Monday April 30, 2007

My wife and I took a much needed trip to St. Thomas and St. John from April 21-28.  We both needed some time away from work.  I had been slaving in the office for months doing Wedding Albums and a few Weddings here and there and my wife had been doing therapy for many clients.  We both had a bit of burn out going on.

The whole reason for the trip was that my friend Chris was marrying Melanie on Magen’s Beach in St. Thomas on Monday.  My wife and I arrived on Saturday at the Bolongo Beach Resort  and immediately went to happy hour.  We started our trip out right with a few rum punches but not too many.  Others had too many and were carried to bed. 

St. Thomas is a nice island and has some great spots.  The transportation and the roads are a bit difficult.  There is a good mix of things to do on the island and beyond.  We stayed at the Bolongo Beach Resort which turned out to be a nice place to stay.  The rooms were OK, not luxury by any means, but clean and the people were very friendly.  The beds are REALLY bad, at least ours was.  We had a nice view of the ocean, all rooms have a view, and we also could see the pool.  There are a lot of activity possibilities right on the beach.  Two restaurants and a swim up bar will keep you full.  I think that I would give the Bolongo a 2-3 star rating.

We had some nice snorkeling right around the rocks in Bolongo Bay.  We saw turtles, lobster, snappers, grouper, rays, and thousands of various fish.  The visibililty was kind of poor because of the rain we got mostly at night.  It was still at least 40-50 feet of vis when you got away from the beach.

If you go to St. Thomas eat at Latitude 18.  This place is right on the harbor in Red Hook and is a small place that has a particularly friendly staff and wonderful food.  We had some of the best seared tuna that I have ever had, and I have had a lot!  The mahi was great and all of the appetizers were good.  We had a large group go and we all had great meals and a wonderful time.  They had open mic night and we watched many locals jamming out.  It was grand!

The Wedding was great on Magen’s Beach.  Unfortunately it was overcast and grim but I used my infrared camera and got some great shots.  The diffuse light was nice on the face but the water behind them was kind of bland.  Here are a few images…

We had a nice dinner after the Wedding back at the Resort with all of the 34 people who came down.  Great food and a really fun time.  I had a couple roomates there from college and Chris(groom) was a good friend in college too.  We always have a nice time together.

The three beaches that I recommend on St. Thomas are Coki Beach by Coral World, Magen’s Bay Beach, and  Saphire Beach.  Contrary to what all the literature says, the shopping in St. Thomas is not that great of a deal.  The prices are very similar to shops in the US.  Dinners are pretty pricey and cabs are a rip off.  You drive on the left there but the steering wheel is still on the left, a bit different at first.   My wife would keep reminding me to “think left,” and I later found a shirt that has a jeep and “think left” on it.

Wednesday we moved over to St. John.  This island was more of our speed.  We like hiking, swimming, snorkeling, and just having our own little space sometimes.  In St. John we could do all of this. 

We started out with a wonderful dinner at Shipwreck landing by Coral Bay.  What a wonderful meal with LOTS of food.  My wife and I both ordered tuna and the waitress looked at us like we were crazy.  Well, as it turns out, we were crazy because it was mussels and tuna, like a dozen mussels and two large seared tuna fillets.  We waddled away in pain after our meal, but with huge satisfied smiles on our face.

Our lodging was in the Concordia Eco Tents near Coral Bay.  We didn’t know what to expect and they turned out to be GREAT.  We had a very nice place on a cliff with wonderful views of Rams Head, Salt Pond, Salt Pond Bay, and the British Virgin Islands.  Here are some of the images

This place was off of the grid so we had solar power lights and fridge, composting toilet that was very odorless and clean, and a solar heated shower which works great.  We had no AC but the constant breeze was more than adequate. 

Megan and I loved St. John and especially Coral Bay where they have wonderful food and lots of hiking trails.  We hiked a nice 6 mile trail on Thursday and got absolutely poured on.  It was warm rain so we didn’t mind and it felt good. 

We have lots of found memories from this trip and we may go back at some point.  We have a lot of places that we need to check out before returning.

I could talk all night about our trip.  I am going to let these pictures do the talking. 
Enjoy!

Does it look like we had a good time?  If you are wondering about the black and white images, most of them are infrared images that I took with my dedicated infrared camera.

Peace
Paul

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  • ElegantimagesLooks like an awesome place to go. I need to put that on my list to visit. Love the underwatershots.ReplyCancel

Petoskey, Michigan
231-445-1793 Paul@PaulRetherford.com