Colby & I headed for St. John VI , on Oct 5th , returning on the 11th. Our flights were on Jet Blue from Portland , Maine Yay Jet Blue , on time and friendly . The flights are still long , arriving on St . Thomas around 10:00 P.M. We met Jimmie our driver as we needed to make the 11:00 ferry to St. John. The air port being on one end of island and the ferry on the other , private taxis are best if needing to make it on or off on time .
We arrived with a list of projects ,
Find a house ( affordable ) long term rental , which allows amazingly cute pets :)
Net Work to help in the job search
Learn to drive on wrong side of road , on island roads ... check out you - tube driving St. John VI
Learn that even though Island is 9 miles long it takes at least 30-40 mins to get from end to end ,
get post office box , no house delivery .. we know why now !
Best of all EAT : As Foodies we needed to build our data base of the best eats.
We rented a cute studio over Amore Pottery Studio , right in Cruz Bay . Low season price great , they all so have jeep rentals , all in one service .
After resting, the next day we headed out , Colby having been on island had co driver down to a science , by time we left she only yelled wrong side of road once a day !
Check off first day ,
post office box, met with Roger , great chat he called friends by end of hour visit we had houses to look at , business owners to talk to , and a good connections. Someone told us he was the " island mayor" :)
After all our work Colby headed us to Maho Beach , this is almost the last beach down . Amazing is all I can say. We had rented Snorkel gear at CRABBY'S in Coral Bay , we had a great visit with the owner of Crabby's , hailing from New England , we learned more about island life and left with names of other Mainers on island and great gear. We saw beautiful sting rays , parrot fish , among other water life, so cool.
By Friday we met Dave from Cimmaron Villas, he had a listing in paper for a long term house for rent:) Others were great but wish list for Mr. Smith was water view and covered porch. Dave met us and off we went , Location Fish Bay , mid way up mountain , I think driveway had 2 switch backs ...
Amazing , open floor plan built with local stone and shells on out side ... Perfect for what we were looking for , The owners were there from Colorado that made it even better . They had built the house for themselves, had lived on island for 13 years and have been off for 6ish. Perfect !
Though not sure if we will ever find our way home again , especially at night , no street lights here .
On our drive with Dave we chatted about Bistro , and cooking ... He mentioned they managed 67 rental villas , and after mentioning we would like to do private chef work , he asked us if we could get him 70 flyers before we left so he could get us in the villas info books , and could we maybe do Thanksgiving dinners .... Okay , arrived on island with no laptop ,cell not really working as AT&T is server of choice not what we have .
Colby to rescue , back to town she rents computer time at POST IT, got a web site name , e mail address, and printed out a basic flyer ... but we need 70, so we run down to Ferry and head to St. Thomas , Office Max, first we have to get taxi then check out the MALL at Super K- Mart... It'll do I hate malls anyway. We find pretty paper and a nice man to help us print 100 flyer's :)
Thinking this is like Great American Race, we head back to make next ferry , mission accomplished... to the beach we go :)
Few days left and we have completed our list by the Monday , we have met over a dozen great islanders , have work , house with a view , Pete is signed up for Master Captains school , see a boat in our future , okay maybe a dingy !
Before closing we did make our were to eat dinner list the top choice and we went twice is WaterFront Bistro , ZOZO's was next , and because its fun Morgans Mango.... We have more to hit as some were still closed and reopening first of Nov. Best Breakfast was at the Westin , pina colda pancakes with toasted coconut and grilled pineapple , yum.. we deemed this a special occasion breakfast place.
Great job on the blogging. Well written and funny! This should be VERY exciting. You're brave. Way to go Colby on the techno pieces. Good luck! What an adventure!
ReplyDeleteKim, the "Worried but proud mom" was my blog name I registered under when followed Mo on the AT. I didn't realize it would come up that way.
ReplyDeleteI'M GOING TO MISS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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