Our Trip to St. Thomas and Puerto Rico - July, 2001
7/7/01
Leaving on an early afternoon flight for vacation is definitely the way to go. Jeanie schedule our departure for 1:51 pm. This allowed us to "sleep in" until around 8:00 am and still have plenty of time to prepare before having to leavefor the airport. We were able to finish packing, rearrange the entire laundry room so Diego could stay in there without having to be locked in his crate, do some laundry, write an instruction sheet for Hanna on caring for the pets, water all of the planst, and other assorted tasks - even burn a few CDs of MP3s - and still have ample time to get to the airport 1 ½ hours before departure.
Our flights to Miami and to St. Thomas were very nice. We flew American Airlines. Our flight to Miami was on a 737 and we sat in row 17 - an exit row - which gave us plenty of room. Our flight to St. Thomas was on a 757 in row 11, which was just behind the exit - but since the exit row only had two seats rather than three, and had a full sized door - this was actually better since we had a window and still had plenty of room.
We arrived in St. Thomas a little after 8:00 pm, and the Murphys were waiting at the airport to pick us up and drive us to the condo. I'll describe the condo tomorrow. We chatted for a while sitting on the balcony after carrying in the luggage. Then it was off to bed.
7/8/01
Jeanie and I slept in until ~8:00 am. After we all got up and going, we decided to go to breakfast at Molly Malone's in Red Hook. Breakfast was scrumptious, and we had a kick feeding / watching the iguanas that were all around.
After breakfast, we headed off to K-Mart to stock up on supplies there were too heavy to pack. We had packed toilet papger, paper towels, some snack foods, laundry detergent tablets and such. We bought six gallons of drinking water (since there was a sign in the condo saying the water might not meet federal or St. Thomas drinking standards) soda, beer, milk, more snacks, wine and such. Then we headed back to the condo to put everything away.
Jeanie was uncomfortable due to being swollen with water retention and to having a moderately bad headache, so we decided to stay in the condo while the Murphys went to Sapphire Beach to snorkel.
Jeanie slept, and I read the instruction manuals for our new Cannon ELPH LT 260 APS film camera and our new Panasonic DV-400 mini digital video camera. Then I listened to some tunes, and continued reading Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "The Sirens of Titan" which I had started (re)reading on the flight down. Somewhere along the way, I ended up napping for a while too.
The Murphys returned about 4:30, and we decided to check out the Milkshakes at Udder Delights - which we had read from multiple sources was an absolute must. Each of us got a different adult milkshake. Mine was chocolate and coffee icecreams with Kahlua, Jeanie's was coconut (and the best of the bunch in my opinion), Wendy got banana, and Bob got chocolate chip mint. We had great fun tasting each other's shake, sitting in the a/c in the car while we drank our shakes.
We decided to go back to the condo so we could shower and relax for a while before dinner. Jeanie and Wendy napped some, Bob and I sat on the balcony and watched the fishing boats come back in and the jet skis frolick.
We ended up leaving for dinner around 8:00 pm. We drove back to Red Hook and went to Sopchoppy's, which is a nice little pub/bar overlooking the marina. Jeanie and I shared a salad and a Sopchoppy Rose sub. Bob and Wendy shared an Italian sausage sub. Everything was delicious, and reasonable (relative to the outrageously high prices of food everywhere on the island) priced.
After dinner, we returned to the condo and went off to dreamland.
St. Thomas is a very hilly island - much more than I realized. The roads are full of pot-holes, very narrow, and very twisty-turny. To make things even more challenging, you drive on the left, but all of the cards are standard American (driver on the left). I'm glad Bob did all of the driving!
The condo is absolutely fantastic. It is in the Mahogany Run community on the north side of the island. It sits on the side of a steep hill facing the ocean. Unless you lean over the balcony, all you can see is the ocean and some small unpopulated islands. The living room and kitchen open onto a balcony with an entire wall of sliding glass doors. The view is breathtaking. On the other end of the unit are two bedrooms, one with a king sized bed and a bath and the other with two queen sized beds and a bath. Both bedrooms have their own balconies with ocean views.
7/9/01
Bob and Wendy moved from the room with the king sized bed to our room since the Coopers and Tammy & Coop (James) were coming in in the afternoon. It's nice to be so comfortable with friends that you can share a room.
We went snorkeling at Sapphire Beach. There were lots of pretty fish within fifty yards of shore. We had planned to snorkel from 9-11, then head back to the condo to shower and eat before picking up the rest of the party at the airport at 2:00. Oh well, best laid plans… Somehow the key to the rental car got lost. We all searched for 30-45 minutes but couldn't find it, so we had to call the rental car company - Dependable - to bring us another key. Unfortunately, I hadn't taken my wallet, and Bob had left his in the car, so we didn't even get to eat while we waited. They dropped the key off a little after noon, and we decided we didn't have time to return to the condo, so we had lunch at the Sapphire Beach Resort which was delicious, and then headed off to the airport.
We arrived at the airport right around 2:00 and Jeanie and Wendy went into the terminal while Bob and I sat in the car as there were no legal parking spots left in the lot. Turns out their flight had arrived at 1:30 - ½ hour early, but Wendy and Jeanie found them and they called Dependable to get picked up to go get the other rental car. Joining the party were Tammy - Bob and Wendy's daughter, Coop (James Cooper) - Tammy's boyfriend, and Coop's parents - Frank and Cathy.
We all went to Dependable's office which was about ten minutes from the airport, picked up the other car, then drove back to the condo.
At the condo, we all got acquainted. Frank is an electrical engineer who works for the Defense Department in telecommunications systems design. Cathy works with special needs children as a special education teacher. Coop is a software engineer who works writing wireless synchronization software for PDAs and RIM devices. They all seemed very nice, and we quickly found ourselves chatting about this and that. We also found out that Frank had spent time in the Navy in some aviation related duty, that Frank and Coop liked to hunt, and that Frank was a staunch republican.
After the Murphys and Sanders showed, we headed off to dinner at the Caribbean Grill in Red Hook. Jeanie and I shared a grilled swordfish steak that was delicious. I had a "Dreamsickle" frozen drink that was delicious as well. We then popped into a grocery store across the street so Frank and Cathy could get some groceries. Then we headed back to the condo.
We chatted for about half an hour, mostly about eye glasses, and then went to bed around 9:30.
I did not sleep well at all. I had a bizarre dream which woke me around 2:00 am, and between my worrying about my snoring preventing Wendy from being able to sleep, and Jeanie poking me every time I actually did start snoring, I didn't end up getting much rest.
7/10/01
Today was St. Thomas shopping day. We all drove down to Charlotte Amalie (pronounced Charlotte Amalya). We wandered through lots of stores - some trinkets, but mostly jewelry. We had a lovely lunch at the Green House Bar where Jeanie and I split a scrumptious bowl of black bean soup and a fantastic jerk chicken wrap.
After lunch, it was more shopping. Jeanie ended up with an 8" 2 carat diamond tennis bracelet which we paid $800 for. The 8" was too long, so the store took off four links and made earrings out of them. Wendy got a lovely pearl and diamond ring.
We then drove to Save-You-More to get more supplies, then went to K-mart. While the rest of the crowd was in K-mart, Bob and I drove back to town to pick up the jewelry. We then returned to K-mart, picked up the group and returned to the condo where we showered and rested until dinner.
We had made dinner reservations at "The Old Stone Farm House" for 7:00 pm. The restaurant really is an old stone farm house! 200 years old in fact. My first glance at the menu was not encouraging. This was going to be a high-dollar haute cuisine dinner. Fortunately, dinner ended up being very enjoyable, even if it was quite expensive - $62. Jeanie and I each had a mixed greens salad (with not one leaf of anything I could recognize) with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing that was lovely. We split an order of tilapia in a ginger soy reduction over sesame rice topped with sautéed spinach. It was wonderful. The restaurant really was classy. Whereas last night, we were charged a $5 split fee for the privilege of eating off of one plate, here for our $3 split fee, we were each served our own plate. For dessert, Jeanie and I split a delicious ½ mocha ½ berry crème brulee.
After dinner we returned to the condo and all went onto the balcony to chat. We were sitting in the dark, enjoying the view, when Coop said we needed some light and flipped on the lights. We all gave Coop grief for spoiling the mood, but Coop made up for it by proposing to Tammy (which she did accept) right in front of us. We were all very happy for both Coop and Tammy, and we sat around quite a while talking and taking pictures and congratulating and toasting with Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante (which was very tasty).
7/11/01
Frank and Cathy decided to go to Tortola B.V.I. while the rest of us spent the day sailing on the "True Love" - a 65 foot three masted schooner that once appeared in the Bing
Crosby/Grace Kelly/Frank Sinatra, 1956 movie "High Society" in
a scene in which Bing sang "True Love." In addition to the six
of us, there was one couple and a family of five, plus the captain (who
was also the owner) and one crew member. We left Red Hook around 9:00 am
and returned around 4:00 pm. As we boarded, we were given our choice of
home baked (by the captain's wife, who prepared all of the food) blueberry
muffins or cinnamon rolls. We sailed across the bay to St. Johns, then
anchored and snorkeled. After snorkeling, we had a lunch of jerk chicken
salad, pasta salad, balsamic vinaigrette bean salad, bread, grapes and
water melon. We then sailed some more, then stopped and snorkeled again,
where the highlight was getting to see a sea turtle up close. We then headed
back, eating delicious cake along the way. All of the food was fantastic,
and we all had a blast. I had taken a Bonine last night, and one before
we boarded, and I didn't get sea sick at all. I don't know if it was the
Bonine or the calm Caribbean waters, but I sure was grateful either way!
We headed back to Red Hook to pick up Frank and Cathy who had taken the ferry to Tortolla, but they weren't back yet, so we headed back to the condo. After a while, Coop and Tammy drove back to Red Hook to pick up Coop's parents. Jeanie read, I took a nap.
At 5:45, the Murphys, Jeanie and I drove to the Paradise Resort to catch the boat for Bob's and my night SCUBA dive. The girls dropped Bob and me off at Chris Sawyer's dive shop and headed off back to the condo. The dive boat left the dock around 6:30 and headed to the dive site. Along the way we received a brief review of procedures and things to look for. There were ten divers and two dive masters, so we split into two groups. Bob and I were in the second group. We entered the water just at dusk. My weight belt was loose, and between the exertion of pulling it up and tightening it, this being my first night dive, using unfamiliar equipment, and not having dived in many years (and thus being a little nervous), I sucked almost 1000 of my 3200 pounds of air before we ever really started the dive. Both Bob and I were disappointed in the dive. We went through a number of arches and short tunnels that were supposed to be the highlight of the dive. While the first one was a little interesting, one would have been enough. The pace of the dive was fairly quick and neither of us felt like we had time to loiter around ledges to really poke around. We saw one trunk fish, a few lobster, and a few other fish, but that was about it. We did get to see some bioluminescent invertebrates while we waited to get back on the boat. That was somewhat interesting. They looked like firefly tails floating on the surface of the water.
The girls were waiting for us when we got back to the dock. We drove back to the condo and Bob and I devoured the shepherds pie that the girls had picked up for us at Molly Malone's. I was totally exhausted after such a full day, so I took a quick shower and fell promptly and soundly asleep.
7/12/01
We all headed off to take the car ferry to St. John after a quick breakfast at the condo. The ride over was quick - about 20 minutes. We decided to eat and shop at Mongoose Bay. We ended up eating at the Mongoose Bay Restaurant, where Jeanie and I shared a plate of fish & chips that were made with grouper. Both the fish and chips were overcooked and greasy, so ultimately marginal at best. The shops were very expensive - lots of overpriced artsy stuff. We walked around the shops for a while, but it was very hot with little breeze, so we tired quickly and decided to drive around the island and sightsee. We took the interior road - 20 - to the "top" of the island, and then took the coastal road - 10 - back to the ferry landing. St. John seemed lusher than St. Thomas and was much less densely populated. There were some nice views on the drive and the roads were much better than St. Thomas', but overall, I think we could have done better to have stayed on St. Thomas. Tammy really wanted to go to dinner at the Agave Terrace, so we stopped and made reservations on the way back to the condo.
Dinner was at 7:00, and other than a great steel drum playing singer, dinner was terrible. The service was horrible, the food was mediocre and served cold, it was over priced, and there were tables with smokers on both sides of us. Oh well! I think everyone else enjoyed their dinner much more than me.
Since Jeanie and I had an early (7:50 am) flight to San Juan the following day, we packed, then said our good byes and went to bed.
7/13/07
Bob was sweet and drove us to the airport. He dropped us off about 6:20, and Jeanie and I made our way through customs and onto the twin engine turboprop for the twenty minute hop to San Juan.
Our hotel, the Radisson Ambassador in Candido, was only a $12 fifteen minute taxi ride from the airport. We got very lucky and were able to check in as soon as we arrived and go to our room. We made a quick scan of the tourist brochures, swung by the coffee shop for our free continental breakfast of toast, juice and coffee, and headed off to Old San Juan. On a tip from the concierge, we decided to opt for the 25¢ (each) bus ride to Old San Juan rather than the $10 cab ride. This turned out to be a great tip. The ride to OSJ was quick and comfortable. We walked to the Fort at San Cristobal, but decided not to go in. We waited for what seemed like an eternity for the hot, crowded free trolly and rode it to the Fort at San Moro. We decided to tour the fort which was very interesting and affordable at $2 each. We especially liked the views of the harbor, the sea, and OSJ. We also really appreciated the air conditioned museum.
Jeanie really wanted an authentic Puerto Rican lunch, so we asked a cop who directed us to a little restaurant a few blocks away. We walked into the restaurant and walked back in time fifty years. There was a long lunch counter and booths that wandered far into the back of the narrow but deep eatery. All of the servers were men, and they all wore matching uniforms of black pants and white shirts. We ended up splitting an order of chicken with yellow rice, beans, and plantain that was delicious. The beans were the best I've ever tasted.
After lunch, we walked through a few stores, but decided we were shopped out and got back (eventually) on the free trolley. We rode it for a while, but it was just too hot, so we decided to go back to the hotel. We wanted to see a little more of San Juan, and the bus was cheap and air conditioned, so we went back to the bus station and hopped back on B-21, the same bus we had taken to OSJ. Well, it seems I didn't realize that the street that our hotel was on was one-way for a few blocks on either side of the hotel. So, what I expected to be a fifteen minute return trip back to the hotel ended up being a ninety minute extended nickel tour of San Juan. We did get to see lots of different parts of San Juan, and got a feel for how and where the local working class people live. After returning to the hotel, Jeanie and I both showed and then had a fantastic "nap."
I scoured the tourist rags for a dinner spot and selected Ajilli Mojilli - a fantastic pick if I do say so myself. I thought I knew which way to go when we left the hotel, but after walking more blocks than I thought we should have, we decided to ask someone for directions. We noticed two policemen in a record store, so walked in and asked the nearest one if he knew where the restaurant was. He didn't, so he turned to his partner who was a number of feet away (and thus hadn't heard my question) and asked him, in Spanish, if he knew where the restaurant was. The partner walked over to Jeanie and me and started giving us directions in Spanish. The partner stopped him after a sentence or two and said, "no, English." Without missing a beat, the officer switched into perfect English to tell us how to get to the restaurant. It was absolutely amazing and made me feel so dull to only be able to speak one language. The walk ended up talking probably fifteen minutes, because we first had to walk back past the hotel and then it was a bit farther than I had originally thought anyway. The walk pleasant, and Jeanie and I got a chuckle passing by "Condom World" on the way. When we arrived at the restaurant, we were seated right away. Jeanie had one of their house drinks which was yummy. We split a ½ appetizer sampler that included meat pies, salt fish pies, crab fritters, corn fritters and a heavenly house salsa. For our entrée, we split a pork roast style ½ chicken with rice, beans, and plantain. We really wanted dessert, but had no room, so settled for demitasses of wonderfully rich robust coffee. We enjoyed our leisurely stroll back to the hotel and returned to the room.
Jeanie was tired, so she decided to go to bed and read while I headed down to the casino to try my luck at a few hands of blackjack. I wasn't too impressed with the casino and really wanted to be with Jeanie so I ended up leaving after half and hour with five extra dollars in my pocket. Turns out that my desire to be with my wife was my saving grace as the entire hotel lost power for over an hour shortly after I got back to the room! We fell asleep before power was restored, but my trusty Compaq Aero awakened us on time (4:30 am) and we headed off to the airport.
The flight to Miami was uneventful. The flight attendant rectified the moron maneuver that the counter agent made in moving us from our 2x4x2 A300 window seats on row 27 to little seats on row 6 in the middle at the windowless mid-forward main doors. We lucked out and our arrival gate was right next to the departure gate for our trip back to RDU.
General Impressions
St. Thomas
St. Thomas was much smaller and mountainous than I expected. There seemed to be a significant amount of poverty, although there was no begging or hawking, and there were lots of half-completed and seemingly abandoned buildings all of which gave the island a somewhat trashy feel.
The food was extremely expensive.
The beaches were lovely and the water was extremely clear. The snorkeling was less spectacular than I had anticipated, possibly caused by what appeared to be significant reef damage, maybe due to careless use / abuse by tourists.
Overall, the people seemed generally friendly.
Liquor prices were very good. Jewelry prices varied, but there appeared to be moderate bargains in general.
The pace was very laid back, and overall, things were very casual.
We couldn't beat the low overall costs due to the free lodging (the Murphy's generosity in sharing their no-cost condo with us) and airfare (frequent flier miles) and splitting the cost of the rental car. I won't be in a hurry to return to St. Thomas at full price.
By far, the best part of our St. Thomas trip was the no-stress time Jeanie and I got to spend together, and the quality time we had with friends - new, and especially old.
Puerto Rico
The first impression we got was the overwhelming friendliness of the people. This was complimented by a well organized tourist industry and infrastructure.
The area we stayed in had a wealth of restaurants and shopping within walking distance and we didn't even scratch the surface of things to do.
We'll definitely put Puerto Rico on the list of places to return to.
General
We are lucky to have friends like Bob and Wendy that would be willing, much less want, to share their vacation and good fortune of a free condo week in St. Thomas with us. That they would ask us knowing it would mean that they would be sharing a room with us rather than having a room to themselves is almost beyond belief.
Jeanie did a really good job of scheduling our travel. We had some time alone with Bob and Wendy, some time with the group, and some just the two of us.
It was cool being able to celebrate our wedding anniversary in a tropical paradise with good friends. It drew an interesting parallel to our honeymoon.