Month: March 2018

Tomorrow, we have to leave and as with every trip to STJ, I’m sad. My heart doesn’t feel whole unless I’m here. We had another great day hanging at the beach, eating too much food and an afternoon by the pool with the iguanas and peacock neighbors.

We were considering getting cleaned up to go to town for dinner when my friend, Jenny, got a message from the villa managers saying that there was going to be a power outage soon. While this was common before the storms, it seems to be VERY common post hurricanes. We immediately jumped into action getting the kids, and ourselves, showered, gathering flash lights, getting water bottles filled, etc. We knew all too well that the power could come back on in minutes, hours, or days. Thankfully, everyone had showered and we were ready to go before the power outage hit. We opened all of our windows, thankful we were on a hill with a breeze, and made the short walk to town for dinner and limin’. Most restaurants and bars in town have generators, due to the frequent outages, and can operate normally when power is interrupted.

After dinner, we came back home to still no power. No worries, the kids enjoyed an Ipad movie in the living room by flashlight! Sometime in the middle of the night the power came back on. For a brief moment, I stopped sweating while trying to sleep. The next morning as we packed, WAPA struck again. We had no power as we packed up our things and started our journey home. After a quick breakfast at Cruz Bay Landing, we boarded the ferry back to St. Thomas.

After my tenth trip to the most beautiful place on earth, I can’t wait to go back! Feel free to comment with your thoughts on our trip, hurricane recovery or any questions you may have!

Today we rented a Jeep and drove to the other side of St. John to a sleepier town called Coral Bay. I LOVE how opposite it is from Cruz Bay in every way. As we drove the 8 miles over the windy curvy mountains of St. John, it was sad and beautiful to see how different it was. Arriving in Coral Bay we were met with the school’s ball field covered in various piles of organized debris. This was clearly the dumping ground from storm damage. It really was amazing to see how MUCH stuff had been cleared and placed here to eventually be moved off island. We went over to a pop up “Stuff Bazaar” that our babysitter told us about. It was right next to Pickles in Paradise and I got some cute hand made drawer sachets. We then HAD to make a stop at Skinny Legs. Skinny’s is a MUST visit and an institution in Coral Bay with its open air vibe and new roof! Thanks again to Kenny Chesney. Their chili dog, and pretty much everything on the menu, is so good and sooo messy. We also had to have some Key Lime Pie. I wish I had caught our waitress’ name, she was one of MANY people who thanked us for being there and for coming back.

We then took a drive past Hurricane Hole where so many boats were lost during Irma and Maria. There were still numerous boats in piles on the shore and one boat with only its bow sticking up above the water line. It was haunting and one of the most profound images that I will remember from the storms. We stopped at Hansen Bay Beach where another 50ft storm reminder sat on the beach. A popular catamaran named Kekoa was blocked on the beach as the owners repair the boat they built themselves many years ago. Their story is really awesome and I would encourage anyone reading this blog to look them up! Despite all the devastating storm reminders we had a great afternoon at the beach and snorkeling in the water.