Saturday night, 6/28
As Keith was getting ready for bed and preparing to plug his phone in for the night, he noticed a text message notification. Bad news: Sunday’s early morning flight, originally scheduled to depart at 5:50, was rescheduled and would not be departing until 10:38, after the scheduled departure time from Atlanta to St Thomas. With heart and mind racing, Keith asked Christine to take a seat with him in the korner room to try to re-evaluate the plans for the week ahead.
It was immediately clear that Delta was not going to be able to get the family to St John. Neither the app nor the website offered any options. Keith and Christine proceeded to check every nearby airport to see if there was a way to either get to Atlanta early enough to catch the collecting flight or fly to St Thomas with a different carrier. The only option with another carrier was a departure from Boston with 2 layovers, it required us to drive through the night and still only arrive 90 minutes before departure. Even if it all worked out, it would require a 4.5 hour drive back at the end of the vacation.
So, they had to figure out to get from Atlanta to St Thomas. The best option was to fly into Atlanta as planned, stay overnight, then travel to St Thomas the next morning, departing at 5:15 am and laying over in Orlando for 3 hours before arriving in St Thomas shortly after noon. They purchased those tickets, paying extra for carry on luggage and the privilege of cancelling with a cash refund rather than credit to a future flight, because they were still holding out hope that Delta would come up with something.
Sunday, 6/29
The family woke by 0800 and arrived to Hancock Airport as planned at 0930.
Keith visited the Delta agent to try to get to St Thomas with Delta, but – as expected – they couldn’t find a way. After passing through TSA without difficulty the family proceeded to wait as the 10:50 flight became a 11:28 which became an 11:42 flight. Shortly after 11:00, the family boarded the plane.
Before take off, there was finally some good news: someone from Delta visited us at our seats after boarding and told us that they had arranged for us to fly to Miami later this date, where we could stay at a comp’d hotel, then fly into St Thomas the following day. It was decision time. Keith and Christine had paid an extra $250 for tickets through Spirit the previous night to have the ability to cancel for a cash refund if Delta was able to come through. The hotel we would now cancel in Atlanta would cost them an additional $170 if we didn’t stay. However, If we flew into Miami Sunday afternoon, we could fly out direct at 10:00 Monday morning on Delta with an extra 5 hours of sleep instead of a 3-hour layover in Orlando on Spirit. Each flight was scheduled to arrive within half an hour of each other. Mid-flight they decided to travel through Miami if the hotel would indeed be comp’d.
So were going to fly through Miami, until we weren’t. While reviewing the fine print of the refund policy mid-flight to Atlanta, Keith learned that while purchasing tickets in haste the day before, he hadn’t clearly read the refund policy, which required notice within 24 hours of the departure time of the flight. Thus, there would be no refunds, and without any refunds, there was no trip through Miami.
After checking in with Delta to notify them of our plans, we finally found the shuttle pickup location and we were eventually deposited at the Marriott Airport Atlanta.
Having not eaten a decent meal since an early breakfast, the family was starving, so we elected to eat an early dinner at the bistro at the hotel. Despite being virtually empty, the food was good. Keith enjoyed a turkey BLT, Christine was pleased with her salmon, and both Austin and Victoria were satisfied with their brined Southern fried chicken dishes.
After dinner, we Uber’d to a local movie theater to watch the live action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon in 3D. Victoria had already seen the 2D version a few weeks earlier, but had been asking Christine or Keith to go with her, so this was the perfect time to do so. The film was well-done and enjoyed by all. The 3D was pretty cool too.
With the movie finished, we Uber’d back to the hotel with what might be the worst Uber driver ever. He was a nice guy and his Tesla was clean, but he clearly cut off traffic he didn’t 4 different times in a 12-minute drive. Christine and Keith each warned him of unseen traffic on separate occasions. Still, we arrived safely to the hotel and laid down to bed at 9:00 with plans to awake at 1:45 am to catch the 2:00 am shuttle to the airport for our 5:25 am flight to Orlando. No one slept well (if at all), but that would be okay, because it allowed us to rise in time to catch the 2:00 shuttle (which departed too early 1:50, forcing us to wait for it to return 2:20), and we could then rest at the gate for our flight to Orlando by 3:00.
Monday, 6/30
The flight out of ATL went as scheduled. After some pre-flight negotiation, it was decided that Victoria would sit in the window seat on the trip to Orlando and Austin would ride in the window seat to St Thomas.
Between flights, the family ate some breakfast at an eatery in the Orlando airport that featured waffles for Keith and the kids while Christine ate eggs, tots, and bacon.
On the flight to St Thomas, everyone – with the exception of Austin) got in a little nap or two before landing in St Thomas. The inbound portion of airport there is so tiny and there are no conventional gates. When the plane arrives, they had the passengers disembark via stairs at the front and rear of the plane and proceed to walk into an un-air conditioned welcome area that featured a place to buy rum and cigars, 2 small tiki-style bars with room for no more than 8-10 people each and a janky bathroom. They clearly don’t want people loitering there after arrival.
The cab situation outside the airport was a bit … chaotic? Shady? We hailed a driver from KT taxi and asked if he could take us to the ferry and said he could. He said he would try to get us there by the next ferry, so was going to take a shortcut over the mountain instead of around it. After approximately 5 minutes, Keith noticed that there was no meter, so figured there must be a flat fee.
“What is the fee for a trip to the ferry?” Keith asked. It was $25 dollars per person, $100 dollars for a 20-minute drive. We were being ripped off.
So here we are on a strange island, going up a mountain in an area with only locals, and we feel stuck. We could ask to be let out, but then what? We didn’t know where we were, we have only spotty roaming cellular coverage, and there are no Ubers on the island. We felt trapped and crossed our fingers for the best. Ultimately, he delivered us safely to the ferry, but still after the ferry had departed. It seemed that he had genuinely tried to get there as fast as he could, but it should have only cost us a third of what it did.
Keith probably could have refused to pay, wait for the police, and plead his case. Did he want to do that on vacation with the kids around? No. Is it in his nature? Usually not. Does this guy probably prey on the same sensibilities of other tourists? Almost certainly. Lesson learned: when in an unfamiliar area, be certain to ask taxi drivers how they charge and how much it will cost before agreeing to travel with them.
But, ultimately, we did arrive in time for the Red Hook to Cruz Bay ferry as we had planned. It ran on schedule and delivered us to St John a little before 2:30 pm. 10 minutes later we had walked to St John’s Rental Car to pick up our vehicle. 15 minutes after that we had walked an additional 250 feet and obtained snorkel gear for the week at Low Key and received our house key from our greeter, Nakira, who had graciously stayed in touch with Keith by text message over the course of the preceding 5 days (initially reaching out to introduce herself on Wednesday).
Next stop: the grocery store to pick up some staples, but not before Keith navigating through a traffic circle on the opposite side of the road less than one mile into his first time driving on the opposite/left hand side of the road. It was laughable, but ultimately fine.
Starfish Market was small and selections were limited, but fundamentally had everything we needed. It reminded Keith of the grocery store he once frequented in Glen Rock, Kilroy’s.
With groceries in hand, it was time to drive to the house for the first time. It was crazy. Their were 2 hills with peaks that were only the length of the car and like a roller coaster, we were cresting a hill only to go almost straight down again, with no ability to see the road under the car. Driving up some hills, Keith felt like the gradient was so steep, the vehicle risked flipping over backwards. It couldn’t and wouldn’t, but these were roads like he’d never driven on before.
And the switchbacks. Those too were crazy. So many switchbacks that were 2 lanes wide, but the inside lane needed both lanes to make the turn. One switchback required a 2 point turn for any vehicle larger than a Jeep/RAV4, and Keith still had to give it 2 tries the first time through.
Upon arriving to the house, Keith drove down the narrow drive, to find a small turn around that proved to be too small for the rental. Keith tried every way he could. Christine and Austin got out and tried to coach him, but it simply couldn’t be done without what would probably needed to have been a 8-10 point turn. It wasn’t worth it. For the remainder of the trip Keith would slowly – very slowly – back into the 500-foot private drive, with only 12 inches to either side, a cliff-side wall to his right, and a severe drop off to his left.
So, despite Christine being an authorized driver of the rental, Keith would remain stone sober all week (probably a good thing, saving over $100 in booze) and would only ever sit in the driver’s seat throughout the duration of the vacation.
The house? It was amazing and exactly as advertised. It featured 2 master bedrooms, a half bath with outdoor shower, kitchen, living room, dining area, 2 large nooks with a couch or daybed inside. Outside, there was a 3-sided wrap around porch with grill, lounge chairs, deck table with umbrella and chairs, and a pool. Each bedroom had it’s own patio with a table and 2 chairs. The bedrooms had air conditioning, but the rest of the home was open air and open layout without walls.
Our greeter visited us at 5:30 and gave us a little extra info about the house before we went to dinner at Shambles, an outdoor bar and kitchen. The food was decent, not great, but it hit the spot after a long couple of days. And by going there, we avoided the town of Cruz Bay, where they were having a week long festival that necessarily adjoins to the July 4th holiday.
So yeah, with the festival, the town was going to be packed every day. And it was. But we’d ultimately find our way.
With the entire family exhausted and plans at 8:30 the following morning, Everyone went to bed by 10:00 pm and slept soundly through through the night until their alarms sounded at 7:00 the next morning.
Tuesday, 7/1
After a quick breakfast in the house, we traveled into Cruz Bay to enjoy a guided kayak and snorkel expedition from Cruz Bay to Honeymoon Beach to swim with turtles. We got out to the water a little later than expected, though. First, we struggled to find the office; they had relocated only a few days earlier and their signs weren’t up yet. And they had relocated because they were under new management, who hadn’t yet given the keys to the office to the guide, who couldn’t get our gear. But, being on vacation, we took it all in stride and within 45 minutes, all was right with the world. Besides, Keith and Christine and forgotten to pay for parking, so Keith now had time to run back to the Lumberyard lot and pay for parking. Twice.
Why would he pay twice? Because he didn’t have his glasses on. So, when he was filling out the online form and it asked for his number, he entered his phone number. Had he been wearing his glasses, he would have read “Plate number”, not “Phone number.” Alas, after paying for a day’s worth of parking once, he had to do it again for fear of getting towed. Lesson learned: don’t try to squint your way to good vision with online forms. But back to the kayaking…
The winds were much stronger than we expected. We each had a 2 person kayak and we were paddling against a 2-knot wind as we moved out of Cruz Bay and travelled East to Honeymoon Beach. Victoria paddled with Keith and Austin and Christine would share the other kayak. It was a long paddle and a lot effort was required in temps that already exceeded 83 degrees and under a sun that was already very hot by 10:00.
Honeymoon Beach was beautiful. The water was a crystal-clear aquamarine and the beach had the softest sand. This is what paradise looks and feels like.
The guide, Andrew, was great. He knew a lot about the wildlife and would swim down 15 feet to find creatures up from the bottom including shrimp and starfish. We saw a ray! Well, everyone but Keith saw it. We explored coral on each end of the beach. The sights were amazing! Unfortunately, despite hoping to see sea turtles, there weren’t any to be seen this day. Andrew said that it was the first time in over one year working as a guide that he hadn’t seen a turtle. A couple locals were equally surprised later in the day when we told them the same. But the experience was really, really cool. We had paddled in the ocean to an isolated beach on a Caribbean island and seen rays and aquatic life that we had never seen before.
Fortunately, the paddle back to the bay had the winds at our back throughout and it was an easy trip, although Christine and Austin found their kayak a little difficult to maneuver after taking on some water.
By the time we were finished kayaking and had returned to the shop, it was 1:30 in the afternoon and everyone was hungry. We elected to eat at a small eatery immediately next door to the expedition company, in part because the woman there had been so kind to us earlier in the morning, helping connect us with the expedition office. It turns out that, coincidentally, Sun Dog Cafe is the top choice restaurant in the entire town on TripAdvisor.com, and every one loved their first taste of authentic St John food with grilled or blackened mahi mahi and Caribbean jerk chicken tacos/sandwiches. We ate our lunches in the shopping center courtyard with chickens at our feet, and we saw our first iguana on the way to/from the bathroom too.
After returning to the house, the family enjoyed hanging in our alongside the pool for the duration of the afternoon.
For dinner, we drove into town and ate at Woody’s, a hole in the wall bar/kitchen. Fortunately, Keith had already paid for full day parking (twice), so we parked in the lot (again) and made our way up one side of the hill down the other to sit roadside outside at Woody’s. Keith had a grilled mahi mahi BLT, Austin had a blackened mahi mahi sandwich, Victoria ate grilled shrimp, and Christine chose carb cake sliders with Caesar salad. Keith and Austin both thought the mahi mahi was a bit too “fishy”, but Victoria and Christine both really enjoyed their dishes. The kids enjoyed watching a local cat commiserate with the patrons too.
After dinner, everyone returned to the house to rest and do their own thing. The house doesn’t get cooler than 80 degrees, so we decided to take showers before bed and directly retire for the night after, that way we didn’t get sticky/sweaty before bed. The kids were not a fan of the water pressure in their bathroom, so they took showers in Keith and Christine’s space and went to bed, then Keith and Christine did the same.
Wednesday, 7/2
Keith didn’t need his alarm and woke at 6:30. He quietly exited the bedroom and sat on the large deck to take in the view and write this journal you are reading right now. He also walked around the property and captured some images of the grounds around the house after a morning rain shower.
After taking some pictures, returned to the deck to watch as small rain showers in the distance moved from East to West, one after another. Victoria joined him an hour later; she hadn’t needed an alarm, either.
Soon after she awoke, a little rainbow developed in the clouds above one of the rain showers (between 11 and 12 o’clock, looking out in front of us) …
… and then it worked it’s way down, expanding to the ocean at 9 o’clock …
… Then it started arching toward 2 o’clock too! It was so cool!
Victoria and Keith decided to wake up Christine. Christine loved it and decided to wake up Austin. Austin begrudgingly liked it, but also would have appreciated another 20 minutes sleep too.
For the next 40 minutes we watched as one rainbow would appear and disappear with a passing shower, only to watch another develop shortly thereafter when another rain shower would pass through. It was a once in a lifetime experience.
By 9:00, the family had eaten breakfast and was out the door to Cinnamon Bay for snorkeling. We followed the GPS directions from South to North on Highway 206, and … well … we didn’t ever want to go that route ever again. Don’t let the term “highway” fool you as it did us. “Highway” 206 is sometimes single lane wide and never more than 1.5 lane wide, filled with drainage ditches, speed bumps, and switchbacks (the sharpest of which had the road falling apart and eroding into a steep drop-off). It was, as Christine would like to say this week: harrowing. Keith hated it. We were very fortunate that we were traveling at such an early hour and going with the flow of limited traffic; to meet oncoming traffic on this road would have been treacherous. It was a road that Keith would avoid another 5 times while traveling the island for the remainder of the week.
Much like Honeymoon Beach the day before, Cinnamon Beach was beautiful. There were more people, because it is accessible by car, but parking is limited, and it isn’t as popular as Trunk Beach (only a few miles to the West), so no one is within 100 feet of another party unless they want to be. It is truly amazing.
2 different locals had told us that the snorkeling was good at Cinnamon Bay, but you had to know where to go, and we did. To find the best snorkeling, we were supposed to walk to the far eastern end of the beach and then swim away and further east until we found a notch in the shore and corral. It was really, really neat and there were fish a plenty. Keith discovered a lobster. Austin found a group of 5-6 tarpon fish probably 3 feet long each. Later, a large school of fish swam through Victoria and Keith as they were returning to the beach. It was such a great experience.
It wasn’t perfect, though. We weren’t sure where the best spot was, so we never really stayed in one spot long enough to take it in fully. Each of us struggled to keep our masks from fogging, Victoria’s mask rarely achieved a good seal, and she struggled to keep her flippers on.
We returned to the shore and rested in a shaded area, swam for a while, and again sat and rested on a large blanket that Christine had packed. We enjoyed the sights and sounds of the beautiful beach for a short while, but the kids were growing increasingly hungry, so we returned to the house for lunch. Lesson learned: pack lunches next time (and we would!).
As we had done the day before, and planned to do for the remainder of our time at the house, we spent the afternoon poolside at the house before going out to an early dinner in Cruz Bay.
While parking is very limited on the island, the rental agency allows renters to use their empty slots after closing, but they are in limited supply, so we decided to get in 5 minutes after close to assure ourselves a parking spot in town. We proceeded to Low Key to swap fins for Victoria then walked a couple blocks to Cruz Bay Landing for dinner. Christine had the snapper special, Victoria chose dish and chips, Austin had blackened mahi mahi tacos, and Keith had Caribbean jerk chicken. Everyone enjoyed their meals!
After dinner, Christine briefly walked through the vendors adjacent to the restaurant before returning to the car. We would then stop at the grocery store for what we expected would be our last time.
With an early day planned for next morning, both kids showered and retired to their room by 9:00. Keith made lunches for the next day while Christine did a load of laundry. Then it was their turn to shower and get to bed.
Thursday, 7/3
Everyone’s alarms sounded at 5:15 in the morning. Today’s destination was Maho Bay with hopes of (maybe, if we were lucky) to finding a sea turtle. Victoria was very disappointed to have not seen a sea turtle on Tuesday, and everything we read and every person we talked to said to go to Maho Bay. We had done some research and determined that the sooner we could get into the water the better, because the turtles feed most in the early morning and aren’t around as much went boat traffic picks up in the mid morning. So we figured out best chance to see a turtle was to be in the water before 7:00.
Everyone dutifully ate their breakfast, got dressed, braided hair, and we were all in the car by 6:15. We arrived to the beach at 6:50 and entered the water at 7:15, after applying sun screen. Aside from a single local resident, we had the beach and water to ourselves, so we spread out with fingers crossed – hopefully – to find a turtle.
From the start, Victoria was feeling more comfortable with her new flippers combined some athletic socks that she borrowed from Christine. Additionally, the anti-fog treatment we had purchased the day before and applied before entering the water was #money. This was already a better experience than the day before.
Amazingly, Keith found a green turtle 2-3 minutes into his swim. It was grazing at the bottom of the ocean in the grass (which is abundant in this bay, thus attracting the turtles). He shouted for Victoria to come see it, and Keith breathed a sigh of relief. Victoria quickly swam over and quietly took it in as her eyes began to well and tear up in her mask. 8 feet below her, without any concern for our presence, was a sea turtle with a shell that was probably 2 feet long. It was a wonderful experience.
Then, within only a minute, we spotted a second turtle! We would stay with these turtles for 10-15 minutes as the grazed and slowly swam their way to depart waters.
Victoria was so happy. She was downright giddy. She wouldn’t stop talking about the experience of swimming with sea turtles for the remainder of the vacation. Even Austin, who had begrudgingly woke so early in the morning was moved by the experience and was now happy to have woken so early in exchange for the experience.
And that was before we saw the next couple of turtles. The family parted into pairs to cover more ground and search for more turtles after the first two had moved past the buoys. Christine and Austin had no luck to the west and Victoria and Keith had no luck in the western central portion of the bay, so we started swimming east, again in pairs, until Austin and Christine came upon 2 turtles, one exceeding 3 feet in length with 2 remora fish with it. It was so ridiculously cool.
One fish was fixed to the bottom, the other to the top shell. When the turtle traveled to the surface, the top fish swam circumferentially clockwise to the bottom of the turtles shell and continued to move clockwise and return to the top of the shell when the turtle began to return to the sea floor. The entire family was enthralled.
Eventually those sea turtles too returned to deeper water and the family split up again. We would see a live conch, a large starfish, and other assorted fish species. As we proceeded east, Austin was ready to get out of the water, so he began his return to the beach while Christine, Victoria, and Keith swam their way further east, spaced 40-50 feet apart. Alas, there were no other turtles to be seen, so they swam directly to shore to walk back toward the car.
While they were walking along the beach, Victoria was remarking how happy she was to see 4 different sea turtles. She was telling Keith and Christine how glad she was that she woke up to see them before they went out to deeper water. She was saying how disappointed she’d have been if we had arrived later to find that the turtles were gone. It was around that time, they could hear Austin yelling.
“Guys! There are more over here!”
It was only then that they realized that Austin had never made it to shore, but instead happened upon more turtles and was waiting for the family to return. Austin had found 2 turtles alongside one another. We would later see a third. These turtles provided the family with an additional 15 minutes of awe.
By the time we exited the water, it was only 9:10, so we decided to go to Cinnamon Bay to take in the beach and swim for a short while.
By 11:30, the family was en route to Cruz Bay to stop at the store and enjoy some authentic gelato. Keith got the passion fruit, Christine and Austin got the coffee flavored, and Victoria for white chocolate. No one regretted their choices.
The afternoon was spent in the pool before driving into town for our last dinner out, this time at The Banana Deck. Again, we parked at the rental agency. Coincidentally, the restaurant was a mere 3 lots away. The food proved to be good too. After mozzarella sticks and shrimp for appetizers, the entrees included chicken fingers tossed in wing sauce for Victoria, spicy Thai chicken with peanut and ginger for Austin, blackened mahi mahi sandwich with bacon for Keith, and the grouper and shrimp curry special for Christine. for dessert, the kids had a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream while Keith and Christine shared a Xango: banana caramel cheesecake wrapped in a tortilla, deep fried, covered with cinnamon and sugar and served with ice cream. It was very, very sweet and nice to try once for the last meal on a vacation, but a sugar bomb.
The family returned to the house, showered, and retired to bed earlier than any other night after rising so early in the morning.
Friday, 7/4
This was our last full day and we were uncertain where to go. We knew we wanted to go snorkeling, but it was also the July 4th holiday and we expected the beaches to be busy and the parking lots to fill quickly. Christine really wanted to go to Trunk Bay Beach, but the parking lot fills especially quickly there and we didn’t want to force the kids to get up too early to get a spot. And even though we had been to Cinnamon Bay twice in the previous 2 days, we knew where to go to find shade through the early afternoon and the snorkeling was great if you knew where to go (and we did). Keith and Christine made a deal, if there was parking at Trunk Bay in an actual lot (not the road, where parking was sketchy), we’d go there, but we’d proceed directly to Cinnamon if not. As we drove through the parking lot at Trunk Bay Beach, our minds were made for us: on to Cinnamon Bay Beach.
There was ample parking still available in the lot at Cinnamon Beach, and we brought chairs, lunch, and snorkel gear to the shady spot we had discovered the days before.
We could only enjoy ourselves fully, however, until Christine had helped Austin rinse bird-poo out of his hair, after a bird had merciless emptied itself over Austin on the walk between the parking lot and the beach.
We hung out in the shade and swam in the water for a while, then we went the reef to the east of the beach for snorkeling.
This time, we knew where to go, Victoria’s gear was more predictable, and the entire family was mentally prepared to enjoy the water for 45-50 minutes. It was great. We swam amongst fry, surrounded on all sides. We saw schools upon schools of fish. We saw tarpon. We even saw another ray. It was the perfect end to a week of snorkeling. The only problem was that Keith’s “tough” camera wasn’t working, so there wouldn’t be any pictures from this last day, but of all the things that could go wrong, that was of little concern.
After an enjoyable lunch on the beach, we packed up the car and made our way west. First stop: Trunk Bay. Christine really wanted to see another beach and Keith had promised her earlier that he would drop her and the kids off and drive back and forth to Hawksnest Bay while they explored and took pictures.
On his third loop driving between beaches, they were back in the car, and Christine departed unimpressed. All three agreed that Cinnamon was the superior beach after all.
As we continued to travel back to Cruz Bay on North Shore road, we stopped at a couple of lookouts along the way, overlooking Trunk Bay and then Hawksnest Bay.
We then descended into town to learn that there was a little bit of a problem.
The town parade, which had begun at 11:00, was still in progress at 1:30 and would likely last “a couple more hours”. This wouldn’t have been a problem if not for the fact that North Shore Road is the ONLY road into town from the beaches, and it was now a no-go. Keith was left with 2 choices: (1) wait 3 hours at a beach (with no food/drink and no where to park so late in the day) or (2) take on the beast, and try to travel Highway 206 again. Keith took a deep breath and began to drive east on North Shore Road to “Highway” 206.
If the first time we travelled Highway 206 was harrowing, this trip was emotionally torturous, because we were not the only people trying to avoid Cruz Bay, and there was traffic flowing from each direction. Even worse still. the first switchback to contend with was the worst, with the outer section of road that had eroded to only a single track wide on the inner half of the turn. When we approached the switchback, there were 3 cars waiting in front of us and 5 behind. As Keith approached the turn, it was clear that is was untenable. There was a small Nissan Sentra that was stuck on the other side and had no means of getting out of the way and they had a series of 4-5 Jeeps lined up behind then, blowing their horns in anger/frustration.
There was an emergency pull-off, so Keith pulled in and got out of the vehicle to begin to direct traffic on a single lane switchback, on a hill of a small island in the Caribbean. He helped get the Sentra off the road and into the pull off, a full line of vehicles to carefully reverse down the hill and pull to the shoulder to make room for oncoming traffic, and for folks to exercise a little patience as someone began to organize the mess. After 4-5 minutes, all the cars had been cleared, the Sentra was on its way, and Keith was back in the RAV4 and heading south. Austin funnily called it “Dad’s Magnum Opus”. As he proceeded along the road, Keith would need to nervously position the vehicle off the road and on an embankment for oncoming traffic to pass on 2 occasions, but the as the drive progressed it became easier and less stressful. And finally, we were off Highway 206 and headed back toward Cruz Bay to go to the grocery store one last time.
Then we experienced what would elicit the largest laugh from all of us throughout the trip: a wandering herd of cows. There were more than a dozen. They were on the road, walking in the same direction as we were traveling, and taking up both lanes. There was no human directing or herding them. It was just a bunch of cows out for a stroll, necessitating that Keith slalom down the road to move through them before continuing into town. Never had he ever, and never will he again, slalom through cows on a road. After the tension of Highway 206, the laughter was welcomed.
We would return to the house by 3:00 and settled in for a restful afternoon/evening before departing the next morning. We enjoyed the pool before and after dinner, which – for the one and only time during the entire vacation – was prepared/cooked at the house. We kept it simple: hot dogs, fruit, and crispy crown potatoes. It was easy to cook without overheating the already hot living space and required minimal prep before or cleaning after.
Saturday, 7/5
The plan when we had gone to bed the night before was a quite simple: finish packing up, exit by 10:00 when the housekeeper was scheduled to arrive, drop off the RAV4 after (it needed to be delivered by 11:00 with a full tank of gas), then walk around a bit until going to the Sun Dog Cafe for a last fish taco at 11:30 before taking the 1:00 Ferry to get to the airport in time for the 4:00 flight. The airport is smaller than Syracuse, so we figured that the TSA process would be painless. That is, of course, until Keith neurotically did a quick AI search for recommendations for St Thomas airport that recommended arriving more than 3 hours early for departing flights, especially on Saturdays, when a large percentage of vacationers are trying to leave the islands all at once and a line out the door of the airport can sometimes mean a wait of 4 hours. Considering it was also July 4th weekend, Keith began to feel a little anxious about the family’s initial plans and everyone agreed to catching the ferry at 12:00.
Keith was also worried about the cab situation. He was not at all confident that we would be able to get one easily, especially considering that we had to stow our luggage, so wouldn’t be able to win any race to the cabs when the ferry let out. Despite expecting another Hunger Games-like experience, though, he was pleasantly surprised: there was a taxi queen. The taxi queen was amazing. “Taxi Queen” is unlikely her formal title, but all drivers checked in with her first and she maintained a list of the cabs available, their max occupancy, and where they were going. As passengers exited the ferry, she asked the passengers where they were travelling and she assigned them to a driver. The drivers work all day and trust her to distribute the work/fares evenly throughout the course of the day. If they are less than capacity for one drive, she tries to make it up to them next. It made obtaining a taxi simple and easy for us and we were at the airport by 1230.
And the price of the taxi? $21 per person; the initial taxi driver hadn’t ripped us off after all. We were just ignorant of how things worked on the island.
The line at the airport was out the door. Thank goodness we left when we did. Or not. We don’t know and never will, because we were through TSA in less than 75 minutes and left to wait for nearly 3 hours before boarding our plane that would eventually run 20 minutes late. Still, it didn’t matter. Yes, the airport was warm and we missed our last fish taco at Sun Dog Cafe, but we were never stressed about missing our flight, and that was worth more than a fish taco.
The flight to JFK proved to be smooth.
Keith and Victoria shared a Chicken McNugget meal at the JFK airport; Christine and Austin ordered from a Shake Shack. Less than 30 minutes after finishing our meals, we were boarding our very brief flight to Syracuse, finding our car in the lot, driving home, showering, and getting into bed shortly after 2:00 am.
The vacation was complete and it had been a great one. We had struggled to find flights at the last minute, missed a day at the Villa, failed to see turtles when we thought we would, and travelled on some very sketchy roads along the way. Meanwhile, we had seen seen iguanas, anoles, and pelicans, snorkeled with so many fish, rays, and (eventually) turtles too, eaten amazing foods, experienced amazingly beautiful views, and created memories that will last a lifetime. And we did it all, every minute and detail, together.
