As I get to the end of blogging my vacation, I'm getting a little ADD about the one-day-at-a-time post, so I'm just going to consolidate it into one or two. Besides, the last day and a half of the trip it rained and there really wasn't that much exciting stuff to speak of. So, here's the cool stuff. Especially the food. MMM.
Day 6 (I think) we went to Magen's Bay. This is one of those "top 10 beaches in the world" places. It was pretty, but honestly wasn't my fave beach we went to. I wore my phillies shirt just to "put out the signal" as Frank says. I almost nodded off and I heard a "Go PHILS!" We met a couple guys from Washington Twp. They told us that the Irish bar in Red Hook - Molly Malone's - was a Philly bar. We then went over there a few days later to see for ourselves. Sure enough, yep.
On day 6, we also had a night snorkel scheduled with Homer's Snorkel Tours - after our day at the beach we were pretty tired and weren't really feeling up to it, but it was already scheduled and paid for so we knew we had to go. We got the call that we'd be snorkeling from Hull Bay - great news because it was close, and we could still make it to North Side Bistro for dinner afterward.
Hull Bay's waters are very salty and buoyant. It requires very little swimming abilities. We put on our wetsuits, snorkel gear and got into the waters.
The first thing I thought when I looked into the murky waters - flashlight in hand - was, "Oh God, I can't do this." It was so dark I couldn't see anything. We kept moving out further and the water cleared up... just floating on the surface scouring the ocean floor with our flashlights - and found some really cool stuff. A caribbean lobster, a stingray, a sea urchin, and this guy:
Homer was very knowledgeable about all of the sea life - he went down into the water and pulled up the lobster & sea urchin - and asked us if we wanted to hold the sea urchin. I said no way, but he made me hold it in the palm of my hand. It released its tentacles onto my skin and it felt like velcro. Crazy!
We went to Northside Bistro for dinner - had a great meal - I think I had steak (sorry no pics).
End Day 6.
Just gorgeous.
This beach was much different than the two that we had been to previously - Hull Bay and Magen's Bay. There were locals with shacks set up on the sand and they sold food and drinks out of the shack. We set up right in front of this one.
A nice lady came up and asked us if we wanted a menu. Jerk chicken? Yes please!
This was amazing. The platter came with fried plantains, salad, rice and a hot sauce on the side. Delicious. We decided to snorkel a bit to work off the lunch. We had no idea what we were in store for! I put on my snorkel equipment and bobbed my head below the surface and saw this:
Millions of fish everywhere.
There were tarpin (sp?) that were about 4 feet long, too - I got them on video but not any good pics. I'll see if I can upload that. Frank was very excited.
We finished off Day 7 with another stop to Amigos for their $2 taco happy hour. I got a pulled pork taco and a chicken taco.YUM.
Day 8 was our last sunny day in St. Thomas. Well, it started off sunny and then quickly went south. Hurricane Bob (the guy who owned the apt. we were staying in) told us we HAD to take the car ferry to St. John. So we decided to go on Day 8 - Saturday. He also told us we should go to Miss Lucy's for lunch. I'm so glad we took his advice.
St. John is about 50% occupied by a national park, so compared to St. Thomas' population of 50,000, St. John is about 4,000. It has a completely different feel to it. There is none of the commercial touristy downtown like St. Thomas (although there are downtown shops, they are mostly occupied by local artisans).
We passed this little guy on our way out to to the east end of the island (there's only one road).
There was clearly no way to get lost on the way to Miss Lucy's. You just keep going until you get to the end of the road. Chickens greeted us at the parking lot, which is adjacent to a handful of patio dining sets set up outside along the waterfront. Charming. It was looking cloudy but we decided to park ourselves under one of the trees for what we assumed would be a typical tropical passing shower.
The waitress handed us menus and I began to peruse. The a la carte sides got my attention: sweet potato stuffing, fried plantains. MMM. I had to have them. We ordered both, and an order of their chipotle wings and a chicken roti with mango chutney. Having never had a roti before, I wasn't sure what to expect. It was chicken curry with veggies (potatoes and a few other things I believe) wrapped up in a wheat tortilla with a side of this chutney that was out of this world. This was unbelievably delicious. Those fried plantains that were crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside, and that chutney - I've never had anything like it. I could smear that stuff on everything. The wings were incredible, too. A very memorable meal.
Our trip to St. John was cut short when we realized that the passing shower was not passing, but lingering. So we took the 3:30 ferry back to St. Thomas. I was secretly excited, because this meant that we may be able to snag a reservation at Thirteen - the restaurant on the Northside that was acclaimed for its innovative menu and reasonable prices. I crossed my fingers that we'd be able to get in.
We called as soon as we got back to the house and I found the number (not an easy feat, as they have no website and barely any listings at all online - this place is completely word of mouth). They told us we could get in at 8:30. Great.
It wasn't easy getting to this place, either, as the GPS here doesn't understand the post office addresses that most St. Thomas places have. We basically drove into a couple people's driveways (which we thought were roads) on the way. It was extremely foggy (we are up in the mountains) and rainy and difficult. I was afraid we weren't going to find it. But sure enough, we did.
I didn't take a lot of pictures while we were there. I think because I was so enamored by the food that I got a little distracted. I had steak (again) with garlic truffle fries (phenom!), broccolini (I love broccolini - it's got more crunch than broccoli I think and it's easier to manage) paired with a nice Malbec. I used to be a Shiraz fan, but now it's Malbec. Frank had the mahi mahi. One of the best parts of the meal was the dessert. Here it is:
Warm fudge brownie with cayenne ganache, crushed pretzels and bacon. Yes, I said bacon! It was to die for. Spicy, salty, sweet, creamy, crunchy. Just delicious.
I can't think of a better way to end a rainy day.
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