. . . is not enough
Sunday, May 31, 2009
By midweek I already new the time was flying by too quickly. We only had a couple days left and I had not gotten to really snorkel at all nor had I made it to Solomon Beach yet.
Days 5 & 6 . . .
Wednesday I had a bright and early 9am meeting at Caneel Bay resort. I'm not sure how that will turn out in the end. They liked my designs but not the shirts - I need to look into more color options. We'll see. I returned to the villa after that and the plan had been for the group to go BACK to Caneel for brunch and hit all the surrounding beaches. Instead, everyone got ready and left for Waterlemon.
Waterlemon is a small cay off Leinster Bay and has excellent snorkeling. You can get there a variety of ways but typically we park near Annaberg and walk back. I'm guessing it's just over a mile (and it's flat - yeah!). The beach is rocky and there isn't any shade so it's not really a place to setup shop and hang out. However, the bay has a grassy bottom and I have never not seen turtles, rays and conch there. One thing I did miss was the field of giant seastars the first year. I have seen them since but just not in the huge numbers that had apparently gathered there the first year we visited. There is quite a current around it so I was unable to snorkel it the first year. Once I got my handy inflatable vest though I've been able to easily snorkel there during our other visits. I missed it on this trip too as I stayed home with J. The group saw turtles and rays of course (a Waterlemon staple). They also saw a tarpon and octopus plus the usual barracuda and array of tropical fish.
Everyone was tired from the long day at Waterlemon so that afternoon included some pool time and dinner in town. We opted for Cafe Roma. Though the location gets wonderful reviews I can't say I loved my meal. There are some really good Italian restaurants back in PA and also at home in C-bus. It takes a lot to impress me with that type of cuisine. It wasn't bad it just wasn't great. We should really have opted for someplace with a more tropical menu. J was not too happy here so D took him home while we got our food boxed up. With the guys gone, the group of us girls decided to wander through the shops at Wharfside before taking a taxi back to the villa. Unfortunately most of the shops were already closed so there was not much purchasing that happened - maybe that's a good thing.
Thursday was our last full day on the island. I had two morning appointments that I turned into three. T and H joined me at both, well they shopped at various stores while I met with vendors at others. First we hit The Marketplace on the south end of Cruz Bay. Next we headed into town to Mongoose Junction where I did my only sort of cold call stop. I had spoken to them but did not have an appointment. Luckily the person I spoke with was there and she loved my shirts. She's placing an order! After work it was time for play, and the three of us headed to Solomon Beach - FINALLY! It's a hike to get to Solomon but it's worth it (and it's not a horrible hike). It's small and secluded but is ridiculously picturesque. The water seems to be even clearer than the other beaches. I love it. We didn't bother to snorkel but just lounged in the sun and floated on the waves.
I returned to the villa to pick up D and J and then we met T and H at Honeymoon beach. Honeymoon is next to Solomon so it's far easier to get to with J. This was our last beach. Sigh. It was an awesome time though. I snorkeled first with T. We saw rays (the hugest ray I have ever seen - at least 4'x6' if not larger). Then we headed over to the reef where it was like being in an aquarium. There were parrotfish, squirrelfish, wrasse, angelfish, grouper, sergeant major, blue tang, butterfly fish, blue chromis and bristle worms just to name a few! We hardly swam around at all as they were all right there in one group of coral.
I went back to shore and D took a turn. Of course as soon as he gets out there the fun starts. T sees an octopus and D gets called back from the opposite end of the bay to see it. It's only about 15' offshore but I couldn't get to it with J of course - very frustrating! Luckily D swam back to let me use his mask and check it out. Then once it was on the move T swam back to let me see it again. It kept changing colors and being quite defensive about being followed (understandably) so they left it alone. It was just as well because the two rays we say earlier headed farther out into the bay to join up with a few more - plus down the bay from that was a spot of coral with another diverse set of fish including a huge tarpon. There was a ton to see. It was a great way to end the day and the trip.
Day 7 - heading home
Friday we got up and packed like crazy people - well maybe that was just D and I since we had our stuff and J's. It was a bit harried. We left promptly at 10am (check out time), dropped off the keys & the rental car then waited for our noon ferry over breakfast at Mojo Cafe.
I got to meet the artist I worked with - Chelsea. She helped us cart our bags over to the ferry and we were on our way. J was a crazy man in the STT airport because it was nap-time. Luckily he fell asleep on the plane - yeah! He didn't wake up until the 16-month old a few rows up started screaming. I wonder if babies are more instinctual than adults, like cats and dogs who are visually upset upon entering the veterinary office and hearing and smelling the other animals. J could not go back to sleep with this baby howling but at least he stayed calm and played and we were preparing to land. We landed at J's usual bedtime and had more than two hours to kill. We let him eat AGAIN while we all had dinner at Chili's. He was so tired by the time we took off that he was unable to fall asleep. It was so sad. He couldn't get comfortable which I can understand. It was a short flight though and soon enough he was in his travel crib at his aunt Jenn's back in Dallas.
posted by Shannon @ 31.5.09,
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a week on the island . . .
Our week in St. John went by too fast. We had 6 days to enjoy the pool and beaches and 7 nights to venture into Love City. Plus I ended up meeting with six different vendors across four days. I got great feedback and look forward to moving forward with the business.
Days 1 & 2 . . . The Swim
Saturday was a beach day of course. We went to Cinnamon since D had never been. Plus it's got super soft sand, food and showers making it family friendly for J's first beach ever. It was a bit overcast but I think that was a good way to get started and not have to worry about being cooked on day one. Cinnamon Bay has a campground, a cay to snorkel around, and you can also snorkel west to Little Cinnamon and even on to Peter Bay which is a private beach. We stayed a few hours then headed back to the villa for J's nap and a dip in the pool. That evening was my first vendor appointment, the Power Swim meeting and dinner out at Morgan's Mango (by far my favorite restaurant on-island). The pan-seared tofu is AMAZING - best tofu I've ever had. I wish I knew how they made it, plus the sauce was deliciously sweet and spicy. Yum.
Sunday was the Power Swim. I volunteered in 2007 and wanted to do so again but opted out since J was with us this time. D and T both won their age/course brackets and got ribbons and a glass art prize. I spent the day with J at the pool. That night we all made dinner in and played Monopoly. I never played that game "correctly" growing up. We just went round and round the board and quickly got bored. It's so much more entertaining to buy property and build houses. I was a mogul and battled D at the end to see which of us won. I won - by a a lot.
Days 3 & 4 . . . Beach Sampling
Monday we got our bag back from US Airways. Yeah! I had D drop J and I off at Hawksnest for a morning swim while he ran back into town to meet the ferry and our bag. Hawksnest is a wide bay that has 4 beaches, from west to east they are: Caneel Hawksnest, Little Hawksnest, Hawksnest, Gibney/Oppenheimer. The first beach is part of the Caneel Bay Resort and we have only visited it once - I loved it and got to see pelicans and turtles! Little Hawksnest is sort of connected to Hawksnest via a path over some rocks. You have snorkel around some reef or walk/drive to Gibney/Oppenheimer. Those beaches are sort of the same though the Gibney portion is privately owned (above the high tide line).
That afternoon we relaxed poolside for J's nap. Our pool was awesome. I have not seen one that large on the island and it was nice and deep too. I had another afternoon appointment with a vendor too; it went well. There was not an order but the manager liked the designs and I'm hopeful.
We returned to Morgan's Mango that night. J was far less messy this time (he made a HUGE mess the first night - it was embarrassing). The fried plantains and tofu were just as yummy as the first night. J enjoyed his tropical fruit punch - fresh punch not the stuff we get at the grocery. It was really yummy too; I shared with him.
Tuesday was overcast again and cooler. It would have been a great day for a hike to Ram's Head (or the Reef Bay hike if the mosquitoes weren't so bad) or even Denis Beach. Instead we hoped the clouds would move on and headed to Francis Bay in hopes of good snorkeling. It was really buggy there and the sand gets rocky in some places. It was also really silty for some reason so the snorkeling while okay was apparently not as good as usual. I didn't go, but this is the report I got back from T and D. I was able to see fish though. I walked the entire length of the bay (holding J) in about hip deep water and we saw an entire school of flat needlefish, a hunting pelican that landed only a couple feet from us, a conch and as always schools of fry and palometa swimming around us. Want to see them for yourself - look here. There were also chickens - two roosters and a flock of hens (maybe 6). We caused a frenzy when J dropped a fig newton in the sand and I disposed of it by throwing it into the brush. One rooster had the newton in it's mouth (after stealing it from another bird) and was running with all the others behind it. It was actually pretty comical.
After J's nap and a dip in the pool we headed to Trunk Bay. It's part of the USVI National Park and is the iconic St. John beach. The cay just offshore has an underwater snorkel trail. It hasn't been very good most years but this year it was much better. There were huge parrotfish as well as juvenile sergeant majors (again - check here for pics).
Come back in a few days for picks. Also, stay tuned for Days 5-7.
posted by Shannon @ 31.5.09,
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STJ via DFW
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
I should have been blogging! I should have remembered my camera's cables or card reader too but alas. Packing for three people (one of whom is 14 months old) for two weeks is a bit of an undertaking when you are trying to limit bags (airline fees) and bag weight (airline fees - oh and ability to carry them of course). Camera supplies were a little low on the list. I'll add images once I get back to Dallas and if not then they will surely be uploaded when I get back home.
We left home over a week ago. We put our house on the market on a Friday, had an open house the following Sunday, and then got on a plane Tuesday morning. After a few days in Dallas we got on yet another plane with D's sister for the Virgin Islands, St. John specifically.
This is a working vacation for me. I spent the last full day in Dallas (ah, procrastination) calling vendors and setting up meetings for when I was on-island. I was able to setup five meetings. Each one in a different area or at least a different shopping center in town.
Though baby J would not sleep on the flights to Dallas, he did nap nicely on the long leg of the flight to St. John. We deplaned, found T waiting for us (her flight was earlier), and waited for our luggage. Then we waited some more. Finally after all the flights had their luggage dispersed we realized ours was not there. We filed a complaint or whatever you call it to track the enormous traffic-cone-orange bag that somehow got missed in Charlotte or Dallas. The US Airways counter works were horrible. HORRIBLE! While they were nice to us they were not nice to the couple next to us, and niceness doesn't get you a bag back. Seemed like only one person had authority to log on so we waited for that person to appear. Then they had no idea how to fill out the online form (2 of them helping each other). So they filled it out wrong and hoped it would work out. It didn't.
Two days later I got a call from corporate where lost bag issues go for one last hoorah before being "filed." I walked them through all the wrong info in the form and magically that night the orange bag, that had been called black in the online form, was found and placed on a ferry for our island - in the Virgin Islands - that's VI not VA which is the choice the counter attendants opted for on that form. Regardless, by the next morning we had our bag back and only 1 item inside was broken beyond repair. How does that happen exactly? I guess it must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time inside that bag and gotten smashed.
We missed the 5pm ferry to St. John the evening we arrived because of the drama. We missed it by 10 seconds actually. But we got to relax with drinks and snacks in the newish (new to us anyway) dock at Red Hook. Last time we'd have been waiting outside with no seats had that happened.
The 6pm ferry ride was uneventful. J behaved and seemed to enjoy the ride. He's been doing really great the whole trip actually. I'm really impressed and feel very lucky. Curtis met us at the dock and before long we were in our rental car and en route to our villa.
The villa is HUGE! The pool is the nicest I've ever seen on the island. We're beyond happy with this choice. There's even a separate pool house with it's own entrance, TV, etc. The rooms are also huge and we were able to use a bench to make a separate mini-room for J in ours. We're able to sneak in and out without him noticing us which is perfect.
Come back to this post in about a week to see villa pics!
posted by Shannon @ 27.5.09,
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