Never Say Never ...

I'm a nervous flyer. I cringe every time there's the least bit of turbulence or an unexpected sound, usually searching for a flight attendant to make sure I don't see any concern on his or her face. Since that's how I feel on large jets, I've always said that there is NO WAY I'm ever going to travel on a plane any smaller than one that, say, Southwest Airlines flies.

But now Bob is working on the island of St. Thomas. And it's the holiday season. And the company he's working with has a large office on St. Croix. And the company hosts 2 holiday parties, one on each of the big islands (employees on St. John take the ferry over to St. Thomas for the party here.) Bob's position requires that he attend both parties, and, naturally, spouses also attend.

And the company owns an 8-passenger King Air plane and employees 2 pilots who spend most of their flying time between St. Thomas and St. Croix. It's obvious how we were all supposed to move between the two islands last weekend for the St. Croix party ...

So, I did what I'd said I'd never do, and I got on this plane:

Bob & I sat in the rearmost seats, which actually face forward, across the small aisle from each other. I could stand up, but I don't think anyone else could. I didn't think to take a picture of the interior - but I'm hearing I'll have another chance ...

It really wasn't too bad, but then again the flight took only 12 minutes from the start of taxiing in St. Thomas until touchdown on St. Croix. Our return on Sunday was longer - 15 minutes :) We were blessed with good weather both days, so that eased my introduction into this type of flight.

I can't believe I'll ever be comfortable on the plane, but I admit I'm glad I was forced to try it. And I feel no apprehension whatsoever about this weekend's party here on St. Thomas!

Thanksgiving Weekend

After her aborted trip in September, we were very happy for Parker to finally get to come down for a long Thanksgiving weekend!

After picking her up at the airport, we stopped for a snack & to watch the cruise ships leave for their next ports. The local newspaper publishes information on the ships that are going to be in port each day, including their capacities and arrival & departure times. Well, either the published times are on "ship time" rather than local time, or both of these ships left late, because we got tired of waiting! So, we just took a couple of pictures and headed home.

We managed to go to different beaches each of the 4 full days Parker was here. On Thanksgiving Day, we just walked down to the beach nearest to our condo, since we were having a traditional dinner and had to have time to roast the turkey.

On Friday, we took the ferry to St. John (sorry, John, still no swimming deer), planning to go to Hull Bay. The parking lot was completely full, however, so we drove a little further along the coast road to the next beach, at Cinnamon Bay. We weren't disappointed at all!

On Saturday, we went to Lindquist Beach, which had been so empty when the Deans & I went there on a Tuesday. When we arrived mid-morning a few people were already there and more arrived as the day went on, so we felt completely comfortable.

We hadn't been at Lindquist long when Parker & Bob noticed a young woman in a wedding dress posing for a photographer. We (of course) watched, then noticed an older man wearing a tie and asked each other if he might be a minister. Apparently, he was, as he soon donned a robe and joined the bride and a young man at the edge of the sand. I zoomed in, because I definitely didn't want to intrude:

Finally, on Sunday we went to another "new to us" beach at Sapphire Bay. And, again, we found a place we sure won't mind going back to:

Sapphire did have an unusual feature: ducks! And while they aren't necessarily tame, they aren't shy around people, either:

No, we didn't spend ALL our time on the beaches! We shopped some (no sales tax in St. Thomas!), went to an arts & crafts festival, watched basketball at Paradise Jam, and just spent time relaxing together. We also watched the sunset one evening at the nearby Secret Harbor:

Needless to say, the weekend flew by and we all had a wonderful time!

And I know decorations like the one below are everywhere, but I just think they really look out of place down here!

Paradise Jam and Jazz

I doubt most people think about basketball when they think about St. Thomas, but maybe they should. Since 2001, Paradise Jam has hosted college D1 teams for a tournament in November. There are both men's and women's tourneys, played over 2 different weekends, at University of the Virgin Islands. The audiences are made up of both fans of the teams and St. Thomians. And games draw large crowds!

Bob & I went to opening night of the men's tournament, and saw games between Seton Hall and Alabama:

and between Xavier and Iowa:

I hope no one reading this is a fan of Xavier men's basketball, because we found their fans to be really obnoxious. Seriously, people, if you're winning 60-41, you don't have to yell at the refs for every foul call!

Anyway, there was also half-time entertainment, provided this night by the band & the dance team of Ivana Eudora Kean High School and a couple of "pirates" on stilts:

We went back another night and saw the 3rd/4th place game between Clemson and Seton Hall:

 That night, the half-time performers were from Charlotte Amalie High School:

We went back on Thanksgiving evening for one of the women's games, between Tennessee and Georgia Tech. No pictures that night, sorry, and also no high school entertainment. Bummer!

I don't know if we'll be here for Thanksgiving next year, but, if we are, we'll definitely be at some more basketball games!


Another evening, we went to Jazz on the Green, which is held in an area called Yacht Haven Grande. It was a "cool-ish" evening and the music was great!

This lady was one of the singers at the Gala a couple of weeks ago:

The concerts are held one evening a month, on the Saturday closest to the full moon. So, if you are a jazz fan, plan your visits accordingly!

A Few Things We've Learned

In a comment on the post about our first visit to St. John, John said that he had been told by a St. John native that the deer swim between St. Thomas and St. John. We've been told the same thing - and it is apparently true! So, we'll definitely be on the lookout for swimming deer and hopeful that we see one!

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I was having lunch with our landlord/upstairs neighbor/new friend, Elaine, on the deck of a waterside restaurant, when an iguana stuck his head onto the deck, then began creeping in. The movement startled me, and Elaine realized what I was looking at. She assured me that it was nothing to worry about, then asked, "You don't have red or pink polish on your toenails, do you?" Well, yes, I did! She said we should just keep an eye on the iguana, so we could scare it off if it came too close, because, "Iguanas like to eat hibiscus blooms, and sometimes they see those colors and think it's flowers"!

Consider yourselves warned! :)

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When the Dean's were here and we were shopping downtown, we ate lunch at a local Jamaican restaurant. As one of the sides with their jerk chicken, both Carol & Jim ordered sweet potatoes. We were surprised to see chunks of white potato on their plates. But, upon tasting, they announced that the potatoes were, indeed, sweet.

Then, last week, I was at one of the warehouse clubs here, and saw the following:

I never knew there were white sweet potatoes, but next time I see them, we're going to be trying them!

A Social Event

Last night, Bob & I joined some of his co-workers at the Caribbean Gala for Cure, a fundraiser for the Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute at the Schneider Regional Medical Center, the hospital on St. Thomas.

It was a rather typical event of this type; that is, like you would expect in the states: held in a hotel ballroom, black-tie (tho the members of our group weren't the only ones who weren't that dressy), a few raffle prizes, several speakers and featured entertainers.

It was the entertainment that made this one memorable. First, there were 4 different locals who each sang a couple of songs. The first man was great, and each singer who followed was better than the one before! One is a junior high choir director, another is a nurse, and a third is an ob-gyn.

Then the featured act, Ashford & Simpson, took the stage. The name meant nothing to us, nor did they seem at all familiar. One thing we had noted, however, is that they had began collaborating in 1964! We enjoyed the music, especially in light of their long career - but still we didn't think we knew anything about them.

As part of their act, they talked about some of the people who had recorded their songs, then launched into a medley of their more well-known songs ... and suddenly we recognized something! They wrote several songs that were recorded by Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight, and Diana Ross, among others. The songs we recognized? "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing", "I'm Every Woman"and "Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand". When they began singing, a few ladies along the back wall were singing & swaying along, but, by the end of their set, the vast majority of the women in the room were joining in - to the delight of Ashford & Simpson themselves :)

Our First Guests

What a wonderful weekend we had! Our old neighbors and long-time friends from McKinney, Carol & Jim Dean, came down for a long weekend. As they are beach & boating enthusiasts who once lived in Santa Barbara, they were happy to just sit on the balcony, watching the boats and waves and birds. Of course, we did more than that, but it was just a fun & relaxing weekend for all of us!

Straight from the airport, we took them to a couple of our favorite places, which also gave them a tour of some of the island. We had milkshakes at the St. Thomas Dairy, which has a rather clever name and sign:

You can get regular milk shakes there, along with other dairy products, but they also offer shakes with liqueurs, like almond crunch ice cream with Amaretto or chocolate & coffee ice creams with Kahlua. Although they only add enough liqueur to flavor the shake, we never have to worry about driving the winding roads afterwards, because Bob, who isn't very adventurous food-wise, always gets a plain vanilla shake :)

After that, we stopped at the Island Time Pub, which overlooks the Red Hook Marina, where we found out just how much Jim really knows about boats, because he was able to answer questions we'd had about the boats moored there.

On Saturday, we loaded back onto the car ferry to St. John, and one of the trucks joining us for the trip was apparently driven by a kindred spirit:

On St. John, we went to Trunk Bay Beach, which is often photographed and filmed for commercials, movies, etc., because it is a truly beautiful place. If you go, try to take your own chairs and/or snorkeling gear. They have those items available to rent at pretty reasonable prices, but you also have to leave a large deposit ($25/chair, e.g.) and, tho the beach is open until 6 p.m., items have to be returned by 3:30 p.m. I was glad Bob had made us delay our trip long enough to purchase chairs that morning. The water was calm and the beach wasn't very crowded the day we were there:

When it began to cloud up, we left the beach and saw a couple of the wilder inhabitants of St. John:

Carol had laughed at a sign warning against feeding the wild donkeys, but we saw why it's not a good idea when they started towards our car ...

We spent Sunday afternoon at Magen's Bay Beach on St. Thomas. I've just realized that I didn't take a single picture that day, so here's a picture of the beach from above:

Although Magen's Beach isn't very good for snorkeling, we did see quite a few fish swimming with us there. We also watched a bird that would circle the bay, gathering speed, then dive straight into the water. On his 3rd try, he came up with a fish and was applauded by the swimmers! According to some ladies we talked to who spend every Sunday at Magen's, the numerous fish & fishing birds were unusual. We think God provided them for the enjoyment of our guests and are grateful!

I also had a funny encounter with a fellow beach-goer. There was a large group next to where we were sitting, mostly adults with a couple of children. After we'd been there a while, we noticed that one of the little girls, probably between 2 and 3 years old, had shed her swimsuit and was playing at the edge of the water naked. I stood up later to go into the water and saw this little girl walking towards us holding her swimsuit. She squatted down and rubbed sand all over her swimsuit, then picked it up, walked up to me, and held the swimsuit out. Obligingly, I took the swimsuit, and this conversation followed:

Little Girl: It's dirty.
Me: Oh. It's dirty?
LG: Yes. Throw it in the trash.
Me: You want me to throw it in the trash?
LG: Yes. It's dirty. Throw it in the trash.
Me: Hmmm. Why don't you take it to your mom?
LG: (taking swimsuit) Okay.

And off she went, to tell her mom about the dirty swimsuit!

On Monday, we went into downtown Charlotte Amalie to do some duty-free shopping. There were a couple of cruise ships in port that day, so literally every 10 feet someone asked us if we needed a taxi or if we were ready to go back to the ship. We kept saying no, sometimes adding that we weren't from a ship. Some were more persistent than others, asking if we were ready to go back to the hotel then or even if we were ready for ice cream. The one man we told that I live here looked very disappointed ...

The Deans had to leave Tuesday, but their flight wasn't until mid-afternoon, so we got in a visit to one more beach. There were 5 cruise ships here that day, including one that carries approximately 6,000 passengers (the newspaper publishes the ships that are due, along with each ship's capacity), so we definitely didn't want to go one of the "tourist" beaches. Acting on the advice of a friend, we searched out a lesser known beach, Linquist Beach, and found a winner!

This picture shows only the east side of the beach; the other side is just as pretty, tho the beach gets narrower until there is no place to walk, much less set up a chair. There are more waves and a quicker drop-off here than the other beaches we'd visited, but it is beautiful! The amenities are minimal: picnic tables and the cleanest port-a-potty I've ever been in. There is also a lifeguard stand, but it was unmanned the day we were there. With reefs right up to the shore, I can only assume the snorkeling is good - our next purchase is snorkeling gear. There were less than a dozen people there, and, honestly, the only negative is how un-crowded it is - one rather sketchy fellow walked by and wanted to engage us in conversation, and it would have been easy for someone to duck in & out of the trees and steal anything left unattended. So, this is a beach I think we'll save for weekends. But we'll definitely go back!

We hope Carol & Jim had as good a time as we did! Like most people, we don't always get out and take advantage of all there is to do when we live someplace, so their visit was just what we needed to start to enjoy what is available to us here. The coming months promise to bring more exploring!

A New Recipe - and an observation

Friends have asked me what some of the native foods are here. There is a wide range of cuisines, influenced by French, Jamaican, Indian, West Indian and Cuban immigrants, to name just a few.

The most "native" dish I've eaten out is some yummy jerk chicken, tho I do think of that as a Jamaican dish.

Some of the other native offerings are fungi, a side dish made of okra and cornmeal, and goat water, a type of goat stew. We haven't tried either of these :)

We've seen signs for "roti" outside of several local-looking establishments - the type you wouldn't go into unless you were going with someone who'd been there before. In my research, I learned that roti is actually a flat bread similar to naan, but is served here rolled around a spicy curry mixture.

I was reading some tips to enjoying the Caribbean online this past week and found a link to a recipe for Chicken Roti that looked pretty simple, so I tried it. It did require some specialized shopping, as it called for 2-3 teaspoons of "Blind Betty Original Recipe," which I found out is a hot sauce made on St. John. Otherwise, the ingredients were pretty normal, and it even suggested serving the filling in flour tortillas, so I didn't have to make & fry bread - which would not have happened.

The filling turned out to be a not-too spicy chicken curry stew that was really good in those tortillas, especially when topped with Blind Betty Mango Chutney, as suggested. We probably still won't venture into those local places without an escort, but we also won't be afraid to order roti when we see it on a menu.


And an observation, not meant to get into serious political or social discourse, but just something that has made us giggle:

I was waiting to pick up a package at the mail center recently, before election day, and a man standing at the counter began a fairly one-sided conversation with another man. The subject was the upcoming California ballot issue concerning legalization of marijuana. I can't quote him directly, because it would look mostly like #&$^%#&(@* but he did say that he'd smoked marijuana for 45 years and spent 2 1/2 years in jail because of it. He couldn't understand why it isn't legal in the US and seemed to have a fair amount of knowledge about which European countries have more lenient laws - and about the scrutiny of customs agents when travelers enter the US from those countries.

I saw "Marijuana Man" again today. He is pretty easy to identify, as he carries baskets that he apparently weaves from palm leaves and other materials. He also wears a flip-flop on one foot and a Croc on the other. I'm just thinking that the pro-legalization movement might want to find another spokesman ...

Another balcony shot ...

Since we live near the St. Thomas Yacht Club, we see lots of boating activity. One of our favorites is when the different sizes of sailboats are out, usually during classes - which I was disappointed to find out are only for "juniors." I'm going to have to learn to sail somewhere else :(

Anyway, it turned out that there had been a regatta on this particular day. We just love how it looks like the "big brother" sailboats are escorting the smaller ones in!

A Parade!

Bob & I were driving to the other end of the island after our trip to St. John to get our butane tank filled for our grill and noticed some traffic problems - then we heard the music.  It was a parade!

First there was the steel drum band on the trailer:

Then the largest group, the twirlers:

Then the Ivanna Eudora Kean High School marchers:

And that was it!

Our First Visit to St. John

Until we bought a car last month, Bob has had only a rent car to drive while he's been here. And rental policies don't allow cars to be taken on the auto barge between St. Thomas and St. John. So, the first weekend we could, we took ourselves to St. John. We were doing "reconnaissance" before our friends from McKinney arrived, so we drove a bit around the town of Cruz Bay then checked out the beaches and drove through parts of the Virgin Islands National Park.

For those who don't know about St. John, it is about a 20 minute ferry ride from St. Thomas. St. John doesn't have an airport, so the only way to get there is by boat. There are 2 types of ferries: auto barges and passenger ferries. The west end of the island where the ferries arrive is the town of Cruz Bay, and the town of Coral Bay is at the east end. And that's about all the development there is on the island, because 2/3 of the island is the Virgin Islands National Park. There are numerous hiking trails and more than a few beaches, both ones with amenities & entrance fees and ones you can just park along the road & walk onto.

The first stage of our trip was interesting: unlike some ferries, the auto barges here only have one ramp. So, in order to speed the off-loading, the cars are backed onto the barges. Cars are lined up along the sides, and construction and commercial trucks wait to load last, backing up into the middle of the barges. Once your car is in place, you're free to get out (assuming you can get the door open) and watch the scenery. This is the St. Thomas marina as we left:

And this is St. John as we arrived there:

We drove along the west & north shores, stopping at all the scenic overlooks to take pictures:

Cruz Bay

Caneel Bay

Sugar Mill Ruins at Caneel Bay

Trunk Bay

Cinnamon Bay

Maho Bay

Coral Bay

St. John is beautiful! We foresee many future trips on the auto barge to figure out which beach is our favorite ...

Wheels!

It's been a while since I've last posted here, and that has a lot to do with my new ability to get out onto the roads.

After the transfer of ownership (finally!) at the company that Bob is working for, we headed out to get me a car. We had considered a used car, but that can be "iffy" if you don't know the person selling the car. And with some areas of the island being "iffy" themselves, Bob didn't want to have to worry about me having car trouble. So, we went with new. We had already done some shopping, so we knew exactly what we wanted ... but we are on an island in the middle of the ocean, you know :)

We wanted a 2010 4-wheel drive Toyota Rav4 without the third row seat and in a non-descript color, one that wouldn't stand out. But, after 3 days (!) of trying to buy a car (the dealership was having a sale in conjunction with the government credit union and wouldn't even know what they had available until the sale was over), we found that the only car they had that fit what we wanted already had 2,000 miles of demo driving on it - and the brakes were making a strange noise. And you can't just have a car shipped from another dealership ... what they have, they have. Period.

We still thought that car might work and waited to hear what the service department thought about the brake noise. But, no, the entire service department was unavailable to look at the car for a couple of hours, because a Toyota rep was visiting ...

So, due mostly to boredom and frustration, Bob (who really needed to be at the office all this time) suggested we go see what else they had on the lot. And here is what we ended up with:

It's a Highlander, not a Rav4. It has 3rd row seats. And it's obviously not a non-descript color :) But it IS 4-wheel drive!

So, now, I can do grocery shopping & errands during the week, and Bob & I can do fun things on the weekends. My next post will have beach pictures!

Oh, and on one of our first days out in the new car we saw another deer. The picture is a little unclear, because it was raining, but this is obviously no goat ;)

What "It's really expensive to live here" means

During a trip to the grocery store today, I decided I should explain just what that means.

First, electricity: a quick search on TXU's website shows rates that range from 9.60 to 11.70 cents per kilowatt hour.  On St. Thomas, WAPA (Water and Power Authority) charges come to about 40 cents per kilowatt hour.  And everything in our condo is electric, including the water heater.

Now, groceries.  Admittedly, we have found some good sale prices on meat lately, and that's made the new grill even more fun!  Also, liquor here is much less expensive, tho most wine isn't. Here are some purchases we've made recently:

     Campbell's tomato soup   $1.49
     Skim milk (1/2 gallon)   $4.49
     Wheat Thins   $5.49
     Hillshire Farm link sausage   $6.29
     Rotel tomatoes   $2.19
     Land O'Lakes butter (lb.-sticks)   $6.69
     Reynolds aluminum foil (200 ft)   $14.99
                    I just couldn't pay that, so I got the off brand for $9.99
     Haagen Dazs or Ben & Jerry's ice cream (pint)   $7.29   no Bluebell :(

Obviously, ice cream is going to be a rare treat!

Weather!

Once again, a tropical system is wreaking havoc on the weather here on St. Thomas.  This time, it isn't even a tropical depression yet, tho it is forecast to strengthen soon.  It's been windy & gusty and very rainy - over 8 inches with more predicted.

And when you get weather like this on what is basically a mountain top, things get messy:  trees blow down, you get mud slides & rock slides, water rushes across the roads, and even more potholes appear in those roads.  So, while we're used to school being cancelled for snow or ice, here they have cancelled school for ... rain.  Of course, it makes sense considering the conditions of the roads, but it sure sounds funny!

The balcony where Bob sat so dryly while it rained on Sunday has been quite the opposite during these storms.  With that wind coming from the south, I keep having to shut the doors when the squalls move through.  When it's not raining, we definitely have plenty of fresh air in the house!

Since my main view of the world is through those doors (What can I say? We should be getting me a car soon and I won't be quite so housebound), here are contrasting pictures off that balcony:



A typical summer afternoon



Today

And, no, I didn't do anything to the color.  The normally bright blue water is decidedly green today.

I feel sorry for those people who are here on vacation, because the forecast doesn't look much different until Saturday.  But I guess this does explain why September and October are the slowest months for the tourist industry here.  So, plan your visits accordingly!

Where we reside

Because I know it's hard to envision a different environment, I thought I'd post some pictures so you'd be able "see" where we are.  The picture I've added to the top of the blog is the view off our balcony.  Not bad, we think :) The really nice thing about this view is that you can see it from the living room, the kitchen, and the master bedroom.  To the left of the point, there is an expanse of open water, and boats of all sorts cross there going between downtown Charlotte Amalie and St. John.  Having that point across from us also means that the view is nice at night, as the lights come on.

In case you read that we live in a condo and thought "hi-rise", this is actually what our complex looks like.  The buildings are 2-stories tall, with separate condos on the lower and upper levels.  I was standing in the parking lot to take this, and the water is on the other side of the building.

You walk down several steps to a sidewalk that runs parallel to the buildings, then come to the walkway to our building:

We have one of the prettiest entries, because our upstairs neighbor/landlord grows orchids.  I never see him doing anything with them, but they are beautiful!

We are in the downstairs unit, and as you walk in you can see through the kitchen and the living room right out to the water:

Our condo has all the space we need, but little more.  Besides the kitchen and living room/dining area, we have 2 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms and a utility closet for the washer & dryer.  It's comfortably furnished, which is really nice, since there aren't very many furniture stores on the island!

Of course, our favorite part is that balcony, where Bob was busy doing some CPE this afternoon:

What you can't see is that it was pouring down rain while he was out there!

While we haven't needed to buy much for the condo, we have added some things for the kitchen. Then, this week, we added Bob's new favorite thing: the Weber Q gas grill.

It's just the perfect size!  And, needless to say, we tested it right away ;)

We've also gotten a hummingbird feeder, and the birds found it almost immediately.  Between watching the rain storms move in across the water and watching the hummingbirds fight over the feeder, we've had a pretty great Sunday!  Now it's time to get out the chicken breasts I've been marinating and get that grill going ...