Archive for November, 2011

Back in the USA

Monday, November 14th, 2011

Everyone needs a vacation now and then.  We took our first vacation in almost 3 years.  I know, we appear to be on permanent vacation but I argue the fact that we are living in our RV so a vacation would have to be away from the RV!

Sugar Bay, St. Thomas, USVI

We went to St. Thomas, VI for 10 days with our friends, Ed & Peggy and Tony & Janet,  staying at The Sugar Bay Resort overlooking St. John’s Island and then Blue Beards Beach Club a timeshare near the action of Charlotte Amalie.  We played in the sun, swam in the ocean, snorkeled, scuba dived (Paul did!) slept in, drove on the wrong side of the road, sang karaoke, limbo dancing (maybe just watched!), ate too much, drank Rum, bought some souvenirs, got a sunburn and don’t forget the bug bites!  That pretty much describes our little vacation from life.

We arrived on Wednesday about 10 pm and  were greeted with a taste of the local Rum right before baggage claim!  Now that is hospitality.  We gathered the bags, rented the car and headed right to the liquor store to buy some of the Cruzin Rum.  Tony was our driver as he had lots of experience driving in St. Thomas in the many years they have visited the island but even seasoned drivers will occasionally forget that they drive on the left here in St. Thomas!  The cars are made the same as in the US but they drive like they are in England!  Crazy.  Only once did we have to remind him to keep left, although all 5 of us were yelling, Left Tony, Left!  He finally got it right before Paul grabbed the steering wheel!

Sugar Bay Resort is beautiful, has amazing views and they are all inclusive, if they had told us that when we booked!  Oh well, the drinks were reasonable and we had a stock of booze in our rooms, enough to ineabrate the whole resort!  Our rooms overlooked the bay and the wedding porch!  I think we saw more brides in our 10 days than I have seen in my whole lifetime.  Young love is so much fun to watch and get in a little humor here and there.  One of us, I am not naming names, shared with a honeymooning couple that her anniversary was on the same day as theirs; it only lasted 10 years!!   Then there was the karaoke night and the dedication of “Breaking Up is hard to do” to all the Newlyweds!  It was probably a good thing that our little group was only there 3 days!

We moved to Blue Beards Beach Club which is a Timeshare Resort and the crowd is much older!  We fit right in with all our grey hair and sunhats!

The view from our balcony

Rum is involved!

The other direction

No, this is the other direction! Beautiful

Blue Beards Beach Club has great amenities and its own beach.  The pool is the perfect vacation treat, complete with a swim up bar where they serve all the Island favorites if you are too lazy to return to your condo and make your own!  Our favorites were the painkiller, rum punch, pina colada w/strawberry daiquiri and the island favorite, Bushwacker.

Will it be a bushwacker, Painkiller or the Rum Punch????

Tony & Janet enjoying the pool

Paul and I chartered a boat with 2 other couples for some snorkling and scuba diving.  Paul is licensed so after a little refresher in the pool he was signed up to dive.  I only do the snorkling and choose to lie on the top of the water, face mask in the water and swim above the fish!  It was a bit of an odd day, we had lightening while we were snorkling and the seas were a bit choppy so it was not easy to spot the fish but we did see many brightly colored fish, a bunch of turtles and a spotted ray!  All very cool.

Paul is checking his equipment!

The advantage to the small boat was that I could snorkle while he was diving.  I was still in the water snorkling when Paul was resurfacing and I got to watch is assent to the top!  He and his partner looked like they were dancing while they were decompressing so they don’t get the “Bends?”

The island is teaming with chickens, iguana’s and cats!  Both resorts had cat houses where they feed the cats and the cats roam the property searching for critters.  The chickens seem to be just there and the iguanas show up on the pool deck regularly.  I was told they will even get in the pool but I didn’t see that!

While trying to get this one on film I almost stepped on another!  That would not have been good!    Bug Spray is the perfume of the island due to the bugs known as sand fleas, noseums or whatever you want to call them.  You never see them but the bites are brutal! I must have 100 bites and that was with bug spray everyday!!!

Shopping is as big as the beaches on the island.  Perfume, jewelry, booze and cigars are in demand.  Paul and I ventured into town one day and I thought I would check out the jewelry deals!  I found a nice little bracelet that I really wanted until the salesman served up the price, $4800.00 US dollars! Ouch!  That would have been my whole vacation budget.  He wanted to work with me but after I told him my budget was around $500.00 he said I should save up and return in a couple of years!!!

BFF's

The weather was a little different for our vacation; we had thunder & lightening more than once,  infact one day the storm was crazy and knocked out our TV reception for over 24 hours.  The good news is it was Wednesday and we already had seen Dancing with the Stars on Tuesday!  The weather provided some great sunsets. 

We will be back

As with every vacation it ends and back to reality!  Now the planning starts for the next vacation.