I used to be born in a blizzard in Newport, RI on Valentines Day, 1962 so it comes as no shock to anybody that I’ve spent nearly all of my birthdays bundled up in winter coats, gloves, scarves and snow boots. So this 12 months, as my 63rd Vday Bday was quick approaching, I made a decision to change issues up and spend my big day sunbathing in america Virgin Islands.
For our 7 days/6 nights island getaway, James and I departed Bradley Worldwide Airport on Sunday February ninth and returned on Saturday February fifteenth. By the way in which, it snowed in Connecticut each methods (smile).
St. Thomas was our island dream vacation spot, however we had beforehand mentioned that whereas on this island we might journey by ferry on day journeys all through the week to each St. Johns, USVI and Jost Van Dyke, BVI. My mother-in-law Irene, who was born in St. Thomas however grew up in Jost Van Dyke, reminded us to deliver our passports. I’m so glad she did as we might not have gotten on that island with out them. Jost Van Dyke is a part of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) so that you want your passport to get by means of Customs and Immigration.
We rented a automotive for this trip which we picked up on the airport (it is sensible to hire a automotive on St. Thomas as a result of there aren’t any Ubers or Lyfts and taxis can get fairly expensive fairly fast) and James drove us on the flawed facet of the highway (smile) to our resort, the Island View Guesthouse. We usually keep in resorts after we journey to tropical islands and if obligatory, we journey by Uber or Lyft so it felt totally different staying in an precise resort. What bought me on this specific resort was the free each day breakfasts, plus the resort’s proximity to downtown Charlotte Amalie which featured a waterfront, native outlets and eating places and close by seashores.
Since I used a third celebration app (Expedia) to e-book our journey, I selected the bundle package deal which consisted of airfare (United Airways), a resort (the Island View Guesthouse) and a automotive (Price range Automobile Rental). I might not advocate utilizing a third celebration app to e-book your journey anyplace as a result of I came upon from Libby, the pleasant and accessible proprietor of the Island View Guesthouse, that the third celebration app of us take 20 to 30 p.c off the highest of your bundle packages which in my case meant we have been put into the tiniest room with no facilities on the resort and we have been rented a automotive with no GPS. James shortly took care of the resort room challenge the very subsequent morning when he had a chat with Eileen, the Island View Guesthouse Supervisor. Eileen was a dream – she not solely upgraded on the next 3 nights to the biggest suite within the resort, however she additionally managed to improve us into 2 extra spacious resort rooms during the last 2 nights of our trip. Libby, the resort proprietor arrived together with her Government Chef Husband Marshall on the Wednesday of our week lengthy trip and ensured that the rest of my Vday Bday week went off and not using a hitch. She and I hit it off instantly and even shared the same sober aware story that start on the top of the Pandemic. I can’t start to thank each Eileen the Supervisor and Libby the Proprietor for attending to all of our wants and would extremely advocate anybody to e-book their resort keep on the boutique model Island View Guesthouse whereas in St. Thomas.
Sunday — Day 1 – Journey Day
All issues thought-about, the journey to St. Thomas from Bradley Worldwide Airport in Windsor Locks, CT was not too shabby. There have been no delays and the time spent within the air was for probably the most half uneventful. We flew from Connecticut to Washington, D.C. in report time and the identical might be mentioned for our flight from Washington D.C. to St. Thomas, VI.
Monday – Day 2 (Coki Seaside at Coral World on St. Thomas)
Coki Seaside is a small however very quaint public seaside on St. Thomas (one of many 11 seashores on the island!). The sand is silky clean and the water, crystal clear. We rented a big seaside umbrella and a couple of seaside chair loungers for simply $40 {dollars}. Thank goodness we did as a result of it rained on and off all day with blustery winds. The massive umbrella saved us from working again to our automotive for canopy.
Tuesday – Day 3 (Trunk Bay on St. Johns)
The primary of two day journeys that week was to St. Johns. And the whole lot I heard about it was true. It’s actually paradise, the climate was image excellent and it was not too crowded. We drove to the Pink Hook marina to catch our island ferry – the spherical journey fare was solely 16 {dollars} and all the ferry journey took all of 20 minutes. We then caught a trolley/cab to Trunk Bay (one of many 10 seashores on the island!) and spent all the afternoon there. Trunk Bay Seaside is attractive with silky clean sand and crystal clear child blue water. It was 80 levels and the solar didn’t appear that robust so we laid out on our seaside blankets and soaked it up.
Wednesday – Day 4 – Downtown St. Thomas – Charlotte Amalie (Strolling on the Waterfront, Purchasing for gear and Lunch at Gladys Restaurant)
Wednesday was primarily a wet day (approach an excessive amount of rain to dry up on the seaside) so we turned it right into a buying day – there are a ton of retailers downtown in Charlotte Amalie (principally native retailers) promoting a number of wares. By the way in which, in case you are in search of any sort of jewellery, downtown Charlotte Amalie is the place to purchase gold, silver and diamonds multi functional space and better of all it’s tax free!
Thursday – Day 5 (Magens Bay Seaside on St. Thomas)
We spent our 2nd to final day at Magens Bay Seaside which had come nicely really helpful by the journey advisory. It actually is a stupendous should see and do seaside. Magens Bay was tremendous crowded the day we arrived with rows and rows of seaside chairs and umbrellas lined up in formation. There was additionally a solar and surf rental store and an indoor/outside bar and grille. Tons happening. We have been within the temper for peace and quiet that day so we headed additional down the mile lengthy seaside the place there have been no seaside chairs, and only a few folks. One other nicely thought out concept…
That night time we went out for a late dinner in downtown Charlotte Amalie to a restaurant that was really helpful by one of many locals on the town. It’s known as the Sugarcane Grille at Bunker Hill. It was approach up a hill on a slender winding highway with no parking. We lucked out although as a result of we managed to squeeze our rental automotive into a good house. The restaurant was so cute. We needed to stroll a bunch of stairs to get there however on the prime was the eating room with a view of a well-lit swimming pool. The meals was superior. Our loquacious waiter even talked me right into a delish mocktail made with Ginger, yummy!
Friday – Day 6 – My Vday Bday – Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands
We popped off the bed at 530am that morning to catch the 730am ferry leaving from Pink Dock marina to Jost Van Dyke, BVI. There are solely 3 ferry rides per week to Jost Van Dyke so when you miss one, it’s important to wait a number of days for the subsequent one. It’s far more concerned then going to St. Johns. To start with you want your passport. Second it’ll value you $120 spherical journey per Grownup to journey the ferry plus 10 {dollars} to enter the island and 20 {dollars} to exit it. Third, you’ve got 8 hours on the island to spend as you want and consider me, the time flies by. We spent half the day on White Bay seaside which we needed to catch a cab from the harbor to. White Bay was breathtakingly lovely. I felt like I used to be in a Hollywood film as a result of it painted the image of a real tropical seaside scene. There was a lot abruptly to soak up. And it wasn’t even crowded!
The second half of our day was spent at Nice Harbor – we have been on a mission to seize lunch at Pinky’s restaurant and we couldn’t depart with out visiting the likes of Cunning’s Restaurant Bar and Grille!
Day 7 – Saturday – Journey Again Residence
We purposely took our candy time on Saturday morning as a result of our flight was not leaving till 3pm and we’d not arrive into Connecticut till 12midnight. We realized we had an extended day of journey forward of us which included 3 airplane journeys this time round – St. Thomas, Virgin Islands to San Juan Puerto Rico; San Juan Puerto Rico to Washington, D.C.; and at last Washington, D.C. to Windsor Locks, CT. We spent the latter a part of the morning buying in downtown Charlotte Amalie at certainly one of our fav surf outlets, Ocean Surfari, which,fortunate for us, was having an enormous storewide sale. Then we picked up our lunch at an area grocer. We arrived on the airport at 115pm and dropped off our rental automotive so we might chill out and eat and absorb a bit of solar earlier than we headed to Cape Air Airways to examine in. That is the place the disconnect occurred. Neither certainly one of us realized that as a result of we have been flying from St. Thomas, VI to San Juan, PR it will be essential to undergo Customs and Immigration so consequently, after we checked in at Cape Air Airways, we have been instructed to get according to the remainder of the vacationers. The mentioned line was tremendous lengthy and wrapped round and round and across the airport about 3 occasions! I checked out my Fitbit and it mentioned 215pm which meant we had all of 45 minutes to catch our 3pm flight. There was no approach in Hell we have been going to make that flight. About 10 minutes in panic began to set in and James mentioned ‘why don’t you name Cape Air and see if there’s something they’ll do to get us to the entrance of the road.?’ I checked out my Fitbit once more – it was 230pm now and I noticed 3 missed calls from Cape Air. I instantly known as them again and defined that we have been caught in line and was there something they might do for us. They mentioned they might ship somebody to get us however we couldn’t discover that individual and ended up making an attempt to transferring by means of the strains ourselves as time was ticking by. I mentioned a fast prayer to God and the remainder of the time was a blur as we have been pushed and pulled and stopped and began earlier than we discovered ourselves on the level the place you’re taking your sneakers off and cargo your stuff into grey bins. One of many airport staff stopped us and instructed us that we have been losing our time, it was 250pm and our airplane was now making ready to depart with out us. We felt dejected however went by means of the motions of in search of and discovering our authentic departure gate. Once we arrived to that gate an worker mysteriously appeared out of nowhere and instructed us that this by no means occurs however that they had a backup airplane outdoors and a Pilot to get us to San Juan nicely in time of our Washington, D.C. connection! It was a Cessna 402 and me and James have been the one 2 passengers on board. The pilot flew simply 6500 ft up within the air to San Juan Puerto Rico in 35 minutes! Not solely did we make our subsequent connection to Washington, D.C., however we have been solely a half hour behind what would have been our authentic time of arrival to the San Juan airport! I thanked God for answering my prayers so shortly and I thanked the pilot of Cape Air Airways for flying us and touchdown us safely.
Cheers to our subsequent journey!
