Fitness Fantasy

We were driven to the airport at 5:30 for a 7 a.m. flight out of Logan airport on American. Overall, the flight was uneventful, except for a dramatic landing coming from San Juan to St. Thomas because of some heavy winds. Once we landed and picked up our luggage (after being talked into going to a timeshare meeting the next morning by a pushy girl at a "Fairfield Resort" booth), we called our rental company to pick us up. Now I, a girl who loves a bargain, had booked with Discount Rental Car because of some good reviews online. Harrumph...NEVER again. When we got to the rental car agency and were shown our car, it was a JALOPY. A broke-down, scratched-up, smelly, wet-inside Suzuki Sidekick with a soft top that wouldn't completely attach itself. Now, realize, it was raining pretty hard off and on on Friday, so a jeep top that didn't stay closed was a real problem. As soon as we left the agency, we saw the "service engine soon" light come on and tried to get back as soon as we could to return the damn thing. Unfortunately, by the time we drove to our hotel and checked in, the agency closed and we were SOL for day 1. No worries, we arranged for a rental from Avis the next morning and told the agency we were returning the car first thing in the morning.

Once we figured that out, we started to enjoy ourselves. Our room at the Morninstar hotel at the Marriot was beautiful- with a comfy king-size bed, a sitting room area with a sofa, and complimentary robes and slippers to enjoy during our stay. We were footsteps from the beach and enjoyed chocolates, candies, and other treats each night with turndown service. We didn't have any problems with getting lots of towels, which we took with us to various beaches every day, or paying extra for utilities, or any of the other hassles I had heard in regards to other hotels.

Molik is a boy we met at our hospital (he came up for some surgery) that we befriended and called when we knew we'd be visiting St. Thomas. He spent much of the week with us and took us around to see everything the island had to offer. Our first night, however, we checked out his apartment and went to Cold Stone Creamery (yum!). We also bought a few supplies at the supermarket (Pueblo) in Havensight which had the oddest assortment of products ever, but we managed to find the basics. After that, we called it a night--time for the rest and relaxation to begin!

Saturday was our most hectic day. We returned our discount car to its owners (very happily, I might add). We had to wait until 35 minutes past the time they were supposed to open because the girl who was in the store couldn't open when it was raining. What? She sat in her car with a friend for the entire 35 minutes while we sat in our car waiting. Finally, I explained to her that we had an appointment in less than a half hour and when did she think they would open (i was excrutiatingly polite because, after all, we were on vacation, and we understood that people in the Caribbean operate on "island time" and all.) That's when she finally agreed to open "in a few minutes." 5 more minutes, and its still raining, and we see her scamper in her miniskirt and high heels into the place. Jeesh. Walter and I were so happy to be rid of the thing. Fortunately, they agreed to drive us back to our hotel, where we were picked up by the Fairfield Resorts minivan.

The van took us, and another couple, to Bluebeard's castle for what we thought would be a tour, but in actuality was a 90 minute presentation of how you can become incredibly in debt on a whim. We took the coupons and scrammed, because the last thing either of us need is $16,000 more debt for a timeshare at this time in our lives.

After that, the van took us to the airport to pick up our next rental car from Avis, a nice, clean ( had only 200 miles on it) Chevy CAVALIER. Normally I would hate to drive a piece-of-shit rollerskate-of-a-car, but we were so relieved to have something safe and functional, that we didn't care at all!

We went to pick up Molik for lunch and drove around for at least 30 minutes looking for a parking spot in downtown Charlotte Amalie. Wow. Busy-ness! We finally found a park and headed to Cuzzin's, a local favorite that served fantastic West Indian food. I ordered curried chicken with mac and cheese, sweet potato dressing, and veggies. Walter ordered something similar and Molik got a sandwich. How ironic that the local would order the sandwich.

We did a spot of shopping, bought some Haagen Daz, and rested at our hotel before our final adventure: the Greenhouse on the waterfront in Charlotte Amalie. Here we each had a salad (tasted good enough then) and some mozzarella sticks- standard pub fare- and enjoyed the breeze off the water. Unfortunately, I had come down with a cold before we left Boston, and it was really getting worse now so we headed back to the hotel so I could catch up on some sleep.

Sunday had horrible weather. It poured all day, but I didn't care, because I felt so sick I need a day to relax a bit. We still did do a few things though. We woke up and went to an all-you-can-eat brunch at the Marriot (extremely overpriced and the food wasn't that good), drove through Red Hook to Coral World (tiny aquarium, not that much to see-especially on a rainy afternoon), drove all around Red Hook and went to a foodstore out there called Food Center (?) where a bag of chips was $7.00 (yikes!). We tried to go to the Greenhouse for lunch, but the service was very slow and I felt really, really sick at this point, so we got the food to go and headed to the hotel to spend the rest of the day lounging. Something was in those salads, because both Walter and I had horrible intestinal issues for a couple days after that! We stayed away from salad at the Greenhouse for the rest of the vacation. Luckily, football was on and we watched the Pats beat their opponent (Buffalo?) 26-6.

Monday was beautiful! The sun was out, showing how gorgeous the island truly was (before, in the pouring rain, we were surprised to see parts of the island looking very dirty and rundown looking). Walter and I walked down to CoCo Joe's for breakfast, and jumped in the water while the maid was cleaning our room. We then hopped into the car to get Molik for a trip to beautiful Magen's Bay. What an amazing beach! It was fairly crowded, but not nearly as much as most beaches near us on Cape Cod. It was a very natural beach, without vendors or litter, or anything unpleasant. Just beautiful, silky white sand and crystal clear water.

After we were dry, we decided to check out Udder Delight, home of the best milkshake in the USVI, and in my opinion, the world! I had a plain coffee milkshake, but you could get just about any flavor and many had alcholic additives, which people were raving about.

We then drove into Havensight for lunch at Shipwreck, where Walter and I split a gigantic 3/4 lb burger and a big basket of delicious fries. Definately a great, inexpensive lunch. After lunch, we relaxed at the hotel. I read on the beach, which Molik and Walter watched TV. We dropped Molik off at steel drum band practice (he plays the bass pan in the Allstars Steel Drum Band) and went to dinner at Virgilio's downtown. Extremely impressive food, expensive, but WORTH it. We ordered gnocchi with pesto sauce as an appetizer, fettucini with pesto sauce (me), lasanga (Walt), and tirimisu for dessert. It came to ~$110 with tip.

Tuesday was also a great day. We had breakfast in the room, met up with Molik, bought two AWFUL snorkels and mass at KMart, drove to Coki Beach by Coral World for some fantastic snorkeling. This beach was beautiful, crowded, but the best beach we went to because of all the fun we had snorkeling. Walter bought dog biscuits to feed the fish, who ate them right out of his hands. We ended up having to rent masks because ours sucked, but it was worth the $5 each to be able to see what was going on.

We drove some more after the beach- went to Subway at the "mall" (tiniest mall ever), relaxed at the hotel, and then went to dinner at the Banana Tree Grille at Bluebeard's Castle. Once we checked it out, we wished we had gone to Room with a View, but someone steered us towards the big Banana. Food was good- I ordered filet mignon and Walt got mahi mahi. Cooked well, nothing extraordinary, but enjoyable.

Wednesday was one of the best days. We drove to Red Hook in the morning for the Mangrove Ecotour kayaking and snorkeling adventure. That was a blast! We kayaked about a mile to a secluded reef where all this baby coral and juevenile fish were. We had to donn lifevests in order to snorkel because we weren't allowed to walk barely at all in the water. We walked in about 1 1/2 feet deep and had to lie down immeditaely due to all the fragile coral in the area. I saw amazingly beautiful fish, all types, shapes, and colors including trumpetfish and barracuda, and a spiny lobster. I would definately do this again next time we visit.

We picked up Molik after that and went to Molly Malone's for lunch. By far the slowest service- only two waitresses on in a very busy restaurant makes for unhappy people all over. Whatever I ate there also didn't agree with my stomach, so wheh we came back to the hotel, I rested on a beach chair while Molik and Walt snorkeled.

Wednesday night there are free rides up to Paradise Point after 5, which we all took advantage of. I don't think I would have paid the $16 nonlocal price had it not been free, because the ride lasted about 5 minutes only. However, it was scenic and fun, and the bar at the top looked like a hoot. We would have stayed had we not had reservations.

Luckily, I felt well enough to go out to dinner at Craig and Sally's, which was phenomenal. We both ordered prime rib, with garlic mashed potatoes, and asparagus. The prime rib was huge! I could easily have eaten it three nights in a row, but ate as much as I could and boxed it up for Molik to eat at his house. Sally even came out of the kitchen to see how we like our steaks! The service here was excellent...pricey, but excellent.

Thursday was our overall favorite day. We woke up early and drove to the Sapphire Beach Marina to take a day sail on the New Horizons sailboat to St. John and an unihabited island. We set sail with mimosas and hibisci (cranberry juice and Champagne) in hand for ST. John. Around 11:00, we anchored off shore with a few other boats near a deserted beach for some fantastic snorkeling. We saw all kinds of fish, starfish, sea urchins, and even squid. After that, we went on deck for some nooners (melon colada drink) with a lunch of meatballs, pasta salad, green beans in dill sauce, bread, fresh fruit, and iced brownies topped with strawberries. We set sail again after lunch for an uninhabited cay for some more snorkeling. Once there, Walt and I saw a fish who's head was bigger than a basketball hiding in a rock cave. Oh boy, I did not get too close to him! He had to be at least 3-4 feet long with a head that big! Other than that, we saw the same sorts of fish and a small stingray skating on the bottom. Nothing too scary.

Friday was our day to explore St. John. We woke up early (6:30) in order to take the car ferry over to St. John from Red Hook. Once there, we drove along the shore road to Trunk Bay, took some amazing pictures, and hung around Trunk Bay a while for some snorkeling. Trunk Bay is a beautiful beach, and we were there first before any others came because we actually arrived there at 8:30. The beach is so nice when its quiet...although the snorkeling was better at Coki Beach and on our day sail.

After that, we head back to Cruz Bay for lunch at a deli, checked out this fantastic organic beauty supply store called the Body Deli, and then rode around St. John for about an hour checking out all the scenic vistas. St. John is definately more naturally beautiful than St. Thomas, but St. Thomas is way more exciting.

We headed back to St. Thomas around 3:30 and decided to finish up our shopping. We checked out a jewelry store (started with an A on Drake's Passage...am forgetting the name now) to price out diamonds for an engagement ring. Easily half what they cost in the United States! From there, we rested, changed, and ate dinner at the Greenhouse. We checked out a local calypso band called P'Your Passion, which definately rocked the house!!! I even bought their latest CD from Modern Music in Havensight on Saturday morning. Around 1:30 a.m., we were beat, so headed back to the hotel to pack and rest for our flight the next day.

Woke up, finished packing, and headed to Charlotte Amalie to say one more goodbye to Molik and buy a few more t-shirts for gifts. We ate our last lunch in Frenchtown at the deli (excellent chicken salad!), and sadly, made our way back to the airport. While checking our bags, Walter parked our rental car in front of the terminal. It took longer than we thought, and I kept checking the car to make sure it wasn't getting towed. One last time I looked, I saw a policeman putting something on the tire. I screamed, "Walter, hurry up. They're about to tow our rental car!" He ran over, apologized to the police officer, and the officer was generous enough to let it slide. Whew!

Overall the trip was fabulous. Everyone we met was very friendly, and on several occasions, we met people (who worked more than one job) at each job location. We found the island to be beautiful in most places, but very rundown in certain areas, and the gulf between the wealthy and poor was obvious. Everyone treated us very respectfully and tried to help as best they could. One odd thing I noticed was that in all the "fine dining" establishments, none of the waiters were anything but caucasian. Which I though was a bit strange.