3 Islands, 1 Day: A St. John Adventure

So I have this friend who is definitively spontaneous. She is one of the most incredible human beings I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. We went to breakfast the other day near the seaplane dock in town, and she looks at me and says, "Hey, you wanna go to St. John for the day?" I laughed quickly and then looked at her and realized she was 100% serious. So we walked over there after breakfast, and we realized that we were sorta too late to do it that day since King had to work later in the afternoon...and decided we do it a couple days later instead. 

One thing I love about her is that she just has this zest for life and completely embodies the spirit of "tomorrow is not promised" and "carpe diem". She definitely encourages me to do one thing that scares me every day. Have you heard of that phrase? Well, I really thought I wasn't afraid of much, but this adventure was definitely within that realm. I mean, it's not like we went skydiving or anything, but since becoming a mother, I've been a lot less likely to take any sort of risks. So yes, I definitely did something a bit scary and went island hopping for the day!

The photo below is not a picture of a toy. It is an actual airplane. That I rode. When we walked out onto the tarmac I was looking at it going, "this is not for real. Is that thing remote controlled? I mean, can you fit actual humans in that thing?" Spunky is a bit of a nervous flier, though, so I pushed all that fear aside and decided it was totally 100% safe. Not only that, it can fit up to 10 actual humans! 

The mandatory pre-take-off airplane selfie. 

Two other people joined us on our flight to St. Thomas (there is no airport on St. John), one of them being Donastorg, who is a gubernatorial candidate for the upcoming election here in the US Virgin Islands. He had brought a super adorable puppy with him, but he wasn't allowed to bring him aboard due to the fact that he was not in a proper carrier. Fortunately, Mr. Donastorg has plenty of associates who were able to make sure that the puppy was in good hands while he traveled.  

 Flying in a turbo prop is a bit different than flying on a commercial jet! It may have been a bit scary, but the views are unmatched! This is the view as we were coming into St. Thomas.

Our pilot from Cape Air was such a sweetheart! He did a great job making sure that we were comfortable and safe, and he didn't bat an eye when we asked for a photo op at the end of our journey! He thought he was going to be flying us back to St. Croix later that day, but unfortunately he was done for the day when we went back.

Being the perfect Gubernatorial Candidate, Mr. Donastorg offered to pose for a photo with us as well. AND when he realized that we were looking to get a gypsy cab into Red Hook to catch the ferry, he offered to give us a ride out to the main road. A classic taxi would have cost us a considerable amount of money, as opposed to the $2 gypsy cab ride. His driver's music choice was a bit...odd (gangster rap?)...but they were both very kind and hospitable and helped get our adventure off to a great start! 

We had to walk a bit to catch a cab, but that just added to the adventure! I really like the idea of the gypsy cabs. They are open air cabs that have plenty of seating for lots of people. They run one main route around the island, and they are really affordable. It's a simple $2 charge per ride! We went all the way from Charlotte Amalie to Red Hook, which would have cost us $30 for a classic cab.  

The ride across St. Thomas definitely affected me in an unexpected way. I was very overwhelmed with how busy it is there. When I say busy, I mean crowded. And when I say crowded, I am not just talking about people. There was only one cruise ship docked that day, but o.m.g. There were just countless amounts of buildings and vehicles and shopping centers and people and noises and restaurants and...just A LOT. I didn't even realize that I had become very anxious until Spunky asked me if I was okay because I had gotten incredibly quiet. I assured her that I was just fine, but I didn't even realize that I was most definitely NOT fine until later. In moving to St. Croix, I have learned to live on island time. Life is slower, it's more relaxed. It's quieter and not nearly as busy as anywhere else on Earth. So that gypsy cab ride across a very bustling island was not my favorite part of our little adventure!

Once we arrived at Red Hook, we were starving. Rather than hurry to catch the next ferry to St. John, we decided to relax (MUCH NEEDED) for a moment, catch our breath, and have breakfast at Molly Malone's. This place was just what we needed. The service was fast, the food was reasonably priced and yummy, and how can you beat BOTTOMLESS bevies for $12?!?! The only thing I could really pout about was that I had 3 Bloody Mary's and a mimosa and didn't feel the least bit tipsy. So let's remember they're bottomless for a reason ;) The drinks were still tasty, though! 

Here we are on the ferry from Red Hook to St. John. The best part about this ferry ride was that it was open air (errr..water?) and so we got SOAKED once the boat picked up to full speed out in the open water.

 Above is where the ferry drops off at St. John in Cruz Bay. It's an amazing view, and it definitely sets the bar pretty high as far as beautiful scenery. Right off the boat, there were open air cabs waiting to take everyone to their beach of choice ---well, unless you want to go to the other side of the island in Coral Bay (which we found out later). We decided to hang out in Cruz Bay for a bit and to poke around at Mongoose Junction to see what all the shops had to offer. I really loved the "tree house" feel of this eclectic little shopping area. There were plenty of shops to explore ranging from budget bargains all the way up to luxury splurges. So it is a great little spot for everyone!

We grabbed a quick bevy (classic rum punch) at Ocean Grill, and I must say that it wasn't my favorite drink on island (small size and had a major bite). They did have a nice selection of different specialty drinks, including rum-tinis, which might have been fun if we had more time to spend there. The atmosphere there was cute, but there wasn't much of a view, being that it is right in the center of the shopping area.

 After our mini shopping excursion, we decided to hop into one of the cabs and check out Cinnamon Bay, where we were thinking we might stay for a girls' trip later this summer. The cab ride is $7/pp if you have more than one person, $6/pp if you are going to Trunk Bay. We had a very charismatic cabby, and I really do think it made a big difference! We couldn't really understand much of what he was saying over the speaker, but he had a wealth of knowledge about the island and gave us a mini-tour while we were en route to Cinnamon Bay. This little ride was one of the best parts about the adventure! The views are incredible, and it's fun to share a ride with random people! It definitely had the feeling of being on a safari ride at an amusement park, but it was MUCH more beautiful than any amusement park I've ever been to!

Cabby view from above Trunk Bay

Cabby view of the beach at Trunk Bay

After a quick recon mission at Cinnamon Bay, we decided that it might not be for us. It's part of the National Park, and Cinnamon Bay is one of the longest stretches of beach on St. John. However, the cabins we were thinking about renting were in quite a state of disrepair (think rat-chewed mattresses and ripped bug screens), and the restaurant was buffet style, open air in the middle of the woods..nowhere near the beach. We are quite spoiled here in St. Croix in that nearly (if not) all of the resort restaurants are located just steps from the beach with sweeping views of the Caribbean Sea.

We then decided to ask our cabby if he might take us down to Concordia in Saltpond Bay, and we were rather disappointed when he told us that it wouldn't be in the cards. "I don't know if I can do that today," he said. It is quite far from where we were, and I suppose he had the potential to make more money by shuffling tourists to and from the ferry dock instead. This goes back to what I mentioned earlier about cabbies offering to take you to your beach of choice (with an asterisk). Coral Bay is on the opposite side of the island, and I am told that it is more eclectic and rural than the Cruz Bay area. 

Since we were rather disappointed at Cinnamon Bay, we decided to head back to Cruz Bay and check out a cute little bar that we saw on the way in: 

The Beach Bar.

The Beach Bar is where we spent the majority of our time, and I'm not even the least bit mad about it. The atmosphere was very relaxed and also very hip at the same time. We noshed on some crab wontons (reminiscent of crab rangoon) and fish tacos while sipping on a frozen bevy (BBC for me, and Lime in da Coconut for Spunky) and enjoying some amazing people watching! The food was really good, and the drinks were great as well. The staff was super friendly, and they didn't hesitate in offering us some insider tips for our upcoming girls' trip. They have a cute little surf shop that is attached to the restaurant with super friendly staff there as well.

 The people watching was definitely my favorite thing about The Beach Bar, though, next to the amazing view of the harbor. There was a fun group of tourists from Texas that had just arrived and were kind enough to take our photo! One of the girls was really adorable and jumped into the water and exclaimed, "What have we been doing with our lives?!" And then she took her swimsuit top off and invited us to join her for a swim. 

Please note: it is not a great idea to swim in an area where lots of boats are anchored. The water is not very clean! We decided not to join her, but we did enjoy watching their group have a great time!

 We decided we should probably venture out and see another place before we had to ferry back to St. Thomas to catch our evening flight, and so we asked one of the guys at the surf shop attached to The Beach Bar where we definitely should not miss going. At his recommendation, we went to Woody's for Happy Hour!

 This place was definitely a must see if you are looking for a great party spot. This year's Virgin Islands Daily News winner of Most Entertaining Bar did not disappoint! The bartenders were gorgeous (girls), the drinks were cheap ($1 beers for happy hour!), and the music (country) was loud! Our pick for favorite drink was the "Stiff Willy," which is a rum concoction of sorts. Yum. And since the theme of the day had been eating (well, and boozing), we couldn't leave without trying a couple appetizers. I had the grilled scallops (AMAZING) and Spunky ordered the poppers: also great, but beware the "molten" cheese, as described by our bartender, Becca. 

By the end of the day, we were both sufficiently exhausted and ready to make our way back to St. Croix. We had so many laughs, so much food, and more drinks than we could count on our fingers. 

I think the funniest (and scariest) part of our trip, though, was our cab ride back to the airport in St. Thomas. We took a traditional cab this time so we could get there more quickly (we took a later ferry from STJ because we were having so much fun at Woody's), and it was not uneventful! Our cabby was quiet, and we were super loud. Well, we're both a bit loud by nature, but our cabby kept turning up the radio. I'm not even sure if Spunky noticed it, but I got a good chuckle out of that. So, we got to a stoplight about maybe 10 minutes or less from the airport when I saw smoke coming from what could be the hood of our cab. I asked, "Umm, that smoke isn't coming from OUR car, right?!" He assured me that it was coming from the big truck that we were next to while at the stoplight. Well, a couple of lights later he laughed and said, "ooohhh, that is my car!" OMG. I about lost it, and Spunky was laughing. I was just wringing my hands and shaking my leg...PLEASE let us make it to the airport alive...and ON TIME!!! I can't tell you what the hell was wrong with dude's cab, but I can tell you that we made it to the airport safely and with plenty of time to catch our flight back home. 

We had such a fabulous time together, and I can't wait for our next adventure!