Saturday, March 17

View From Villa- looking down on Chocolate Hole


Well, we made it!! This is the view from the porch looking down at Chocolate Hole and on the left Hart's Bay and on the right Great Cruz Bay. The weather for the week was gorgeous 80 to 85 during the day and mid 70's in the evenings. We flew out of Logan non-stop to St. Thomas on Friday March 2. The ride on the bus from the Myer's house to the airport was cold and rainy. At least we did not have the snowstorm that was originally predicted. We had a nice flight down but arrived a little late. The Myers & Bocks headed right for Redhook and the Ferry. The Jordans & Keoghs took the scenic route over the top of St. Thomas to Drake's Seat and then into Redhook to Marina Market for food shopping. We caught the 6pm ferry which did not leave until 7:15pm -island time. So we arrived after dark at the villa. It wasn't until the next morning that we saw what a great view we had.

After breakfast we headed off to the beach. For our first day we went to Hawksnest Bay Beach. The water was warm with blue skies. We did a little snorkeling on the reef, finding many small fishes. A lot of the small coral was dead from the bleaching from the extremely warm water last summer. The large coral- the Elkhorn and Brain corals seemed to be OK but there was a lot of color that seemed to be missing. All the beaches we went to had been damaged in the same way. The fishes were still around, lots of Blue Tangs, Butterfly fish, Parrot fish, and Bonito. we even watched a 3 foot Barracuda cruise the beach.

The beaches we went to were Hawksnest, Maho and Francis. Good snorkeling on all the reefs and in the rocks. I am always amazed about the amount of time I spend in the water and how easy it is to float. At home on Buzzards Bay, an hour for the whole summer for me is normal. I was in the water for at least 2 hours a day around St. John. On the way home from the beach we would stop at one of the drink shacks in Cruz Bay and get a smoothie for the ride home and then a swim in the pool before dinner.

Saturday night we went out to The Lime Tree Inn where we had a very nice dinner and would highly recommend it. The staff was courteous and friendly. We also ate out at the Paradiso in Mongoose Junction. The appetizers were really good, especially the portobello mushrooms and the calamari. The salads were also fresh and bountiful. The entrees on the other hand were not well prepared. A good place to graze but we would suggest eating somewhere else. We also went to Skinny Legs in Coral Bay for lunch and all had some great hamburgers.
And on Friday before we left we ate at the Westin on the Beach. Great meal and great location. The other nights we ate in the villa, dining on Ribs, Coconut Shrimp, Chicken Divan, And Sirloin Strips.

I wasn't able to do any hiking. My right leg was still booted up to protect my broken leg. I was able to take the boot off to go swimming and found it was easier snorkeling with only my left foot in a flipper. Caused some strange looks as I walked up & down the beach. We definitely will have to come back because there were a lot of places I would have liked to have seen but couldn't get to this year.

The pictures of where we did go, can be found under my link section. There aren't enough words to express the wonderful time we had. Couldn't have asked for a better vacation nor a better group of friends to share it with.

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