Last night we enjoyed an amazing dinner with Dee and Patrick at Caribbean Fish Market. We started with a seafood tower because, well, work hard play hard.
There were at least 7 types of fish, including Everything Seasoning encrusted salmon, grilled whole red snapper with spicy hoisin, and seasame rolled wahoo over sticky rice and seaweed salad. Everyone loved what they ordered.
Dee and Patrick were also able to give us the scoop on the ferry over to St. John. We planned to leave the house by 9:30am to catch the 10:30 ferry, the Big Red Barge. Somehow we were early in leaving the house (I know right??), and it turns out we’d need that time. The ferry filled fast and left port by 10:20am. If we’d been on our intended schedule, we’d have missed it for sure.
It took more time for the cars to load onto the ferry than the actual transit across from St Thomas to St John. We set an alarm for 1:30pm, aiming for a 3:30pm ferry, to ensure we wouldn’t get stuck for the night.
St. John is small with multiple beaches to choose from. We’d decided to drive a bit further out in hopes of avoiding crowds. Trunk Bay is popular for snorkeling, but it seemed everyone else had the same idea. There were not only no parking spaces, but every space that could be created by a JEEP balanced on 3 wheels and a boulder was also occupied. We carried on further into the Virgin Islands National Park.
The next beach after Trunk Bay was Cinnamon Beach, just 4 minutes up the road. In an epic Dad move, Amir snagged the last parking spot in the lot.
The beach today was extremely windy, so we snagged a spot shaded from the wind and sand by mangrove trees. This was a good strategic move on our part, as I’d later watch other families relocate 2 and 3 times for better shelter.
I spent a good portion of the time snorkeling while Amir, Ale and the kids played in the sand and floated on Floaty McFloatface, II. The water proved a great escape from the whipping wind and sand.
We packed a picnic in the cooler which I highly recommend. There’s a nice concession stand and bar at Cinnamon Beach, but having a cooler right there with us made satiating hungry swimmers much easier.
We were obedient when our 1:30pm alarm went off, packing up our things and hiking back to our exceptionally parked car.
We arrived at the ferry with plenty of time to spare, and a crew that probably needed to call it quits an hour earlier. There hasn’t been much napping happening on this trip, despite me desperately wanting to take one.
We stopped for fruit smoothies on the way home, a deliberate attempt to shush the chatter of three exhausted kids acting up due to lack of sleep and way too much CapriSun. It worked. I’m filing it away for use again in a desperate situation.
Tomorrow is our last full day here as we fly home Monday morning. We still have a fair amount of food to get through, so we’re debating spending the day at the house just eating, swimming, drinking and eating. Cost-U-Less wasn’t cheap after all. I think I’m game for another lazy day at home.
~Steph
TeamLouka 