a week on the island . . .
Sunday, May 31, 2009
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,
