Virgin Islands National Park (#48)

 Saturday June 19, 2021 & Sunday June 20, 2021

I must confess that I didn't blog after the sailing trip.  So today is December 14, 2021 and I'm trying to remember what we did Saturday and Sunday based on pictures. To be honest, this trip was a few days too long for my liking.

I think on Saturday we went on a short, somewhat uneventful hike to Tektite Trail then I remember part of the bottom of our tiny car falling off and dragging on the ground for part of the drive back.  

I know we ate at Skinny Legs one more time so I think it was Saturday evening. Then we packed up.

Sunday was just the return home.  I think, overall, uneventful other than trying to eat lunch in St. Thomas.  We were going to eat at a restaurant near the airport that was highly recommended but once we waited 20 minutes or so to get seated, the waiter mentioned that it would take at least an hour before our food would be ready so we had to leave and eat at a Subway.  No issues though with the ferry or the flight home or with returning the car.

I'm glad we went - the kids had a blast - but not my cup of tea overall.

Virgin Islands National Park (#48)

 Friday, June 18, 2021

Today would have been my parent’s 55^th wedding anniversary.

Last night around 11:30 we lost power (which also meant we lost water).  This morning still nothing.  No power is one thing but no water is a big deal.  We had to get ready to go on our sailing trip.  Luckily with a gas stove that we were able to light, we could fry some eggs and cook some oatmeal.

We were supposed to meet Captain Mike at 10:30 but they called and asked if they could push it back by one hour because the power outage threw everything off.  We hung around the house and read (still no power) then drove back to our trusty parking spot and got a drink at this cool spot.

With drinks in hand, we found four beach chairs on the beach directly below High Tide (where we at earlier) and relaxed, waiting for Captain Mike. 

The next five hours were amazing.  He picked us up in a dingy and took us to his 40-foot sail boat.  Grant sailed us out of the bay and most of the way to our first snorkeling spot and Ryan sailed us the rest of the way.  Mike taught them both a lot about sailing.  We saw baby pelicans nesting up in the rocks. 

Then we stopped to snorkel.  I can’t remember where we were but looking at a map, it was possibly Lovango Cay.  There were beautiful fish – like thousands of tiny fish everywhere.  And other than one couple, we were the only people there.

I think we ate sandwiches after that then went over to Caneel Bay and snorkeled with sting ray.  There had been a big resort in the bay, owned by the Rockefellers and it was destroyed in Hurricane Irma in 2017.  So far, it still hasn’t been rebuilt.  And Kenny Chesney lives in a giant house at the top of the hill!

We got back to our beach around 5 and drove back to the house and yay, we have power.  Nick crashed so the kids and I ate pizza again – still no running water until Nick wakes up.  We started season 3 of Stranger Things then all went to bed, this time, much more comfortably than the night before.

Today was awesome.  Very expensive sailing trip but totally worth it.

Virgin Islands National Park (#48)

 Thursday, June 17, 2021

Today was a “No Beach” day.  We’re all quite sunburned so since we’re sailing tomorrow, we opted for no beach today.  Instead, we hung out at the house (I made up a sort of exercise routine) then we drove to Cruz Bay and drove around everywhere just trying to find a place to park.  We found a tiny parking lot near the passenger ferry and at a delicious lunch at High Tide, right on the beach.  Here’s the view from our table:

The lunch was great a relaxing.  We endured a short power outage but it didn’t impact lunch at all.  After lunch we walked around a did some souvenir shopping.  Ryan bought a beautiful sterling silver ring and Nick bought a hat and shirt.  

Grant grabbed an ice cream cone then we headed back to the car and took the road through the national park (the north shore road).  At the fork in the road past Maho Bay, where we normally turn right to get to our house, we turned left and drove to Francis Bay and to the Annaburg Ruins.  We parked in front of a sign and took a short, amazing trail (Leinster Bay Trail) to Watermelon Bay.  It looks like no roads will get you there and the boats moored in the bay were beautiful. 

From there it was back to the house for some downtime then a quick trip to the mini mart for more junk food (in the middle of a rainstorm), then back to the house for bean and cheese “tostadas” – taco shells broken in half – and a strange tasting avocado.  Then binging Stranger Things (finished season 2) then to bed.

Virgin Islands National Park (#48)

 Wednesday, June 16, 2021

This morning we drove to Trunk Bay and arrived around 9:15am.  Apparently, it’s considered to be the most beautiful beach in all of the Caribbean.  I believe it.  It was gorgeous.  We hung out in some mangroves with our beach chairs and ice chest and then around lunch time we ate at a food truck at the beach. Grant had a hot dog, Ryan – ballpark nachos, Nick a shrimp roll and me a Cesare wrap.  We were warned not to let the birds take our food. 

After lunch we hung out a little longer than we drove past our house and drove over to the east side of the island, basically to where Road 10 dead ends into a fork in the road, right where the map says East End.  We drove back to our mini mart and picked up some more food – like a 3-pack of frozen pizzas for $30.

Then we drove back to the house and swam/hung out/ate another frozen pizza and watched the rest of season 1 and part of season two of Stranger Things!

Not sure if I ever mentioned the wild donkies on the sides of the road?

Virgin Islands National Park (#48)

 Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Today was so fun.  We started off the day by driving to Maho Bay (part of the park).  We brought our chairs and pool floats, picked a spot on the post card-worthy beach, and hung out.  We played in the water, swam, rented snorkel gear and followed sea turtles around.  We stayed until noon or 1ish then decided to grab lunch but chose to stay away from Cruz Bay.  So, we went to Skinny Legs in Coral Bay and it was great!  Cheeseburgers, BLTs, etc.- very American – we got a great table in the shade and had a leisurely lunch complete with wild roaming chickens and cats.  We joked that we might eat there every day.

From there we went into the gift shop and Grant got a hat and shirt and Ryan grabbed a computer sticker. We went back to the house and hung out by the pool and listened to music.  

 It’s 7:30 now (feels like midnight and we just wrapped up a pasta dinner out on the deck and are about to re-watch all three seasons of Stranger Things!

We’re going to hit some more beaches tomorrow.

Virgin Islands National Park (#48)

 Monday, June 14, 2021

Our power came back on around midnight, which was nice because it’s pretty hot and sticky without air conditioning.  But our water did not come back on. 

I called the maintenance line and spoke with a guy who decided he would try to walk us through how to prime the pump rather than make the long drive over here.  He then asked me if he could speak to a man – good grief.  45 minutes later, we had running water.

We hung around the house a while, taking in the view 

and learning about the house, then we drove through Coral Bay to the southern side of the island to Salt Pond Bay (part of the national park).  It was stunning! We played in the water a bit then hiked to Salt Pond (which is actually a pond and was red) then kept hiking towards Blue Cobble beach – I’m not sure that’s the official name but it’s part of the Ram’s Head Trail.  Once we got to the blue rock beach, we hung out there a while then decided to head back.  But the sound the water makes as the wave is heading back out to see, across the rocky beach is so cool!

From there, we drove on Highway? 10 back to Cruz Bay (which is where the ferry dropped us off) and found a place to eat.  The whole area was crowded – hard to find a parking spot and long waits for lunch but we had a good lunch at Margarita Phil’s.  there were chickens roaming around that utterly freaked out Ryan – who knew she’s scared of chickens – and there were also baby chicks running around too.  

The kids got smoothies afterwards, next door, and then we walked across the street to the national park sign and visitor center.  We got magnets, hat pins and passbook stamps then stopped at the gourmet grocery store.  Oh my.  Prices were still outrageous. The selection was bad and the store was tiny.  $12 for a small container of strawberries; all the meat looked sus to me, etc.  But we managed to grab a few things then drove home via the beach road of the national park.  BEAUTIFUL.  We know what we’re doing tomorrow!

At the house, we lounged then fixed a frozen Red Barron pizza for dinner and ate on our deck.  Not the best food but the best view ever.

It gets dark so early that after you eat, it’s kind of strange but by 8:00 or so, you’re sort of ready to go to bed.  The kids each have their own rooms (like not even connected to the main house) so they each split and I studied a while (math teachers exam).

It was a great day.

Virgin Islands National Park (#48)

Sunday, June 13, 2021

 We left our house this morning around 7:15 to catch our 10:30am flight to St. Thomas – after our very close call flying to Nashville for Spring Break, we decided to give ourselves plenty of time!

We had no issues with the airport or the flight – it did take off a little bit late, which of course, made me nervous because the person I’ve been dealing with to plan this trip had freaked me out about missing the ferry to St John.

I watched the first two episodes of Ted Lasso on the plane and that show is great!

The kids did great and slept some and the flight was long – 5 hours.

We landed in St. Thomas on time, deboarded the plane into the outdoors, which is always cool and something the kids had only done a few times, and breezed through the whole COVID screening process.

Let me back up a bit.  This trip, which I booked in January, shortly after my dad died, had been a little bit more logistically challenging than any trip we’ve ever been on before.  We all had to get negative COVID tests and log them into a database (then wait to make sure everything went ok) then show these QR codes on our phones to people at the airport after they took our temp.  We don’t have to do anything to get back on the plane. 

We breezed through this line, literally in under a minute and our suitcases came record fast too.  I was the 4^th or 5^th person in line at the Avis rental car stand and the line was not moving at all.  Turns out they over-rented cars so even though we got there at 5 pm and had a valid reservation, we were told to wait an hour and that they’d call me.  I was stressed out – last ferry to St. John leaves at 7pm!  So, we went to the airport bar, got a stiff pina colada, Nick got a beer, and we waited.  About an hour later, she called me, we ran to the counter, got the car (which was better than what we rented – a Hyundai Tuscon rather than a Hyundai Sonata) and hit the road (with less than a full tank of gas 😊)

And then we began driving on the left-hand side of the road to the ferry.  And what we heard was correct – the drivers are crazy!  Nick drove the whole time which was good because once we got to the ferry, he had to back the car all the way to the very back of the ferry.  I would have freaked.  But oh my, the ferry ride was stunning.  Note the beautiful sunset!

We arrived on St. John at 7:20 and it was dark – like fully dark, sun totally set.  Bianca and her son escorted us to our stunning house.  It’s about a 7 or 8 mile, very scary drive to the house.  As we pulled up, it was like pitch black dark, and Bianca informed us that the power was out on the entire island so she and her son showed us around by flash light.  It was eerie.  There were amazing sound coming from the trees and she told us it’s all different tree frogs.  It’s a bit unnerving not really being able to see the house you rented.

We needed to grab some groceries so we drove into Coral Bay (which is basically the town we’re staying in” and went to the Love City Mini Market, who seemed to have a generator.  The food was shockingly expensive - $12 for a bag of apples.  Very little vegetables, bad selection, all strange.  So, we grabbed some basics and went back to the house.  Now here we sit in a house we can’t really see and have just learned we have no running water because it runs on an electric pump.   

But we made it.  I will not die without seeing Virgin Islands National Park!