We just got back from a great trip to St. Thomas and St. John, in the United States Virgin Islands, and are trying to switch our mindset back to the right side of the road. We will try to take you there if we can...

Saturday, May 29th, 2010
Chicago (ORD) to D.C. (IAD) to St. Thomas (STT)

We got up this morning at 2am and left the house by 3. Got on our flight with 35 well behaved 7th graders on their way to Washington D.C. for a social studies field trip. Tiffany watched "The Office" on the flight while I slept. After about an hour and a half we were in Washington D.C.'s Dulles Airport awaiting our flight to St. Thomas.

It was exciting to get off the plane in St. Thomas and feel the humid Caribbean air again. We snapped a few pictures, and since we only brought carry-on baggage, went straight to the Budget desk to pick up our Jeep Wrangler (with a quick stop at the Cruzan Rum booth for a free shot of rum). This was the first time we rented a car in a place that drives on the left instead of the right, but after a few minutes of driving in busy downtown Charlotte Amalie, we felt like locals. We stayed at the Mafolie Hotel, which is perched up on the hill above the Charlotte Amalie downtown area, and has world class views of St. Thomas Harbor. We quickly checked in, dropped our stuff, changed into our swim gear, and headed for Magens Bay.

It was hazy and cloudy, but we still managed to enjoy the beach. The fee to get in was $4 each, plus $2 for parking. Because of the weather, there weren't many visitors on the beach, but a large family of locals were having a cookout at the southern end of the beach, and several ex-pats were hanging out at the beach bar. We had some pepporoni pizza, and a couple drinks, and decided to head back to the Mafolie. Once there we ordered a poolside cheeseburger and italian potato salad from Tim the bartender. After our snack, we decided to go grocery shopping to get some beer and some diet coke. We went to the Pueblo grocery store in downtown Charlotte Amalie. While we were inside, a huge storm arrived, and we had a horrific downpour for about 10 minutes. The streets flooded badly, so we waited a little bit before running out to the jeep. Back at the Mafolie, a little bit of water got inside our bathroom, but we just dried it up and got ready for dinner - my last night of my twenties.

Dinner at the Mafolie was beyond our expectations. The wait staff were extremely friendly and the food was wonderful. We shared the mozzarella, tomato, and asparagus appetizer, I had the tropical glazed grouper, and Tiffany had the flat iron steak. I tried a couple of Virgin Island beers - Virgin Island Summer Ale and Blackbeard Ale...I liked both of them. Tiff had a glass of chardonnay. Both entrees came with rice and steamed veggies (broccoli, squash, cabbage, and carrots). The view of Charlotte Amalie and St. Thomas Harbor was breathtaking. It stormed a bit in the distance and there was a light rain off and on, adding to the ambience. After dinner we were both tired so we headed back to the room and watched some tv until we fell asleep.

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

We got up this morning at 8:30am and had some bagels and blueberry muffins at the restaurant. After that we packed up some beers and headed to Coki Beach. Loved it. There was reggae music, excellent snorkelling, and a beautiful view. I tried another new beer, Elephant (from Denmark). "Web" was our server (from Jasheh's Beach Bar). As he said, "like the computer". Tiff tried a "Bomb" frozen drink and liked it a lot. For a snack we had our typical cheeseburger and fries. The snorkelling right off the shore was excellent. A large school of Caribbean Reef Squid was hovering on the bottom, along with a very large barracuda and many other fish. Coki ended up being our favorite beach on St. Thomas. After a while at Coki, we decided to head to Sapphire Beach to check it out...It was also beautiful and had views of St. John and Tortola & Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands, as well as several other small islands. There was no music and it was a bit quiet for our liking, so we decided to try out a few more beaches. On the way out of the parking lot, a huge iguana was sitting in the driveway. Next stop was Secret Harbor Beach. It was much choppier and was more of a water sport / boating area. We didn't stay very long. After that we backtracked a bit to Cowpet Bay Beach. It was nice, but the swimming area was very small and there were a lot of boats. The last beach we visited on this day was Morningstar Beach at the Marriott. It was very beautiful and had a view of St. Croix, but it the surf was quite rough compared to some of the other beaches we visited.

For my 30th birthday dinner, we ate at Mim's on Bolongo Bay Beach. I had snapper and Tiff had chicken alfredo pasta. After dinner we walked over to Iggie's Beach Bar. The band Liquid Sunshine was playing and we had a couple beers and headed back to Mafolie to hang out at the bar with Derrek and Joe the bartenders. Then we went to bed.

Monday, May 31st, 2010

Got up at 8:30am again today. The Carnival Victory was already docked in St. Thomas Harbor. Interestingly enough, that is the exact same ship we were on the first time we visited St. Thomas. We had our daily breakfast at the Mafolie, packed up our Presidente Lights and Diet Cokes in a cooler, and headed off in the Jeep for the day. First we went to the Magens Bay lookout (Drake's Seat). We got directions from a very nice local who was teaching young boys how to play the steel drum. A mother who just dropped off her child was nice enough to let us follow her up to the lookout. The view was amazing. It was obvious that a cruise ship was in today becuase taxis were pulling in and out of the lookout's parking lot like crazy. After the lookout, we continued on to see a few more beaches. We stopped at Hull Bay Beach, and then on to Dorothea Bay Beach. Dorothea Bay had very rough surf, and was more of a cobblestone beach with jagged rocks along the west shore. There were apartments next to it, but it was very quiet. A few ladies were riding horses in the surf, and one actually got loose and ran around eating the grass. It was a very beautiful sight to see the horses walking in the surf. After Dorothea, we went around the island towards the airport and got out for a few minutes at Brewer's Beach. It wasn't very nice and the piles of seaweed smelled really bad. After our trip around the island, we headed to Red Hook and had lunch at Amigo's mexican restaurant. We shared some excellent tacos and the queso dip. Tiff had an iced tea and I had a Presidente. It was very hot and humid. After lunch we stopped at a little store called "Keep Left" and did some t-shirt shopping. From there we headed back to Coki Beach. This time it was a very different, much more hectic scene - a result of a combination of cruisers, locals, and the fact that it was the Memorial Day holiday. Even the surf was much heavier for some reason. There was a "bad" accident on the road to Coral World. Actually a safari taxi hit the driver's side wheel of a car. It was a sight to see - the cop writing on his clipboard - the traffic jam - the onlookers. When the sun started to dip and the crowds went away, we got hungry, so we went back to Mafolie for a grilled chicken quesadilla - just in time to see the Carnival Victory backing out from the dock and into St. Thomas Harbor. We then got ready and drove to Yacht Haven Grande to scout out a potential spot for dinner, but it was really dead and some of the restaurants were actually closed, so we headed downtown to see if we could find Oceana and perhaps get a seat without reservations. Frenchtown is a bit shadier than Yacht Haven Grande, but we eventually found our way to Oceana. It was much nicer than we expected but we were able to get a table with no problem. I had grilled Mahi-Mahi and Tiff had Filet Mignon. Then we had a few drinks back at Mafolie and went to bed.

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

We got up a bit later than normal today. It was raining again, and this time there were 3 ships in the port - Carnival Liberty, a Royal Caribbean ship, and the Oasis of the Seas was at the other new port. We went down for breakfast and decided to try to go to St. John for the day. We got ready as quickly as possible, jumped in the Jeep, and headed for the Red Hook Ferry Terminal. We got to the terminal, found parking, and managed to buy our tickets just in time to be the last 2 people on the ferry. After a 15 or 20 minute ride, we were in Cruz Bay, St. John. We needed a bottle opener so we walked to one of the stores and then grabbed a taxi to Cinnamon Bay Beach, where we spent the rest of the day. The snorkelling near the small island of Cinnamon Cay was decent. There was a large Yellow Tail Snapper, lots of Sea Fans and Sea Urchins, as well as Fairy Basslets, Blue Headed Wrasses, Squirrel Fish, and tons of other fish. You could hear and see the Parrot Fish hard at work making St. John's beautiful white coral sand (they eat algae off of the reef, and excrete the pieces of coral out the other end as sand). Yes, we enjoy laying on the beautiful fish poop. For lunch we went up to the T'ree Lizards Restaurant and had a couple cheeseburgers, some fries, and some diet cokes. We met and talked to a couple from Massachusetts. They were camping on the island and seemed to really be enjoying it. After a few more hours on the beach, we took a taxi back to Cruz Bay and had a couple drinks at "The Beach Bar" near the ferry terminal. We took the 5:00 ferry back to Red Hook, paid our $10 parking fee and made it back to Mafolie just in time to see the ships heading out of St. Thomas Harbor. The Oasis of the Seas was already gone. We got showered up and went to Hook, Line, and Sinker for dinner. It was in Frenchtown and the food was great. The waitress was also very nice. I had the pecan crusted grouper, and Tiffany had pasta. After dinner we walked along the waterfront and Tiffany spotted a Green Moray Eel coming out of one of the storm drains, so we took a few pictures. On our way to Yacht Haven Grande, we stopped at the Greenhouse for a few drinks. Oh boy. After an hour or so of talking to the guy sitting next to us, we managed to escape to the Fat Turtle in Yacht Haven Grande. It was very quiet and relaxing, and after a few drinks, we headed back to Mafolie for the night.

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Today was our last day in St. Thomas. We got up late around 9:20. The Celebrity Solstice cruise ship was the only ship in St. Thomas Harbor. We went down to the restaurant for breakfast and fed the iguanas. After we got all packed up and ready to go, I took our remaining five Presidente Lights down to Derrek at the front desk, and we headed off to the Beachcomber beach bar at Lindbergh Beach near the airport where we had lunch and a few drinks. From there we dropped off our rental car and waited for our flight back to reality. The end of another great trip to the Caribbean. See ya soon. Keep Left.