Junebug's Visit - Day Two

There's a ton of things that the Man and I love about St. Thomas; one of those things is our close proximity to St. John. It's the smallest of the Virgin Islands, and the most pristine by far. 80% of it is protected conservation land and it's a popular destinations for backpackers and hikers who enjoy one of the handful of camp-grounds on the island.

Note: The Man and I have never hiked on this island, so I have no information on that. I can, however, tell you everything you need to know about sitting on one of the beaches and drinking yourself silly.

Whenever we have guests stay with us we always incorporate a St. John day into their stay, for JB that day was her second day. To get to St. John you can take the car-ferry (out of Red Hook) or the people-ferry (downtown Charlotte). We always bring our truck over, and we like to catch an early ferry, like 9 or 9:30, so St. John day is an early morning, we leave the house around 8.

Here's a shot from the deck of the ferry:



You pull into the parking area, turn your car around and back onto the boat. It's somewhere between $40-50 for a roundtrip, there are four car ferries that go back an forth all day (two separate companies). One ferry takes about 30 mins to get to STJ, the other takes 45. If you choose to build a house on St. John this is how all of the bits and pieces make it over there. Ferry trip by ferry trip. Blows my mind how long that would take.

Once we get to St. John we drive into their (very small) downtown area for breakfst. Here is where we always park:



It's somewhere between $5-10 depending on how long you're there. There is street parking available, but it's a pain to hunt down and we're usually starving by the time we get there. There are many great places to eat on STJ, but we always have breakfast at JJ's Texas Cafe:



I always get the basic breakfast: two eggs, toast, hash browns and a sausage patty for $8.75. Add coffee and juice and I'm good to go. SO good. Plus a great place to sit and watch the small bustle of the area.

Once we're done with breakfast we do one of two things - depending on our guests. STJ has some great shops right around JJ's, and it's fun to browse for an hour or so, or we jump back in the truck and hit the beach. Here's a shot of me...:



...taking a shot of an alleyway surrounded by shops:



JB decided against shopping, so we jetted straight off to the beach. STJ is easy to get around, there's basically two main roads going up either side of the island. Stay on it long enough and I believe you circle right around to where you started (don't quote me on that). One the way to our first beach we pulled off to grab some pictures. Here's JB capturing the beauty:



There's a TON of beaches on STJ, but we like to hit these three: Hawksnest, Cinnamon and Trunk Bay. On this day we decided to bomb right out to Trunk, we had been a couple days before JB got there and the surf was leaving little beach area on the other two.

Here's a shot I took of Trunk Bay, one of the most beautiful beaches you'll ever see:



Once we got to Trunk we parked, paid to get in (it's the only beach that charges an entry fee: $4) and set up our chairs. The weather was NOT cooperating, and we sat and scowled at the sky. Here's a shot of me, wrapped up (it was cold) and wishing for the sun to appear:




There was a brief rain shower around noon, and the sun was still hiding. So we did what anyone would do, popped open the cooler and started drinking. We watched a group of 50 people appear from a cruise ship excursion and cracked up as they started wrestling with their snorkel gear. Soon enough they were in the water and the three of us continued our defiant wait for the sun.

And you know what? It paid off; around 1:30 the sun FINALLY came out to play, and the Man and I were relieved that JB would actually get to see how beautiful STJ could be. We stripped down to our suits, grabbed our sippy cups and floaty noodles and jumped in the surf. The water was turquoise and beautiful and we bobbed for a good hour just soaking in the awesomeness.

Here's a shot of JB and me:



We usually grab a 5:30-ish ferry back to St. Thomas (they stop running at 6), and you're always starving around 4, so at 3:30 we packed up our beach gear and took JB to our other favorite place on STJ, Skinny Legs.

Skinny Legs is a bar/restaurant owned by a couple of Boston guys (one who passed away a couple of years ago). It's a local place, and we heard about it at a gift shop sometime last year. It's becoming more well-known though. It's open-sided and surrounded by three or four little gift shops. They serve the best burger on the island, and we LOVE it. Of course JB is a vegetarian, and I forgot what she ate, but I do know she enjoyed going there:



Here's a shot of my yummy burger and pineapple Pain Killer:



We say it's the best burger on the island, but the truth is anything would taste awesome after a day of drinking on the beach. But it is a kickass burger.

Here's a row of t-shirts from one of the shops:



Here's JB and I sticking our heads through the sign:



After eating we drove back to the ferry, and enjoyed the sunset ride back to St. Thomas:





Here's a shot of JB and our bud chatting on the way home:



After we got back to STT we decided to grab some food and more drink at Duffy's Love Shack (which is a entirely other post). Suffice it to say we made JB and our bud order the infamous Shark Tank drink which comes with a double shot of 151 Cruzan Dark rum:

When you order a specialty drink from Duffy's you get a sticker applied to you and you get lei'd, which JB is showing off in the above picture.

We made her shoot the shark (which we saved to send home to our nephew...)...:

...and then we tucked into our food and booze.

And that ends the pictures for Day Two. After Duffy's we drove home and pretty much passed out. Day Three also had an early rise, and it was going to be a wicked cool day.