St. John Day 7 - Beach Bums

Well, today was our last day in paradise . . . until the next trip, that is. And there WILL be a next trip - hopefully with any of our friends who want to come with us!

We were wishy-washy all last night and this morning about where we should spend our final day. We hadn't been to Trunk Bay yet and since we were up and out early, I thought we should go there before it got crowded. Something just didn't feel right about that, though and at the last minute I decided we should give Gibney Beach one more try. I am so, so glad we did.

When we arrived, there was only one other couple there and they were at the far end of the beach. We decided to head to the middle section and leave the entrance section to whomever came next. For the entire time we were there, there were only 4 other people at the beach. It was almost like we had our own little beach all to ourselves.

Almost Secluded Gibney Beach

We ended up spending all morning at Gibney and decided that this was definitely one of our favorites, if not our most favorite beach. Have I mentioned how beautiful the water is here?

Our plan was to go to Trunk Bay for lunch and spend the afternoon there, but when we got to the overlook and saw what it looked like, we decided to just skip it altogether.

Way Too Crowded Trunk Bay

Instead we had lunch at Chateau Bordeaux - I loved their Dirty Monkey frozen cocktail - then we headed back over to Maho Bay to finish our day. On the way, we stopped at the Columbo stand to get delicious smoothies.

Yes Please!

Who could refuse with an offer like that?

We didn't really love Maho. What can I say? Maybe we were just already feeling sad about leaving or maybe we had just already realized that no beach could ever compare to Gibney or Jumbie, but we didn't hang around long before going back to the house to clean up and get ready for our final dinner on the island.

First, though, our final sunset at Francis Bay Beach. Unfortunately it was cut short by a stupid cloud that blocked the very ending.

Sunset at Francis Bay

Finally, we had dinner at Shipwreck Landing. It was OK - pretty good, in fact. I think I would've liked it better had I not been - once again - getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Ugh! Oh well, the bites will be a final souvenir from my trip I guess.

Tomorrow we have to drive to Cruz Bay, drop off our snorkel equipment, catch the car barge over to St. Thomas, hopefully stop off for a little duty-free shopping and return the Jeep at the airport all by noon. That being said, I think it's time for me to sign off, finish packing and get a good night's sleep. I know I'll be dreaming of St. John and all its beauty until I can witness it in person once again.

St. John Day 6 - Mongoose Mania

Today we got an early start to snorkel Waterlemon (yes, Waterlemon, not Watermelon) Cay, since everyone kept recommending it to us. We made the 1 mile hike over to Waterlemon Bay and actually ran into the 3 ladies from Ohio who had told us we MUST go there when we had seen them at Jumbie yesterday. Thankfully, they gave us some great pointers on the best approach because from where we were standing, it looked like an awfully long swim. It turns out, we just needed to hike a little further along the trail.

Bill and I both agree that this was THE best snorkeling we've ever done in our lives. We saw way more fish than we'd seen anywhere else and amazing coral that has yet to be killed by humans. Below are just a few of our finds:

Huge Parrotfish

Giant Starfish

Sea Turtle

Needlefish

On the way back in, I had yet another heart-stopping, close encounter with a  huge ray - maybe 3 ft across. I swam right up on him before I saw him, decided to stop and take his picture, but then he decided to turn and head right toward me. All I could think of was the Crocodile Hunter and tried to figure out which way to swim to get the hell away from him as quickly as possible. Hopefully no children nearby heard the string of profanity pouring forth from my snorkel. Of course, the picture doesn't do him justice.

Giant Stingray

After that scare, I decided I'd had enough so we hiked back to the Jeep. Along the way we were very excited to see maybe 8-10 mongoose (mongooses? mongeese?) scurrying across the trail and playing around in the woods. One was even trying to steal someone's lunch along the beach! It's funny that just yesterday we were disappointed that we hadn't seen one while we've been here and today you could barely step without kicking one.

Anyway, this afternoon we headed over to Cruz Bay to do a little touristy shopping. We finally made it to the Tap Room, home of St. John beer and we went to St. John Spice. I cannot wait to get home and try out all the crazy spices we bought there AND the absolutely amazing-smelling coffee.

We finished the day with a sunset dinner at Waterfront Bistro.

Sunset at Waterfront Bistro

Unfortunately tomorrow is our last full day here and we still haven't decided exactly how to spend it. I know, though, that it will include some beaches, some great food and another sunset since we haven't had nearly enough sunset viewing here.

St. John Day 5 - Mongoose, Skates & Rays (oh my???)

Places Visited: Annaberg, Cinnamon, Denis, Jumbie (again)
Bug Bites on Heather: ~108
Number of women walking down the beach with one child breastfeeding in a sling, one holding her hand, and one clearly on the way: 1

We decided to start today with something a little different and went out to see the ruins of the Annaberg plantation instead of hitting the beach right away.  Annaberg was established to produce sugar, molasses & rum in the late 1700s and once held the distinction of having the tallest windmill on St. John at about 38 feet.  

We debated making our way down to Waterlemon Cay for the allegedly fantastic snorkeling, but balked at the mile or so hike in each direction and decided to seek more immediate relief from the heat @ Cinnamon Bay.  Another beautiful beach, but a bit crowded due the the attached campground and a bit too windy and choppy for our liking.  We did some snorkeling and saw a couple of skates - they were really cool, but we couldn't get our cameras out in time for a decent picture.  Stopping at the on-site restaurant before we left, we were fortunate to share our lunch and a couple of Presidentes with a hungry black cat who I'm convinced wanted my soul.

After leaving Cinnamon, we headed back to Peace Hill, the site of our earlier encounter with the aggressive, Chex Mix-seeking pack of donkeys.  Fortunately for us, there were no donkeys to be seen this time - though I was fully prepared for a showdown.  What we did find was a narrow quarter-mile path down the side of the hill to the secluded and nearly empty Denis Bay beach.  Completely worth the effort...

Our last stop of the day was a return to Jumbie, just because it was on the way and we wanted to see if it held the same charm now that we've been to several other beaches around the island.  Plus, we had snorkel gear this time.  Jumbie didn't disappoint - we saw a squid, some cool fish in all shapes and sizes, and to top it off, a spotted eagle ray.  

Spotted Eagle Ray

On the way home we finally saw a mongoose.  No pix to prove it, you'll just have to take our word...

St. John Day 4 - Bad Kitty

Places Visited: Virgin Gorda, Cooper Island, Norman Island, Jost Van Dyke and Gibney Beach (on St. John)
Bug Bites on Heather: ~44
Number of Times Heather has Fallen Down the Stairs: 1
Number of Times Bill has Fallen Down the Steps: 1

Today started off at 5:30am as we got ready & headed over to Cruz Bay for our island-hopping excursion aboard the Bad Kitty. After some paperwork, we climbed aboard and took off toward our first stop, Virgin Gorda and The Baths. It was a pretty rough, hour-long boat ride and, while a few people got a little green around the gills, thank goodness no one got sick - especially us!

Boulders inside The Baths

Bill duck-walking through The Baths

Looking up through an opening in The Baths

 Two important things here, there is only one other attraction like this in the world, but it is inaccessible so it really is a unique treat to get to crawl through these. Second, this was Bill's very first time ever setting foot on foreign soil. Yay Bill!

The Baths are truly amazing to see. The pictures will not do them justice and it's so hard to explain the magnitude of this rock formation. I highly recommend you see it yourself.

Next we got back on the boat and headed over to Cooper Island in the BVIs for some lunch at a beach bar - nothing too exciting there. After that, we stopped off at "The Aquarium" at Norman Island for a little snorkeling. Unfortunately, most of the coral there was dead but we did see some pretty fish.

A giant school of tiny, silver/blue fish

Some remaining coral

Finally, we headed off to White Bay on Jost Van Dyke in the BVIs - home of the world-famous Soggy Dollar Bar. The bar got its name because tons of boats moor in the bay and people simply hop off and swim up to the bar, thus having soggy dollars by the time they get there. Also, the Soggy Dollar Bar is where the "painkiller" was invented, so of course I had to have one . . . or two.

Heather with a Painkiller in White Bay, JVD

 White Bay was amazingly beautiful. I couldn't get over how blue the water was and the mountainous, green islands surrounding us. It is so cliche, but it really was breathtaking.

White Bay, JVD

White Bay, JVD

We finally headed back to St. John - the island hopping was over. However, the day held one more surprise for us. On the way back to the cottage, we found that there was actually parking available at Gibney Beach. We had read that Gibney was one of the best beaches on the island, but it only has parking for 3-4 cars and has been full every time we've gone by. We were so excited to finally get to experience it and were not disappointed.

Gibney Beach

Tonight we had an ok meal, but a fun rum tasting at Sweet Plantains just down the hill from our cottage here in Coral Bay. We're both exhausted and I swear, as I sit here writing this, I feel like I'm still rocking back and forth on the boat. I'm not sure how I'm going to get to sleep like this. As of right now, though, I'm not sure how we'll get to sleep anyway since some of the locals are having a raucous reggae party in a parking lot down the hill from the cottage.

Hopefully it won't last too late because this birthday girl needs her beauty rest. Thank you all for the birthday wishes via Facebook, email, etc. I cannot imagine a better way to spend my birthday!

St. John Day 3 - Goat-a-palooza

Beaches Visited: Honeymoon Beach
Bug Bite Total on Heather: ~36
Bug Bite Total on Bill: <10 - all on his feet
Number of Times Heather has Fallen Down the Stairs: 1


First of all, I have to give a special happy birthday shout out to my dad and to our friend Julie today! Wish you were here with us.

We woke up to the sunshine today, thankfully, and headed into Cruz Bay to rent snorkeling gear. Along the way, we saw lots of packs of wild goats and less donkeys than before. Jen, here's another picture for you.

Wild Goats

Next we went to Caneel Bay Resort to park & hike over to Honeymoon Beach. I have to say that, with the exception of the very nice lady at the entrance gate, the staff at Caneel Bay were rude and unhelpful. Perhaps if we were resort guests, they'd be kissing our asses, but after what we witnessed today, I wouldn't want to take a chance on staying there.

Anyway, once again, we loved this beach, although we agreed that it was probably #3 out of the 4 beaches we've visited so far.

Honeymoon Beach

We got a good bit more sun today than we did yesterday, although we still aren't burned too badly. We also did some snorkeling and saw 3 sea turtles. Thanks to Erica for letting us borrow your waterproof camera!

Sea Turtle

In the afternoon we headed into Cruz Bay for some mysterious mission. It turns out, my handsome and wonderful husband bought me a birthday cake - yay me! Of course, we had to promptly take it home before it turned into a melted, gooey disaster, but that, in itself, was a challenge with the crazy, bumpy road coming up to our cottage.

We decided to go to Aqua Bistro in Coral Bay for happy hour and dinner and we were not disappointed. The drinks and food were amazing. They had grouper (my favorite) 5 or 6 different ways on their menu. They also had a woman playing a keyboard and singing. Unfortunately she was getting harassed by a drunk old man who kept insisting on trying to buy her a cocktail in spite of her being quite obviously pregnant.

Panorama of Coral Bay in front of Aqua Bistro

We're calling it an early night since we have to get up very early tomorrow for our BVI island-hopping excursion. We procured some coconut rum, banana rum, mango juice, limes and club soda to go along with the pineapple rum the previous tenants left here (thank you, whoever you are) and are having some lovely tropical concoctions before bed.

Tidbits:
Today I upgraded to Ben's Tick & Insect Repellant with 30% DEET (5% more than the Deep Woods Off) and I'm STILL getting eaten alive. There is no hope for me. Not to mention the 17 types of cancer I'm probably guaranteeing myself by bathing in this bug spray. Ugh!

Also, in spite of the bugs, I'm pretty sure I like St. John more than Hawaii. Bill is still undecided. The absence of volcanoes and lava is weighing heavily in his decision.

St. John Day 2 - Donkey Revenge

Beaches Visited: Jumbie, Hawksnest, Francis Bay
Trails Hiked: Peace Hill Trail
Mosquito Bite Total on Heather: ~27
Mosquito Bite Total on Bill: 0

Although it was still cloudy and stormy-looking this morning, we were determined to not let that stop us. We got ready and headed out to Jumbie Bay on the North Shore. We immediately fell in love. It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful. We found snails and sea urchins and were accosted by tiny fish. The water was shallow and calm, so we were able to just sit in the water for as long as we wanted.

Jumbie Bay

We knew there was much more to see, though, and so after lunch, we headed toward Gibney Beach, which only has 3 parking spots so it's incredibly difficult to get to. Of course, they were all taken so we went on to Hawksnest Beach. It was big and nice, but a bit too crowded for us so we decided to try somewhere else.

Along the North Shore Road, we decided to stop at the Peace Hill Trail to see what we could see. This ended up being our big drama for the day, as we were promptly assaulted by a highly aggressive pack of wild donkeys. I think they could smell the Chex Mix on us and they weren't going to take no for an answer. Three of them distracted me while the other one cornered Bill. Here, you can see him desperately looking for an escape route.

"Hand over the Chex Mix and no one gets hurt."

After we were able to flee the donkeys, we headed up the Peace Hill Trail and saw some old sugar mill ruins and some lovely, breath-taking views of the ocean below. We turned to head back down the trail, only to find that the donkeys had followed us and were blocking the trail! It was like a horror movie. We weren't sure how we were going to get back to the Jeep.

"You cannot escape us. Just hand over the Chex Mix and you can be on your way."

Luckily, it turns out, they were just giant chickens and fled from us as we got close. Speaking of chickens, we saw a lot of those running around randomly today too. And we saw a deer right by the road that didn't run away from us. Once back on the road, we headed to Francis Bay Beach. What can I say? It was also amazing. The water was shallow and dead calm. We spent much of the afternoon just sitting in the water. It was quiet with very few people around and the sun finally started coming out. What a great way to spend the day.

Francis Bay Beach

We spent the evening having a fantastic meal at Morgan's Mango in Cruz Bay. I had locally caught Wahoo with chimichurri sauce and Bill had seafood paella. We struck up a conversation with the couple next to us and they just happened to be from Atlanta too. What are the odds?

Other tidbits from today - apparently St. John mosquitoes scoff at my Deep Woods Off with 25% DEET, which also happens to turn my skin green. We found a very odd radio station here that was playing some of the hits from our college years, including "our song" by Mazzy Star, "Fade Into You." Bill is getting very good at driving here. We both got some nice sun, but no burn - thank you Coppertone Sport SPF 50!

Finally, this may be the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life.

St. John Arrival

We made it safely! Nothing too exciting to report with the flight & whatnot. It was hot & humid here when we landed, which y'all know I love. We were also greeted at the airport with, "Welcome to St. Thomas. Shot of rum?" Yes please!!!

Our first glimpse of St. John

We made it to the island & bought breakfast & lunch groceries for the week - $115 for basic breakfast & sandwich fixins!!! Called the cottage "host" to find out where the keys were hidden only to find out there may not be any electricity - it had been off since lunchtime. We raced--well, as much as once could race on windy, mountain roads--to the cottage trying to beat sunset. Luckily, the power was back on.
 

The roads here are scary and it really has nothing to do with the fact that we're driving on the "wrong" side of the road. They're narrow, extremely curvy, people drive straddling the yellow line and there are wild donkeys and goats all over the place. And those are the highways. I'll post pictures later of the insane road we take to get to the cottage.

At any rate, we made it just before dark and got settled, then headed out to Skinny Legs in Coral Bay for dinner. It turns out Skinny Legs is a Boston bar - what great luck! I had an amazing burger & Bill had a great chicken sandwich. A huge storm hit right after we got there - my dad would call it a "gully washer" - and we've had lots of great, beautiful lightning. I just hope it's gone by tomorrow morning.

Sunset view from our balcony

View from our balcony

I learned that the official drink of St. John - the Painkiller - goes down super easy and fast. It was fun watching the first period of the Bruins game surrounded by Boston fans, but we headed back to the cottage to rest up for beach adventures tomorrow. We're enjoying Virgin Islands brand beer - oddly enough, brewed by the good people of Shipyard Brewery in Portland, ME. Go figure.

Our first Painkillers at Skinny Legs

Hawaii--Final Day

Sigh! We were very sad to wake up this morning knowing it was our last day here, but we dragged ourselves out of bed and went downstairs to finally partake of the $28/person breakfast buffet. We also noticed that overnight, a new mountain appeared just off to the south of our hotel. Magically, on our last day here, my hives also disappeared. Yes, the winds shifted and blew the vog away revealing the Hualalai volcano and taking away the source of my rash.

After breakfast we decided to head out to the beach. We weren't able to get a Waipio Valley horseback riding reservation today so we decided to just relax and enjoy the beach one more day. The waves were a pretty rough, but the beach was fairly empty. We found some huge black crabs of some sort crawling all over the rocks on the beach so that was pretty exciting. We also saw a Japanese chick get rescued by a lifeguard approximately 90 seconds after she'd gone tromping down the beach & into the water with fins, mask, & snorkel on. Our final excitement for the day happened right before we headed in when a college-age looking guy came strolling down the beach in swim trunks with a backpack on & as he walked toward us said "Bud for sale?" Hee! When we didn't say anything he just walked on toward some more Japanese tourists, but I guess decided the hassle of trying to overcome the language barrier just wasn't worth whatever money he may make.

Unfortunately, we will be bringing back an unexpected souvenir from Hawaii--a nasty sunburn. It should make the 13 hour or so trip back home really pleasant!

So anyway, now we're getting ready to check out & then we're headed back to the Four Seasons to eat dinner at Alan Wong's Hualalai restaurant. For those non-foodie readers out there, Alan Wong is the father of modern Hawaiian cuisine--he basically brought it back from the dead. Since I am a foodie dork, I'm really freakin' excited about eating dinner there tonight.

Somehow we have to kill time until we head to the airport for our 10:45pm (that's 4:45am to you easterners) flight back to the mainland. We'll be back in Atlanta around 5:00pm Thursday.

Hawaii Day 7

Hello and welcome to day 7 of Bill & Heather's Excellent Adventure, or fantastic voyage if that's what you prefer. If you've kept up with us this long, we would like to offer you our thanks and gratitude, along with our deepest heartfelt apologies. Don't you have something better to do? Perhaps not... but really, who doesn't love Coolio?


Not too many pix to post today because we went snorkeling and used waterproof disposable cameras that we need to drop off when we get home. It was my first time 'adult" snorkeling - that is to say more than just using a $3 mask and snorkel set from The Fair in the four foot deep water at Wallum lake.

The snorkel tour was about 3.5 hours and we enjoyed it despite the lack of sunshine and the pretty damn cold water temps. The guide said the water was 80, as a native New Englander, I can say bulls***.

After the snorkels, we visited Kona Brewing Company and walked around downtown Kona for a while. Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be hippies - the town was so thick with homeless ones that I wanted to buy a boombox and start playing Slayer. When you live in Atlanta and take note of another city's homeless population, that's saying something.



We're not sure what tomorrow holds but we'll do our best to update before we head back to the mainland. Mahalo...

Hawaii Day 6

Today was all about volcanoes with some sea turtles, black sand, and petroglyphs thrown in for good measure. We got off to an extremely early start this morning - even for you go-getters, you have to admit 5:45a on a non-work day is pretty early - and headed off towards Volcanoes National Park 3+ hours away. Hard to believe anything on an island can be that far away, but it's the truth.

For breakfast we stopped at a McDonalds in Kona that was inhabited by several chickens and a small herd of feral cats. We thought we might be able to get our breakfast without even going inside, but decided we weren't up for the chase and went in to the counter like everyone else.



We had planned to check out the green sand beach on the south side of the island, but realized that it was a pretty big time commitment, so we settled for visiting the southernmost point of the United States instead - imaginatively named South Point. It actually turned out to be much cooler than either of us expected with the jagged rocks and crashing waves all around.

Everyone has heard about the black sand beaches in Hawaii and of course we wanted to sink our toes into one, so we headed down the road to Punaluu. The black sand was amazing and again we were surrounded by pounding surf. We got an unexpected bonus (no, not the 2 busloads of japanese tourists - no surprise there) when we all but tripped over three hawksbill turtles resting on the beach. One might think that all the people surrounding them was a give away that something was there, but whatever. All told there were 6-7 of them on different parts of the beach. We saw another one that was stuck on its back between some rocks. Luckily it was finally able to flip itself over with the help of a good samaritan and a few waves.

We finally got to Volcanoes National Park around 1p. After a quick stop at the visitor's center, we walked across the street and got our first view of the Halema`uma`u crater of Kiluaea. Maybe I'm just easily impressed, but I thought it was amazing. We drove up one side of Crater Rim Drive and got a few closer glimpses of the crater before having to turn back at Jagger museum because the road had been closed due to recent and ongoing eruptions - in this case it has been mostly toxic fumes.

We were able to drive up around the other side of the crater and then down Chain of Craters Road, which is exactly what it sounds like - a road that runs alongside crater after crater and cuts through several lava flows, most of them from the 70s. We stopped off at a few of the flows and walked through a long lava tube before making our way down to yet another flow/lava field with where we hiked about 3/4 of a miles to some petroglyphs left by ancient Hawaiians (or their devious descendants).

I think we both wish we had more time to spend in VNP, it seems like there is some good hiking and a lot of things to discover. Maybe next time we're in the neighborhood...