around a bit, but soon enough we landed in Puerto Rico.

There we were greeted by a Royal Caribbean shuttle to board our ship. We had carry-on luggage so got on board easy and to our room where we unpacked and settled in for the next week.

That evening, we walked around the deck, had a very nice dinner at our own table for two, and had a gin and tonic nightcap (yay, not a rum drink) in the Crown Lounge – the sky deck at the top of the ship. Nice and peaceful place to unwind.

Back to our stateroom where we watched a bit of a movie before starting to fall asleep. Slept with our balcony door open a bit – great fresh air and the sound of the waves lulling us to sleep. Aaaaah.

Juntos Day on St. John

Day 6 - Another easy going, and cloudy day - with off and on rain. But no worries mon - we make de best of it. Took Joanie and Chelsea to the Lind Point trail as they wanted to take a longer hike than the rest of us, then took Ryan and Sara to Cruz Bay for some downtown wandering and shopping. Then Ryan and Sara and I went to the trail head to meet Joanie and Chelsea, but at the moment, the rain was pretty constant... so it just so happened that the Tap Room was right there, so we decided to kill some time and check out the local brewery.

After a beer and some Trivial Pursuit playing we decided not to take the muddy trail and drove to Hawksnest Bay instead for some beach time. It really doesn't matter if it's raining if your in the water, right. Anyway, spend a little over an hour there - another beautiful bay - snorkeled, swam, read my book a bit.

We then headed back into town and met Joanie and Chelsea at the trail head, and drove home to clean up for our evening Juntos festivities.

Went into Cruz Bay in the late afternoon - the main town on St. John - to do a little walking around and window shopping. The highlight, I think, was either the St. John Spice store - awesome aromas - or the Now and Zen shop. After about an hour, we went to the High Tide Bar and Grill for a light appetizer and a few more- you guessed it - rum drinks.

Then after the non-Sunset - clouds again :-( - we went to a beautiful little restaurant called Rhumb Lines where we ate outdoors in a beautiful garden, to celebrate Juntos. It was a very nice meal and a fun celebration.

To end the evening, we all sat around the room, very tired from a long day, and somehow ended up playing a game of "would you rather"... such as "would you rather uncontrollably fart or burp in public?" - silly questions like that. We laughed ourselves to bed... A good ending to our 3rd Juntos!

A Day at Trunk Bay

Day 5 - Left the house fairly early this morning for a full day at Trunk Bay. This beach is on almost every list of top ten beaches of the Caribbean, sometimes the world... and it was awesome! It's part of the National Park on the island, and well preserved. There's also an underwater snorkeling trail that tours a small island just off shore. Lots of sea fans and brain coral and lots of other really pretty stuff.

We had beach chairs from our rental house and rented an umbrella at the beach and just hung out, walked along the beach, had a picnic and snorkeled a few times. Even saw a couple of sting rays swimming right in front of where we were hanging out. Unfortunately, the sun was blocked a good part of the day by clouds, but the beach and water couldn't get spoiled by anything.

On the way back from the beach, we stopped at the market for a few more necessities - salsa, scotch bonnet peppers and chips to accompany our daily dose of rum/fruit drinks.

We're about to enjoy another mealed cooked by Ryan - tonight its Mango Chicken. Life's tough here on St. John - what can I say...

Discovering St. John

Day 4 - Woke up slow, hanging around our St. John pad for a leisurely morning, then went for an awesome hike. Started in the town of Cruz Bay and took the Lind Point trail to Salmon Bay. The hike was gentle, very lush and of course, a bit humid. But we finally came to a fork in the trail, with one option leading down to Salmon Bay. Needless to say - we took that route and ended up and an incredibly awesome beach. It took us each about 30 seconds to take off our shoes, put our stuff down and dive into the beautiful water. Aaaaahhhhh. No better way or place to end a hike!

So we frolicked around in the water, taking turns with the one mask we had on the hike. Saw these really neat silver fish circling our feet. Also found some live Conch shells. Just a beautiful uncrowded beach with beautiful water. After our incredibly refreshing swim, we sat on our towels and had a very nice picnic. Finally put on our shoes and headed back on the trail to our car.

We then drove further east on the North Shore "Highway".... checking out Hawksnest Bay, Trunk Bay (be back here tomorrow!), Cinnamon Bay and Liestner Bay. Ryan, Chelsea and Joanie checked out the Sugar Plantation ruins while Sara and I checked out the bay - but this bay didn't offer much in the way of snorkeling.

On the way back home, we stopped in at Cinnamon Bay for another quick swim. Now we're at home - had a nice afternoon beverage with some chips and great salsa that Ryan made, and about to sit down for, what I'm sure will be, an awesome spaghetti dinner. A very nice day - easy going with a little adventure and a lot of beauty. Probably a fairly typical St. John day!

The Pool "Boy" at our St. John House

The Truth... as spoken by our Home in St. John

On to St. John

Day 3 - Last morning at Bolongo Bay. Did one more shopping trip on St. Thomas and took the car ferry to St. John - a 30 minute ride. Went immediately to the Starfish Market in Cruz Bay, did a little more shopping and met our rental home's host - Mary Phyllis. She escorted us to our new home in the mountains, with a great ocean view! 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms (including a garden shower in the master) and our own pool. Very nice place to call home for the next 4 nights.

Spent the day settling in, swimming, hanging out and yes, one more shopping trip to town. Ryan and I went looking for some fresh fish and came back with some local red snapper and creole spices, etc, etc. Checked out the town and got a free rum sample. Gotta go now - I've got even more rum to drink!

Magens Bay and Coki Beach

Day 2 - Today we drove (on the fun and exciting left side) to Magens Bay on the north side of the island. Again another shout out to GPS... The main road was closed by Ryan's GPS navigating, along with some good in bred geo-positional instincts of my own - got us there just fine. At first when we got there we were ready to leave - talk about crowds of tourists. However, we noticed that farther west on the mile long beach, it was pretty empty. We headed down that way and all was good. Parked right there at the beach, had a picnic table to ourselves under some shade, and went swimming.

What was really cool was that we were swimming all around these Boobie Birds, which were diving all around us into the water for a meal. Very cool. Pelicans and Terns toos.

Swam, picnicked and Chelsea and Sara "starred" in a Virgin Island promotional video. (more later) The bay was very pretty and was great for swimming, but there was no snorkeling there to speak of.

So after lunch, we headed to Coki Beach on the east side of the island. Here there were a bunch of local outfits selling t-shirts, rum drinks, renting snorkels and beach chairs, etc. etc. You could probably even buy some pot there if you wanted.

But the main event was the snorkeling - awesome. Very clear water, a good number of fish and some coral that I haven't seen much. Sea Fans, Feather Dusters and more. Very nice.

We then stopped at Fungi's on the Beach nearby for an afternoon snack of Red Snapper, Plaintain, beans, rice, Johnnycakes and of course, rum drinks. Ryan even took a shot of Roots - rum soaked in herbs, spices, fruits, nuts and insects. Ferments up to about 185 proof. Yummy and very strong. The view from Fungi's was really nice. This picture was taken there.

Finally got back to Bolongo Bay. The girls stayed in and snacked, while Ryan and I went back to Iggies for the all you can eat crab feast. It was delicious and fun, but I couldn't even sit there as long as Ryan could eat. We certainly get our money's worth when we take Ryan to an all-you-can-eat dinner! Fun Day!

Bolongo Bay - St. Thomas

Day 1 - Our first day in St. Thomas, we just hung out mostly at our beach, Bolongo Bay. This picture was taken from our balcony. The building in the center of the photo is Iggies - a great little bar and grill - good food, good rum drinks and a great all you can eat crab dinner (more later).

Watched these two guys exercise their cocks - roosters that is. In the water swimming - very weird. Then, beach chairs under palapas and palm trees for a large part of the day.

Later that afternoon, had another great, long family discussion about spirituality, "humaness", philosophy and being a radical.

Ate dinner at the Lobster Grill - a restaurant in a sort of tree-house above the pool on Bolongo Bay. I had a great seafood pasta meal with lobster, shrimp and scallops. Everyone else had okay meals.

By the way - Bolongo Bay resort is pretty nice. Down to earth, simple and very beachy. But our condo - other than it's adequate size and nice balcony - sucked. You couldn't shut the master bedroom door because of a curtain rod... unbelievable. The beds were lumpy and things were just overall not in great shape. But we made due. After all - it is beautiful here - and the rum drinks help a lot! :-)

Travel Days

Saturday May 28th - Sara, Ryan, Joanie and I left Boise in the evening for Oakland. Rented a car, ate in San Francisco at Henry's Hunan... and then went to Chelsea's house. Saw Buddy and their roommate, then on to our airport hotel. Went to bed fairly late, and had to wake up at 4:30am to make our 6am flight.

The flight to Miami wasn't bad; Ryan grabbed a seat in the Exit Room which gave us all an extra seat in our row. Once in Miami, we took a taxi to South Beach. Wow - lots of big booty everywhere!

Ate at Lario's on the Beach - a Cuban restaurant - that wasn't very good at all. But the scenery - especially the human scenery - was fairly entertaining. Grabbed a taxi back to the airport for our 2 hour flight to St. Thomas. Got our bags and rented a Jeep Wrangler and began the nighttime drive - on the left side of the road - for about 20 minutes to our condo at Bolongo Bay.