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!
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