Day 9: Bacon, Bagels and Beach. Sweet Plantains with the Pias!
I simply can't believe how fast our time is flying by. It's already our next to next to the last day :( For those who don't speak Amy we have two full days left and we are gonna make the most of them. It's officially Saturday! We've been on St. John a full week and still it feels like we just got there and have been there forever all at the same time. Like a heavenly time warp.
Again I woke to the wafting of bacon through the cottage. Mmmmmmm.....and coffee. That hubby is a keeper. I had almost overdosed on bagels by this point, so I had picked up some yogurt. I felt the need to have at least one non-carb per day! Breakfast consisted of bacon, just bacon, for the little guy. Bacon and eggs for daddy. Bacon, yogurt and a bagel for me. Cereal for the girl.
Knowing it was our 2nd to last day we packed up for the beach - towels, sunscreen, book, snacks, sammiches and, of course beverages - Gaterade for the girl. Apple juice for the boy. Sprite Zero +malibu for me. Malibu and coke for the hubs. We were set for a long day at the beach.
Maho LOVE again. Seriously, I know its a little boring, but I love Maho. It really is the perfect beach. You park right there, so there is no real distance to lug anything. There is plenty of shade. The water is no higher than a kid's shoulders a good 50 feet out. Calm, beautiful, simple, perfect Maho. This is why in our family its known as Maaahhhhhhhhho, emphasis on the ahhhhhhh....
One Happy Girl
Just keep swimming...he was determined to be like his SIS
One happy relaxed hubby
Even Beach Bunny got in on the relaxation
Max and me having a heart to heart
Me & the two kids I am lucky to have call me Mama
Soon everyone was busy doing a whole lot of nothing...except Max. I think we may have a future engineer on our hands.
I know I am beating a dead horse at this point but dayyyyum Maho is beautiful
I had retreated to my chair with a book with a view
Our Spongebob Sand Sculpture. And by "our" I mean my husband did this. I am responsible for organization of the chaos, he is the chief digger/sculptor/designer. I buy the tools, he does the work. Life on vacation very much resembles life at home.
Busy Boy
Note the new hat. My favorite long-time green hat was a wee bit small this trip so we invested in a new hat from Pink Papaya.
Then - 2009
Now - 2011
Sometimes I can trick myself into thinking they are not really growing up but then a hat won't fit or a pair of pants is 3 inches too short overnight and I realize I am just deluding myself. There was a family near by on this day with teen sons. I couldn't help but think I know I will blink and my kiddos will be there! SLOOOOOOW down, people!
This boy was on a mission.
Today Ella had her first BIG snorkeling reward. There was a very annoying lady on the beach with her three kids. She didn't talk, she yelled in this kind of sing songy voice. Very loudly. Anyway, that goodness for her because of course as soon as she saw the turtle her sons and EVERYONE ELSE ON THE BEACH knew about it. Annoying yes, useful ... also yes. We headed out and sure enough my little girl got to see her first turtle. He was feeding and she thought it was the coolest thing ever. "Mama that's my first real encounter with marine life!" (she's a geek in training). Nevermind she'd seen 1000 fish, they didn't count. The turtle was on a whole new level.
Eventually we got hungry and enjoyed our Pbjs on the beach. 4 hours or more later we decided it was time to pack it in.
Bye Maho for now...but definitely not forever.
Post-Sun, we decided to head to Coral Bay Cones for an ice cream treat for all. French vanilla with sprinkles for Ella, Max doesn't really like ice cream (I know, right?!?) so he picked out a nice packet of skittles, Mama was getting sleepy and wasn't likely to get a nap so I ordered a frozen caramel latte. We were all quite pleased. I also picked up a St. John t-shirt here that I love. Bright kelly green with ST. JOHN in big white block letters. Soon enough we were off to the cottage for showers, a show and breathing treatment. Max was much improved but I was determined to remain vigilant especially as we had a flight coming up in a few days.
I had a bit TOO much sun today. Best Investment of the Trip. This stuff is AWESOME. We applied it often and liberally and neither of us peeled a bit.
I had a little afternoon refreshment on the deck
Before I knew it, our babysitter arrived and it was time to head to Pia's for a pre-dinner cocktail and a tour of the house and an update on all of their home improvement projects. AMAZING. I had just been there a year and a month prior and I couldn't believe the work they had done on their place. I considered their house absolutely perfect, but the renovations they have made are beautiful, classy, and so well executed. Pia's vision is amazing and Les's execution flawless. So very impressive! I let them know that when we find our fixer upper, Les definitely has a side gig as my master of renovation! Anyone who is following their blog, knows there is no task he will not tackle.
Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so there is no evidence of the amazing dinner we had at Sweet Plantains. I started with a painkiller. One of the best I've ever had. I had to have an order of Sweet Plantains, how could you not? Saturday is curry night and the Masala Spiced Red Curry with shrimp was calling my name. Absolutely perfect evening with Pia and Les and my hubby. No kids, no worries, just easy conversation in the beautiful, warm Sweet Plantains atmosphere. Perfect night!
All good things must come to an end and soon enough with bellies full we headed back to the house to relieve Barbara and get the kids tucked in. They were so sad to see us home so soon. They really really really loved Barbara!
Tomorrow: Sunday - Honeymoon, The Grateful Shed & Pool & RUTH, the Beach Bar Gathering, and High Tide
Day 8: A Dog Walking, Pancake Eating, Visiting with RUTH, and trying (Unsuccessfully) to have a beach free day, Salt Pond, Donkey Diner Pizza eating, and Power Outages kind of day!
Usually our MO for St. John vacations is to go to the beach every single day until it rains. A long ago April trip has forever scarred me and so when I see sunshine I take it up on its offer of delightfulness and head to the beach, knowing...just knowing...it will rain eventually and we can shop/sleep/play games then. Well, this was day 8 and still not a drop of rain. We decided to take a day off from the beach, especially after having spent literally the entire day prior to Vie's, to give our skin a break. That was our intention anyway.
Let me rewind a bit, when we returned the night prior we bumped into our neighbor ladies again and they had had a pretty bad evening. What started as a great sunset cruise ended with them losing their bag that had their car keys and ids and cell phone in it. :( They had asked if we would be willing to run them to the bus-stop the following day and I had said we would be happy to. They were very reluctant to ask anything of us, but we explained we'd had enough sun and were taking a beach break anyway.
So, Friday, we are up and at em. While the kids ate, I took the ladies down to the bus stop. I offered about 10 times to take them to Cruz Bay but they resisted. Well, about 5 minutes after dropping them off I remembered it was Good Friday, and if my memory serves me correctly VITran doesn't run on holidays. I could not leave them sitting there. I thought, if it was my mama what would I want? I would want someone to take them to town. So, we loaded everyone up and headed to get them. They were very happy to see us!
Our initial plan was to drop them off, park at Conrad's and head to St. Thomas to do some shopping. Shopping on St. Thomas was a ritual for us for about the first 3-4 trips to St. John. Not so much for me anymore. My husband is a watch junkie so I was happy to indulge him and go along but it wasn't my first choice. We hit town, dropped the ladies at Denzel Kline (Don't lose your keys btw ... $200 charge for them ... which I understand its not easy to replace a key and fob, but dang...ouch).
In the meantime, Ella asked for the 10023 time if today could we maybe please preettttty please go visit and walk a doggie at the Animal Care Center. Though, I am not usually inclined to volunteer ON MY vacations, not because I don't have a volunteer-y spirit but usually because I am too vegged out to even think of something like that. I could not resist her little spirit and wanted to encourage this behavior so off we went. Less than 1 hour later, I wanted to adopt about 15 dogs and a kitty or two. It is amazing how much they do there with so little.
She was thrilled.
As you can see her little brother was not so much for the walking this day! I think he was infected with the STJ Gravity Bug. After the hubby carried him for most of the dog walk, he decided ... maybe today is not the best day for St. Thomas shopping. I offered to let him go on his own, but he refused!
Since we were in town we decided to go see if we could find STJ Ruth! YAY, finally we find her!! I love St. John Spice and I especially love Ruth & Ron! They are the best. Ruth and I chatted a bit and the kiddos went with daddy into St. John Kids to find a treat for themselves. They were happy! Ruth and I made plans to see the Grateful Shed later in the week, let the kids have a swim in her pool, and to hit the Beach Bar on Sunday evening for a little gathering.
Soon enough, everyone was getting hungry. In my haste to get the ladies to town, I hadn't really eaten breakfast and the little breakfast the kids had was wearing off. We decided to head to Jake's. We had never tried Jake's and we had heard they had great food, especially breakfasts!
When we got there, a little before 12 noon, it was very busy. The only seats left were at the bar, which was kind of awesome because you can watch them making everything. I was amazed how virtually everything looked to be made from scratch. Not the fastest service in the world, but the food is outstanding and they are VERY friendly.
The view
Ella, the pancake-anator had the pancakes and declared them so good she didn't need syrup. Better than Ihop!
Diggin in
I had the tuna salad sandwich with potato salad. Delish! (sorry picture is post-bite or two, I was HUNGRY)
After lunch we walked around a bit and headed over to Mongoose to Deli Grotto for the obligatory crack bar for me and some cookies for the kids. It's not really called the crack bar, I think its official name is the chocolate coconut bar. It is 1049 calories of deliciousness. Buttery graham cracker bottom with a thick layer of chocolate and then a thick layer of coconut sweetness. MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Shopped and walked out we decided to head back to house, arriving around 3pm ish. We relaxed a little while but soon were just too antsy and were missing the beach. We'd tried to stay away from the beach today, but it was a bit warm and still in the house and we needed to cool off so we headed to salt pond. Salt Pond was the closest beach to our house and we'd not made it there yet this week. There is a bit of walk down to the beach from the lot. Not a big deal at all on the way in, but often by the time we are ready to pack it in and head out it is brutally hot on the hike out. We were not sure how well Belly Flop would do. Well today was our day to find out. He did just fine.
Salt Pond is enchanting and gorgeous
We relaxed until almost sunset.
I took a few pictures with some funky setting on my iphone
Before we knew it, it was time to pack it in and head back up to the car.
We found this guy along the way
When we returned to the house from the beach, we were without power again. (The power had gone out while we were at lunch in town at Jake's and from various people I know on facebook I could gather that it had gone out in Cruz Bay, Coral Bay and even over on St. Thomas). We cleaned up as best we could and decided to head to Donkey Diner to grab a pizza, thinking maybe power wasn't out everywhere. Note: Shipwreck, Island Blues, Skinny's, and Aqua Bistro all have back-up generators. Donkey Diner does not. However, their pizza oven doesn't need it! SCORE.
Waiting for Pizza
They were closing up early because of the outage, but we scored the LAST PIZZA. Sorry to the folks who walked up right after us. While we waited we checked out the new (to us) Coral Bay Cones. Now it is entirely possible that this place has been there for a year or more, but I had never noticed it. Made a note to self to return for an ice cream fix later in the week.
Pizza secured we headed back to the house to eat by candle light. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever!
Power finally came on around 9. We noticed all the power was on around us but still nothing at the house, so Hubby had to go investigate and throw a few switches. Eventually we had lights and more importantly, water and fans!! Ahhhhh....you don't realize how nice a shower feels until you can't get one upon return from the beach!
Our lovely neighbors dropped off a bottle of wine as a thanks and soon enough it was time to head to bed!
Tomorrow: Bacon, Bagels and Beach. Plus, Sweet Plantains with the Pias! What more could you want?
Day 7: Thursday - Vie's Beach, Skinny Legs and a Quiet Night In
Oh me oh my how is it possible that we are starting day 7. This is the primary reason I try, if at all possible, to go for at least 8 nights, preferably 9 or 10. Believe me, I would settle for a week if I had to, but I am just really getting my complete mellow on at day 6-7.
Wake up sleepy heads!!! We often found the kiddos like this. One would start on the futon in the living area, the other on the twin in the sunroom. Sometime in the night little brother got lonely and went in search of his sis.
I know you are getting bored of reading this ... Guess what we had for breakfast...again? I made such an awesome egg and cheese bagel the day prior, I decided to have another. Coffee'd up, it was time to hit the road and find our daily beach. Though it would be sort of breaking our unspoken rule of alternating lunch out and pb&j on the beach every other day, we decided on Vie's. Mmmmmm...visions of garlic chicken, tarts and johnny cakes danced in my head. I could almost smell them! Still, I packed pj&J and some snacks for the kids. Luckily!
Based on the busyness of the island so far this week, I was nervous about finding a shady spot at Vie's so we headed out the earliest we had all week. BY 9 am our butts were in the jeep and on our way. Another new thing this trip, the kids were not UP AT THE CRACK OF DAWN. I think because they were playing HARD and swimming a lot at the beach and staying up a bit later than normal for them. Regardless, my normal alarm clocks were not waking me up at 6-7 am. Usually we are very early to the beach people - like there by 8:30 at the latest. This time we were lucky to leave the house by 9:30. Still early for some, but not by our standards. I love to be at the beach early when it is quiet and empty. I love packing up just as the droves of people start to descend.
Anyway, as we made our ways to Vie's we were #3 in a caravan of 3 jeeps. Both of them were full and produced anxiety that they were going where we were going. THEY WERE GONNA GET ALL THE SHADE. I was so very happy when the stopped at Haulover! YES. We drove on and found ourselves the 3rd car in the lot. We headed to the beach, dropped our $2.50 pp in the slot and found a spot. The primo shady spot was spoken for but we found a couple of nice chairs and a shady spot for our clan and settled in.
I don't think I had managed to put all of my stuff down before someone is off...on a mission.
I just love Vie's. It is quiet and peaceful and a bit off the beaten path. Our plan was to relax and lounge until we smelled garlic chicken and our tummies were rumbling.
Our encampment. A little bit like the clampetts
While daddy and the girl snorkeled
The little guy and I chilled. The view from my chair.
We had planned to have lunch from the snack shack, so finally I wandered up to see what was going on. There was no Ms. Vie! Shutters closed! Upon closer inspection I found a note that Vie was recuperating. I am sad for Vie and sad for my tummy. The kids were NOT ready to go, so I was glad I had brought food for them. The hubby and I could wait and I was pretty sure this would mean another Skinny Legs blue burger was in my future.
We literally could not MOVE ourselves off the beach. We ended up staying at Vie's from about 9:30 in the morning until almost 4pm! We usually pack it in by 1 or 2pm at the latest, so this was unusual!
My view for the day
Eventually it was time to go and hit Skinny's for lunch (for the grownups) and treats (for the kiddos).
Relaxed Girls
Mama wanted a dream-sickle. An adult dream-sickle (oj, citrus and vanilla rum). Ok, maybe I had 2.
I know that I should probably order something other than the blue burger, and I have before, but its been a while. I love the blue burger at Skinny's. Its not a burger that I order anywhere else in the world. I just love it. I have had the grilled mahi and the grilled chicken (both are excellent), but I dream about this burger. When I am there, that is what I want!
A Very Happy Girl & Her Burger
The Girl was thrilled with her basket of Chips. She is our picky eater. Belly Flop is the meat eater - ate an ENTIRE chicken sandwich at Skinny's. Which if you've had one you know its really about 2 chicken breasts. Mini on the other hand subsists on a few select foods - apples, grilled vietnamese pork, chicken nuggets, pistachios, carrots, chips, pb&j, granola bars and gummy bears! She is NOT interested in much else. The chips were a treat for her.
After our late lunch/early dinner it was back to the house. We all cleaned up, read, and napped. Belly Flop, exhausted, passed out at about 6 pm and didn't wake up until 8 the next morning. So, we stayed in for the evening.
And caught a beautiful sunset
Tomorrow: A Dog Walking, Pancake Eating, Visiting with RUTH, and trying (Unsuccessfully) to have a beach free day, Salt Pond, Donkey Diner Pizza eating, and Power Outages kind of day!
