Author: Steph Louka

Stephanie is an EMS Physician and Life-Member of the Virginia Beach Volunteer Rescue Squad. She lives in Richmond, VA with her husband Amir.
Family & Friends, Food & Drink, Travel Adventures

St Thomas Day 3: Catamaran sea turtle snorkeling trip and dinner at Sun & Sea

Man has it been a day. I’d hoped for more sleep this morning, but the reliable 6:30 am wakeup crew stayed consistent – begging for bananas and mangos until I finally dragged myself out of bed.

Marriott Resort, The VI Cat launch spot

We had a reservation at 1PM for a catamaran snorkeling adventure on The VI Cat with Dee, Patrick and all the kids. We made the reservation just two weeks in advance, but I’m told that things usually book up solid after that.

Morning swim session

This morning we didn’t want to do anything crazy since we knew the afternoon would be a lot. We swam at the house, and Amir made homemade pasta sauce – fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic and ricotta cheese with ground beef over fettuccini. We wanted to fill up for the boat to ease any unsettled stomachs and more importantly prevent the begging for snacks.

The catamaran left the dock at 1pm sharp, so we needed to be there by 12:30. Everything in the island is drivable within 30 minutes as far as we can tell. We had no issues making our deadline.

We motored out to Little Buck Island, a known sanctuary for sea turtles. After a quick safety briefing and warnings not to touch the sea turtles – a $10,000 fine with half going to your tour operator so they are incentivized to turn you in.

We broke into two groups, each with a guide who would point out turtles and other creatures of interest. The snorkeling itself lasted 45 minutes which was great for our crew but might feel short for a more serious crowd.

I popped my iPhone into a Pelican case in hopes of snapping some in and underwater photos. Note to self – practice with said case on dry land and learn what side buttons confidently do what before trying to snorkel with a toddler on your back. Hopefully I’ll get the hang of it as the week goes on.

One of five sea turtles I spotted

After the snorkeling portion, the sails went up, the boat crew mixed up a huge vat of Pain Killers, set out snacks and served up sodas for the kids. It was a nice way to unwind after the water adventure.

There was one snag as we left the dock – Dee accidentally set her phone down somewhere just before we boarded. She realized it almost immediately, just as we set sail for Little Buck Island. In desperation, she called the Marriott resort, the site we’d left from, and they ensured her they’d send security to hunt for her phone. I’m not sure we were hopeful, but there wasn’t anything to be done until we returned to shore and could launch a proper search & rescue mission.

Once back on shore, she called Marriott security who assured her they’d indeed found her phone (turned in to lost & found by a Good Samaritan), and that she ought to call her mom who seemed quite worried after calling and learning she’d lost her phone.

Team Louka
Team Willis

After snorkeling, we jumped in our cars and set off to a small restaurant Amir found on Google Maps. If you’ve followed us on other trips, you know Amir’s a whiz at picking out extra special hole-in-the-wall places just based off of online reviews and photos. Today’s selection did not disappoint.

Situated inside a resort, it’s a bit off the beaten path, which worked in our favor trying to get two tables for 11 total with no reservations.

The restaurant hangs out over the water, similar to a Bubbas or Dockside for those of you familiar with Virginia Beach. Added bonus not available anywhere else – giant tarpon swimming in the shallow water below, easily visible from our tables, and easy enticed with Milk-bone Dog Biscuits (thanks for the tip Chelsea).

Stingray
Crab friend

They offer the most affordable prices we’ve seen yet – $9 island drinks, $4 Coors Lite, $16 for three fresh catch fish tacos. But the built-in entertainment was priceless. Don’t be shocked if we go back before the week ends.

Free temporary tattoos from The VI Cat

Tomorrow we plan to spend the day at the resort where Dee and Patrick are staying, and hopefully catch up with one of our other friends in Emergency Medicine, Melissa.

I’m hoping for better sleep tonight as the sun, sand and sips are starting to slow me down.

~Steph

Family & Friends, Travel Adventures

St Thomas Day 2: Magens Bay Beach

I really didn’t expect anyone additional to be in my bed before 7 am but alas…

Breakfast is easy when you’re the chef in charge.

“Do you want toast with peanut butter & jelly, toast with just butter, or toast with all three?” (The PB&J come swirled together)

A loaf and a half of bread later, everyone seemed satiated. I had my morning coffee, so I was happy.

Amir never made it into the pool yesterday, so his first order of business was checking out the 92 degree water. The rental is well-appointed, complete with water noodles, goggles, snorkeling gear, beach chairs, huge fluffy towels and even badminton rackets. With three bedrooms across two floors, it works well for our crew of six.

For our afternoon adventure, we decided to check out Magens Bay Beach, just a 10 minute drive west of us. It’s known to be a beach that’s not so crowded as you do have to pay a fee per person to go. There wasn’t much opportunity for snorkeling, but with restaurants, small shops and public restrooms, it’s got everything you need for an easy outing.

#1BigSister and Ale build a castle

There’s a whole exercise park along the perimeter of the beach, and in the ocean, there are lanes defined by buoys where swimmers and snorkels can do laps safely without intrusion from boaters or kayaks.

I’m quite sure there might be more JEEPs here than any other place in the world. In our family, we play a little game called “The Rainbow Car Game” where, starting in red and proceeding in rainbow order (of course), you look for and call out that color car. Amir notes we could play “The Rainbow JEEP Game” here pretty easily.

There’s nothing like sun, sand and swimming to tire a crew out. On arrival back home to Sea View, there were no arguments about nap time. I even snuck in a whole hour to myself to type today’s entry.

Tonight Amir’s dealing culinarily ambitious – promising steaks, potatoes and asparagus. I’m all in. Oh, and I’ll have another round of Ale’s Pain Killer cocktail please, too.

~Steph

Family & Friends, Travel Adventures

St Thomas Day 1: Direct flight delight

Somewhere around Christmastime, but before all this winter’s snow, we made a call to book a beach vacation over Spring Break. We had no idea how much we’d need it.

2025 Snow Troopers

January 2025 was just as the Counting Crows would say, “a long December.” A city-wide water crisis in Richmond had spillover effects to surrounding counties and, while our water at home was unaffected, work was a different story. We had two working bathrooms at our hospital, but colleagues at other local hospitals shared photos of temporary employee restrooms – 5 gallon buckets lined with red biohazard bags.

This trip we’re headed to St Thomas in the Virgin Islands, an unincorporated territory of the United States. We needed to pick somewhere within the US, Mexico or Canada to ensure that Ale, our au pair and 6th member of our family, could travel with us. Added bonus of the St Thomas selection: some of our best friends from home, Dee and Patrick, are coincidentally vacationing there at the same time. More to come on that.

Arriving at St Thomas

A few perks of St Thomas – direct flights from Dulles and same time zone as Richmond. As anyone who’s traveled with kids knows, these may be two of the hugest factors in calculating toddler travel meltdowns. Aside from the 3am wakeup to catch the 9am out of Dulles, traveling here was easy peasy. (I say that cautiously knowing there’s still a trip home to be had.)

Amir rented a three-row SUV from Budget. Things aren’t cheap here, but everything is essentially a 30 minute drive or less. We figured a rental would give us flexibility to explore since we’re staying at an AirBnB, not a resort with built-in shuttles.

They drive on the left side of the road here, but unlike the UK, the steering wheels are still on the left. Despite the small size of the island and its roads, cars and SUVs are just as big as mainland US. I plan to dig into just why that is.

Sea View on the Northern Coast

Sea View was easy to find. The roads winding up and down the mountains with breathtaking views of the sea immediately brought me back to those guardrail-less cliffs in Crete, Greece. As I’ve noted in a multitude of past posts, Amir is a great driver in an unknown environment. I learned that early on when we were duty partners on the ambulance.

Sea View is as-advertised

As soon as we arrived, I could barely get my sunscreen and suit on before the kids were jumping into the pool. I planned ahead and brought lifejackets for #1BigBrother and #1LittleSister since I knew we’d be doing a good amount of snorkeling. I have a 1:1 non-swimmer to adult rule without lifejackets. Since it was 3:1 this afternoon, the lifejackets went on.

Amir headed to the grocery store almost as soon as we arrived here. We’d barely eaten breakfast, missed lunch, and were about to be eaten by a pack of hungry children. We were warned that groceries are expensive yet still didn’t expect the level of sticker shock. At the Cost-U-Less supermarket, a box of Ritz crackers costs $12, a dozen eggs $15 and somehow a handle of decent rum only $10.

Amir grilled up cheeseburgers on the poolside grill, and Ale finally showed some skills in the kitchen/bar arena, making us all “Pain-Killer” cocktails.

We’re all exhausted from the day – understandably so. We have no plans to wake up by any particular time for any particular reason. If we make it out to a local beach where we can snorkel, that will be a major win.

~Steph

Family & Friends, Food & Drink, Travel Adventures

France Day 9: Honfleur Farmers Market & Saint-Adresse Beach

Today was our last full day here – tomorrow is all travel back to Paris to return our rental van and fly back to the States. I think all of us are slowing down – lots of sun, food and play… home is starting to call.

The vegetable stall at the morning market

Every Wednesday and Saturday morning, right in front of the wooden church from yesterday, Sainte-Catherine, there’s a local market at 8am. We went on a Wednesday, but my online research tells me the Saturday market is a bit bigger. The market features local farmers, butchers, bakers and artisans selling jewelry, textiles and pottery. The local cideries and vineyards also come out with a wide offering of spirits. We grabbed some leafy lettuce and giant green onions for a salad, a few baguettes of course, and some homemade quiche.

But our menu wasn’t quite complete. Amir’s been eyeing the giant spider crabs ever since we arrived, and today seemed like the perfect day. Our lunch special guest came precooked, and “checked” by the pêcheur. Checked for what, I suspect I’d rather not know.

Those barnacles have been there a while…

Neither of us ever having eaten a spider crab, we underestimated the caliber if crab cracking tools we’d need to break into this bad boy. Traditional silver crab crackers were akin to a butter knife sawing through titanium. The shell is probably 8 times as thick as a snow crab, nothing we used could penetrate the perimeter. Amir went in search of better tools, and ultimate found success using a 12” diameter garden stone. VICTORY!

The king and his feast (check out that salad bowl)

There was of course more swimming after lunch, some forced naps, and a cocktail for me. Yesterday I took a chance on a bottle of Limoncello with Calvados. We first sampled Calvados during our side car adventure. It’s a French eau de vie produced in Normandy which is distilled from cider or perry and aged for a minimum of two or three years. Minimum alcohol content: 40% ABV. It packs a punch.

Around 5:30pm, we set off in the van for a 45 minute ride across the suspension bridge to Sainte-Adresse. We’d eaten a heavy lunch, so we were only interested in charcuterie and dessert. Amir again used a Google Maps to find Le Panorama, a small patio restaurant, full of people and posh dogs, with as the name says, panoramic views of the Seine. We watched cruise ships, sailboats and cargo tankers battle for right of way – paddle boarders and sunbathers laying claim to the rocky shore.

#1LittleSister explores “big rocks”
You can park your moto in front of Le Panorama

After some good rock throwing and stone stacking, the day was growing late and bedtime well-past blown. Amir fetched the van – door to door drop off service thanks to his mom being along.

Tomorrow we need to leave here between 9 and 10 am to ensure we have enough time to return the rental and check in for our international flight. Somehow we’ve already reached that part of the trip that forces me to reflect and process. But for now I’ll keep my mind occupied packing and cleaning. There’s plenty of time up in the air tomorrow for that work.

~Steph

One last go-round on the carousel
Family & Friends, Food & Drink, Travel Adventures

France Days 7&8: Paying respect to Allies + Butterflies & Birds at Naturospace Honfleur

We were on the go all day yesterday in Normandy, exploring Sword Beach and appreciating the military feat and sacrifice by so many that made D-Day a success. Being here now, seeing the signs saying “Let us never forget,” and knowing that back home many are inching towards repeating this past is just…

We are here at the site of the storming of the beach just two weeks after the 80th anniversary, yet I get the sense that the spirit you feel walking through the town exists year round.

The long walk down to the shore is lined by first hand accounts of survivors of that day – French, English, American, Canadian… all now nearly 100 years old or thereabout. Amir commented that by the next milestone anniversary, there likely may not be any survivors left. Historical events have different meaning when you can speak to actual survivors or even just those who lived through the era. I try to imagine that beach. What it took to step off those boats, watching men fall to the sand, and still stepping forward. Even with all respect given to their accounts, I know it was 100 times worse.

Normandy Bunkers

Ale had the day off yesterday and spent the day exploring a Honfleur and the beach. We caught up with her for dinner at Le Spot, a casual restaurant in the sand, with blue and white decor, romance novel cover-worthy waiters, and an assortment of tapas and zesty drinks.

Le Spot, Honfleur, France

Somehow the kids talked us into a quick swim at 8pm when we arrived home. Because we are in Northern France, it stays light until after 10pm. It was a little too chilly for my liking – so bath time was a convenient excuse. I edited a few photos, threw them up on Instagram and crashed.

Day 8

This morning Amir ran out to the fish monger to get a selection of fresh catch for dinner tonight. The last two days we’ve eyed up the fresh seafood in the markets, but have waited until too late in the day to have best pick. Our house has two outside grills, and he plans to make the most of them.

This morning we drove into Honfleur to visit the Naturospace Garden, home to exotic butterflies, tropical birds and flowers.

Spend the money and buy a few packs of fish food, whether you have little ones with you or not. The koi are huge and have big personalities, but only if you bribe them.

Feeding the koi

At Naturospace, don’t just look straight ahead or at the butterflies dancing around you. Look up to see a wide variety of colorful birds, and as #1BigSister reminded me from our Lewis Ginter butterfly visits, look down as well to ensure you don’t squish anyone.

We walked just a block to have lunch at Amore Mio as the kids were craving pizza, and I just wanted some atmosphere. I ordered the truffle and boratta pizza, while Ale and Amir both picked a pizza with spicy sausage and Gorgonzola.

Aperol orange dots the decor at Amore Mio
Truffle and buratta pizza

After lunch we circled back to a special church we first saw online when planning our trip and again on our side car tour, Église Sainte-Catherine, one of the rare European churches built entirely of wood. Its oldest parts date to the mid 15th century when townsmen, who were fishermen not architects, didn’t know how to build a traditional cathedral ceiling.using the techniques they knew, they created a ceiling from two upside down ships. They were concerned the wood might not support the weight of the church bell, so they erected a separate bell tower that is now one of the highest points in Honfleur, attracting frequent lightening strikes.

Church of Sainte Catherine, Honfleur, France

Back at the house, most of the crew went swimming while Amir prepped the fresh fish for the grill. I bought a tiny bug house with a magnifying glass at the Naturosphere gift shop which upon arrival home had many a budding David Attenborough ready to hunt for friends.

First I found a plump earthworm… but Ale had to outdo me and capture a bumble bee who would suck nectar from flowers then try to escape its new little world. The question arose, “Who is going to let him go?” to which I had an interesting immediate answer: “the one who caught him.”

Grill master

We enjoyed dinner on the back veranda, a fish new to us all called “bar,” mackerel, sausages and an assortment of cheeses and fresh strawberries. Oh and wine.

Tomorrow is our last day here. In true vacation mode, I have no idea what day of the week it is but do know I have a few days off after we get back to recover.

~Steph