tpatricco's Two Weeks in Paradise - St. John Trip Report
Jun 7th, 2006, 01:26 PM
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tpatricco's Two Weeks in Paradise - St. John Trip Report
For iamq and others...
Sorry it's taken me so long to get myself in gear to write this report. We had a fantastic time and well...re-entry is tough!
I did start by organizing the 300+ photos we took, so I'll post the link for you to enjoy these to get you started!
I promise report installments to follow soon! Trish
In the meantime: www/pbase.com/tpatricco/st_john_may_2006
Sorry it's taken me so long to get myself in gear to write this report. We had a fantastic time and well...re-entry is tough!
I did start by organizing the 300+ photos we took, so I'll post the link for you to enjoy these to get you started!
I promise report installments to follow soon! Trish
In the meantime: www/pbase.com/tpatricco/st_john_may_2006
Jun 7th, 2006, 01:28 PM
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Jun 7th, 2006, 04:10 PM
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I especially like Doug and Tony's creation! Wishful thinking? 
Thanks for the pics! My copy of The Beaches of St. John just came last night and I'm more excited than ever! Thanks Trish! 9 more!
-Bill
Thanks for the pics! My copy of The Beaches of St. John just came last night and I'm more excited than ever! Thanks Trish! 9 more!-Bill
Jun 7th, 2006, 05:52 PM
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Trish,
I really enjoyed your pictures alot. Thanks for posting the link. I have looked at some of your other albums as well in the past and the cats stand out in my mind. Are you guys cat magnets
I think you have two. We have three also and we never seem to attract that many on vacation! Think it was you that semi adopted a cat your last trip to STJ. One Eye looks like he/she may have some Bengal in him. He looks like a Marbled Bengal. One of ours is the traditional Bengal with the leopard spots. She is beautiful, but a nervous Nellie. Your villa looked great.
Brenda
I really enjoyed your pictures alot. Thanks for posting the link. I have looked at some of your other albums as well in the past and the cats stand out in my mind. Are you guys cat magnets
I think you have two. We have three also and we never seem to attract that many on vacation! Think it was you that semi adopted a cat your last trip to STJ. One Eye looks like he/she may have some Bengal in him. He looks like a Marbled Bengal. One of ours is the traditional Bengal with the leopard spots. She is beautiful, but a nervous Nellie. Your villa looked great.Brenda
Jun 8th, 2006, 09:43 AM
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Trip report Part 1: Getting there is not half the fun. A rough start on STJ.
Saturday May 13th - Woke up early and did final packing including cooler full of frozen steaks, poultry, burgers, bacon & sausages. Friends, JoMarie & Doug arrived at our house at 7:00 am for car service to Newark Airport (10 minutes from my house). We departed for the airport by 7:30am for 9:30 am flight. EWR can be busy on Saturdays and we wanted plenty of time to get through security & get some breakfast before the flight. Most bags were curb checked and Security checkpoint was uneventful, although x-ray screener man was amused by the rack of ribs in our cooler bag. Our flight to STT was uneventful though we departed 1 hour late due to “disaster drills” on the runway at EWR.
Upon arrival at STT’s Cyril R. King Airport the guys went to get us all some Coronas & we hit the duty free shop to stock up on booze for the week as we waited for the very slow luggage belt to bring us all our checked bags. Due to the delay, we didn’t make the 3:00 Charlotte Amalie to Cruz Bay ferry as planned and opted to wait for the 4:00 instead of going to Red Hook. This is where our troubles began. I immediately called the sister of our Villa’s owner who we were to meet at Skinny Legs in Coral Bay to get checked in to let her know we’d be late. I never did get her on the phone, but left her a voice message on her cell phone. The guys went to get us some roadies (beers to drink while traveling) as we girls waited for the ferry. Ferry to Cruz Bay was pleasant as we were excited to finally be almost to STJ. Arrive and pick up our Mitsubishi Montero from Conrad Sutton Car Rentals. Carmen Sutton was very pleasant & helpful to us there. Finally we’re on our way to Coral Bay and to our villa!
We arrive at Skinny’s at about 5:00 pm. Originally I had coordinated with the owner to meet “Debbie” her sister there at around 4:00-4:30 based on us taking the 3:00 ferry. Debbie is nowhere to be found, and our waitress (who I know from past visits and should know all locals) doesn’t know her either. Not a good sign. Of course now my cell phone has no service, so it’s off to the pay phone with a pile of change to give her another call and let her know we’ve arrived. And leave another voice mail. Ok…great. So we sit down and relax and order some beers and wait….and wait and drink and wait and drink and order burgers and ask others in the bar if they know “Debbie” from Little Plantation – they all know our owner but nobody seems to know “Debbie”. And then we drink and wait and call some more. Anthony and I are staying calm…we know “island time” but we’re growing less amused and less patient by the minute. By 9:00 pm we’ve left about 6 messages for Debbie and an equal number of decreasingly patient messages for the owner in Massachusetts, but there’s really no place for them to call us back. We know approximately where the house is, but not enough to go there. Anthony even goes to search for the house, but sunlight is long gone and we are running out of options. We attempt to enlist the local police and fire department to help us, thinking they might know where the house is…we have the “address” which is basically a lot number, but many roads have no names on STJ. They are of NO help. Skinny’s is closing, so we leave and head to another bar down the road. Stop in and ask about “Debbie”. At least the bartender knows who she is at Aqua Bistro and suggests she might be at the “Full Moon Party” at Miss Lucy’s restaurant. We know where that is, so we take a ride on the chance we might find her and our villa. She is not there, but by some miracle, a local is there who knows where the house is! He is a realtor and might have had a few drinks already, but he agrees to show us where the house is. He is our Angel! (he’s also a realtor with a property listed right next to our villa). He leads us back to Coral Bay and first up one very steep and unpaved road. Oops wrong one! Back down and up another also steep but partially paved this time…and finally we are at the gates of our villa, and true to most homes on St. John, the house is wide open and waiting for us. When we finally pull into the driveway it’s 10:30pm. We are all so relived! We thank our Angel Mike profusely, wish him good night and then proceed to unpack our cooler of still frozen meats (thank goodness) and crash out for the night. From here on the vacation gets much better….but we never did see or hear from Debbie at all.
You can all understand why although Little Plantation is a great villa – I will never be able to recommend it to anyone. I would absolutely never wish that experience on anybody. If Anthony and I had not been to STJ before and had not been familiar with the Coral Bay area and culture we’d have been panicking. Our friends (who are STJ newbies) could not believe how calm we stayed during the whole ordeal.
Saturday May 13th - Woke up early and did final packing including cooler full of frozen steaks, poultry, burgers, bacon & sausages. Friends, JoMarie & Doug arrived at our house at 7:00 am for car service to Newark Airport (10 minutes from my house). We departed for the airport by 7:30am for 9:30 am flight. EWR can be busy on Saturdays and we wanted plenty of time to get through security & get some breakfast before the flight. Most bags were curb checked and Security checkpoint was uneventful, although x-ray screener man was amused by the rack of ribs in our cooler bag. Our flight to STT was uneventful though we departed 1 hour late due to “disaster drills” on the runway at EWR.
Upon arrival at STT’s Cyril R. King Airport the guys went to get us all some Coronas & we hit the duty free shop to stock up on booze for the week as we waited for the very slow luggage belt to bring us all our checked bags. Due to the delay, we didn’t make the 3:00 Charlotte Amalie to Cruz Bay ferry as planned and opted to wait for the 4:00 instead of going to Red Hook. This is where our troubles began. I immediately called the sister of our Villa’s owner who we were to meet at Skinny Legs in Coral Bay to get checked in to let her know we’d be late. I never did get her on the phone, but left her a voice message on her cell phone. The guys went to get us some roadies (beers to drink while traveling) as we girls waited for the ferry. Ferry to Cruz Bay was pleasant as we were excited to finally be almost to STJ. Arrive and pick up our Mitsubishi Montero from Conrad Sutton Car Rentals. Carmen Sutton was very pleasant & helpful to us there. Finally we’re on our way to Coral Bay and to our villa!
We arrive at Skinny’s at about 5:00 pm. Originally I had coordinated with the owner to meet “Debbie” her sister there at around 4:00-4:30 based on us taking the 3:00 ferry. Debbie is nowhere to be found, and our waitress (who I know from past visits and should know all locals) doesn’t know her either. Not a good sign. Of course now my cell phone has no service, so it’s off to the pay phone with a pile of change to give her another call and let her know we’ve arrived. And leave another voice mail. Ok…great. So we sit down and relax and order some beers and wait….and wait and drink and wait and drink and order burgers and ask others in the bar if they know “Debbie” from Little Plantation – they all know our owner but nobody seems to know “Debbie”. And then we drink and wait and call some more. Anthony and I are staying calm…we know “island time” but we’re growing less amused and less patient by the minute. By 9:00 pm we’ve left about 6 messages for Debbie and an equal number of decreasingly patient messages for the owner in Massachusetts, but there’s really no place for them to call us back. We know approximately where the house is, but not enough to go there. Anthony even goes to search for the house, but sunlight is long gone and we are running out of options. We attempt to enlist the local police and fire department to help us, thinking they might know where the house is…we have the “address” which is basically a lot number, but many roads have no names on STJ. They are of NO help. Skinny’s is closing, so we leave and head to another bar down the road. Stop in and ask about “Debbie”. At least the bartender knows who she is at Aqua Bistro and suggests she might be at the “Full Moon Party” at Miss Lucy’s restaurant. We know where that is, so we take a ride on the chance we might find her and our villa. She is not there, but by some miracle, a local is there who knows where the house is! He is a realtor and might have had a few drinks already, but he agrees to show us where the house is. He is our Angel! (he’s also a realtor with a property listed right next to our villa). He leads us back to Coral Bay and first up one very steep and unpaved road. Oops wrong one! Back down and up another also steep but partially paved this time…and finally we are at the gates of our villa, and true to most homes on St. John, the house is wide open and waiting for us. When we finally pull into the driveway it’s 10:30pm. We are all so relived! We thank our Angel Mike profusely, wish him good night and then proceed to unpack our cooler of still frozen meats (thank goodness) and crash out for the night. From here on the vacation gets much better….but we never did see or hear from Debbie at all.
You can all understand why although Little Plantation is a great villa – I will never be able to recommend it to anyone. I would absolutely never wish that experience on anybody. If Anthony and I had not been to STJ before and had not been familiar with the Coral Bay area and culture we’d have been panicking. Our friends (who are STJ newbies) could not believe how calm we stayed during the whole ordeal.
Jun 8th, 2006, 10:02 AM
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Part 2: Life is better in the morning.
The sun comes up early (like 5:45am) on STJ, so sleeping late in Paradise is uncommon. It’s a beautiful day! We met one of our Villa’s adopted cats last night and he is now dubbed “One-eye” the friendly cat with one freshly injured and scabby eye socket. He’s here again in the morning too. We rise, take a swim in the pool and check out the villa and surrounding grounds. We’re starved and didn’t get to grocery shop yet, so we head over to the Donkey Diner http://www.donkeydiner.com (“Kick Ass Food”) for breakfast. This place is awesome. Great food, and pleasant outdoor seating. Our waitress Ann, is the same waitress we had at Skinny’s the night before and she calls us her “homeless tourists”. She is happy to hear we finally found our place last night. We order delicious omlettes and chow down. After breakfast we head to Crabby’s so Jo & Doug can rent their snorkel gear for the week. After that we take them directly to our favorite Little Lamesur Bay where we snorkel & swim. We see plenty of fish & coral and Doug even sees a Sea Turtle (don’t worry Tuxedocat – I didn’t see any and I thought of you!). Later we stop at Love City Grocery to pick up provisions and beer for the house. Funny how most of the trips to the market were more often for beer than food. Hmm. Back at the villa we BBQ’d some burgers and hotdogs and relaxed in the pool some more. One eye is very interested in our cuisine. I guess all those annuls (little lizards) aren’t so tasty or filling.
The sun comes up early (like 5:45am) on STJ, so sleeping late in Paradise is uncommon. It’s a beautiful day! We met one of our Villa’s adopted cats last night and he is now dubbed “One-eye” the friendly cat with one freshly injured and scabby eye socket. He’s here again in the morning too. We rise, take a swim in the pool and check out the villa and surrounding grounds. We’re starved and didn’t get to grocery shop yet, so we head over to the Donkey Diner http://www.donkeydiner.com (“Kick Ass Food”) for breakfast. This place is awesome. Great food, and pleasant outdoor seating. Our waitress Ann, is the same waitress we had at Skinny’s the night before and she calls us her “homeless tourists”. She is happy to hear we finally found our place last night. We order delicious omlettes and chow down. After breakfast we head to Crabby’s so Jo & Doug can rent their snorkel gear for the week. After that we take them directly to our favorite Little Lamesur Bay where we snorkel & swim. We see plenty of fish & coral and Doug even sees a Sea Turtle (don’t worry Tuxedocat – I didn’t see any and I thought of you!). Later we stop at Love City Grocery to pick up provisions and beer for the house. Funny how most of the trips to the market were more often for beer than food. Hmm. Back at the villa we BBQ’d some burgers and hotdogs and relaxed in the pool some more. One eye is very interested in our cuisine. I guess all those annuls (little lizards) aren’t so tasty or filling.
Jun 8th, 2006, 10:47 AM
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Part 3: The Baths, Marina Cay, Snorkeling at Guana Island and Soggy Dollars!
Monday we took the New Horizons II Charter trip to the BVI’s. This was a fantastic day and we highly recommend this company for anyone interested in a fun trip and a good taste of the BVI’s. At $135.00 per person plus $20 for customs it was well worth the cost. We met at the VI National Park Visitor’s Center in Cruz Bay, boarded the powerboat along with about 10 others. We had a breakfast of fruit, muffins & banana bread with drinks en route and our first stop was in Virgin Gorda where we were able to stretch our legs for a few minutes as Peggy from NHII processed our documents at Customs. Then back on the boat for a short ride over to the Baths. The Baths, for those who don’t know is a geologic rock formation (one of three of it’s type in the whole world). It consists of large boulders arranged as Mother nature saw fit. At the Baths we swam from the boat to the beach and then were able to walk through the rocks with Peggy our guide pointing out various formations and points of interest for about an hour. We then swam back to the boat and motored over to Marina Cay with drinks and painkillers on the way for lunch in their pretty, shady beachside restaurant. Food was delicious and it was nice to sit and relax and eat for a little while before getting back on the boat for the next destination. After lunch we snorkeled off a small beach at Guana Island with a pretty reef loaded with colorful fish. Then it was off to White Bay at Jost Van Dyke and our final destination – the famous Soggy Dollar Bar! We waded in from the boat with our soggy dollars in our pockets ready to partake of their world famous secret recipe Painkillers. They are delicious, complete with fresh Grenadian nutmeg grated on top. Yum! The beach at White Bay is powdery soft sand and beautiful crystal clear water. We enjoyed the beach for awhile before getting back on the boat to return to STJ. We were back in STJ around 3:00 pm, and after getting some roadies, we stopped in at Starfish Market in the Marketplace for some groceries and then went back to the villa for drinks & limin’ in the pool until dinnertime. JoMarie and Tony whipped up a delicious dinner of Filet Mignons with baked potatoes that we enjoyed poolside on the deck. We were all worn out from a long day of sun & fun and we all went to bed early that day!
Monday we took the New Horizons II Charter trip to the BVI’s. This was a fantastic day and we highly recommend this company for anyone interested in a fun trip and a good taste of the BVI’s. At $135.00 per person plus $20 for customs it was well worth the cost. We met at the VI National Park Visitor’s Center in Cruz Bay, boarded the powerboat along with about 10 others. We had a breakfast of fruit, muffins & banana bread with drinks en route and our first stop was in Virgin Gorda where we were able to stretch our legs for a few minutes as Peggy from NHII processed our documents at Customs. Then back on the boat for a short ride over to the Baths. The Baths, for those who don’t know is a geologic rock formation (one of three of it’s type in the whole world). It consists of large boulders arranged as Mother nature saw fit. At the Baths we swam from the boat to the beach and then were able to walk through the rocks with Peggy our guide pointing out various formations and points of interest for about an hour. We then swam back to the boat and motored over to Marina Cay with drinks and painkillers on the way for lunch in their pretty, shady beachside restaurant. Food was delicious and it was nice to sit and relax and eat for a little while before getting back on the boat for the next destination. After lunch we snorkeled off a small beach at Guana Island with a pretty reef loaded with colorful fish. Then it was off to White Bay at Jost Van Dyke and our final destination – the famous Soggy Dollar Bar! We waded in from the boat with our soggy dollars in our pockets ready to partake of their world famous secret recipe Painkillers. They are delicious, complete with fresh Grenadian nutmeg grated on top. Yum! The beach at White Bay is powdery soft sand and beautiful crystal clear water. We enjoyed the beach for awhile before getting back on the boat to return to STJ. We were back in STJ around 3:00 pm, and after getting some roadies, we stopped in at Starfish Market in the Marketplace for some groceries and then went back to the villa for drinks & limin’ in the pool until dinnertime. JoMarie and Tony whipped up a delicious dinner of Filet Mignons with baked potatoes that we enjoyed poolside on the deck. We were all worn out from a long day of sun & fun and we all went to bed early that day!
