We Finish Our Trip To St. Thomas

We headed out on our walk the next morning and remembered to bring our phones which would allow us to take panoramic pictures of our surroundings.

Panorama of Sapphire Bay

We have been hiking up a tremendously steep hill in Sapphire Village, and at the top we have an absolutely stunning view of the marina, bay, and surrounding channels and islands. We

The fish market

were able to capture that today.

After our walk and breakfast, we decided to head out to the west end of St. Thomas which we missed when we were with Brian and Janelle.

Fresh fish!

Brewer's Beach

The bitcin' Jeep

Along the way we would try to add to Jane’s St. Thomas bucket list item of visiting all 7 of St. Thomas’s beaches. This would be a good day to travel, because according to the calendar it was a rare day when no cruise ships were in port. Frenchtown on St. Thomas was highly touted on all of the maps and points of interest broaches, so we thought it was time to pay it a visit. Frenchtown is located along the waterfront in Charlotte Amalie and was historically where French fishermen sold their catches. Frenchtown didn’t offer much in the way of attractions, so we basically just cruised through.

Jane at Brewers Beach

We headed out and made our way to Charlotte Amalie and ran past the Cyril B. King airport once again. At the University of the Virgin Islands we stopped at Brewers Beach on Brewers Bay (yes, the university has its own beach, and it is beautiful!).

View from Botany Bauy

After the beach we headed up a major hill that gave us a wonderful view of the airport and adjacent Brewers Bay with its mooring field for the boaters. We got back on Rt. 30 and followed that to a final dead end at Botany Bay on the west end. We were delighted with this route as it was much less traveled which allowed us to stop and take some pictures of the awesomely scenic bays and coves.

Botany Bay view

Today there are also some shops for the tourists (naturally) and Jane was excited to visit this site.

Another shot of Botany Bay

Besides the fish market. We would have the roads and towns to ourselves!

Botany Bay again!

We took the northern coast route back to the condo. This took us to a junction on a road that went out to Coral World and Coki Beach. This beach was on Jane’s list and we headed down the road only to find that about 200 yards from the turnoff, we encountered a flooded road with about 2 feet of water. We saw some taxis come through ad figured the Jeep would have enough clearance, so we eased on through. Coki Beach was really nice and Jane talked about coming back for a visit. But Capt. Larry pointed out that we had our own private beach that was as nice or nicer and we didn’t need the hassle of visiting foreign beaches! We returned to the condo and headed for the beach.

Part of Jane's cache

Jane took off to do some shell and sea glass collecting, a new hobby that she became fascinated with and maybe totally consuming. Capt. Larry chilled out with his beer and his book. We finished the day with happy hour and some more grouper with a tomato/onion topping and Italian mustard potatoes that Brian loved so much. It was a great day.

The rest of her cache

At Mims Restaurant

View at Iggy's

The next morning we were up and at ‘em doing our usual. After we finished we decided to have a big brunch late in the morning and then just do a supper later. Jane had read about a gift shop above Magens Bay called Mountaintop. It is advertised as the “largest gift shop in the Caribbean” and the “home of the banana daiquiri.” roadmaps?) and missed it. But we would be able to travel on a mountain road that we hadn’t been on. Mafolie Hotel high atop Charlotte Amalie. Capt. Lindquist Beach for Jane’s sixth. We didn’t pay the entrance fee, because as we parked and walked to the entrance, a huge black cloud descended on the beach, and by the time we were on the raining it was raining hard. Back at the condo we had happy hour on the balcony and sighted a rainbow as the rain eased and the sun reappeared.

The pirate at Iggy's

Larry offered to turn around and work our way into the parking lot, but Jane was disappointed noting that there were only a handful tent shops and she thought it was going to be a much bigger production.

A view of  Botany Bay

She said there didn’t look like there were offerings any different from the tent shops in Charlotte. Traveling this road would allow us to claim that we had been on every major road (and a lot of feeder roads) on St. Thomas. We took off and made our way over a hair-raising road to Mountaintop. But we didn’t stop, because apparent the shop is on cruise lines’ places to visit, and the parking lot was jammed with taxis loading and unloading people.

We arrive at Mim's

We drove past and stopped at the

Our condo

We tried to visit this establishment when we were returning from Botany Bay, but took a wrong turn (guess who has trouble reading

The next morning we explored St. Thomas’s southeast side. Jane’s final beach, Secret Harbour Beach, was located in this area. We passed through some run-down neighborhoods and weren’t very impressed with the area, when suddenly we entered an area where the extremely wealthy live.

The beach at Iggy's

The mansions, houses, and estates were quite opulent and richly landscaped.

Most of the driveways were gated. Not really being able to follow this on a map, and not knowing where we really were, we followed a road until it dead ended at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Resort. Since we weren’t guests, we turned around and traveled the other fork until it also dead ended in a residential neighborhood.
The views of the harbors below were spectacular. We turned around and made our way back and were able to see Jane’s beach, but couldn’t figure out how to get to it. We drove some roads that looked promising, but not luck. She finally settled for some pictures of the beach and we headed back to the condo.

The last mandatory thing we had to do before we left St. Thomas was to treat Jane to a Caribbean lobster dinner.

View at Iggy's

We hadn’t dined out very much, preferring to eat our own cooking at the condo, but were going to enjoy this meal. We had inquired of several sources and learned that Mim’s Bistro in the Watergate Condominium Complex had the best lobster dinner on the island.

Enjoying dinner at Mim's

Jane figured that she needed a pedicure to eat lobster. Capt. Larry dropped her off at a spa in Red Hook and would pick her up after the pedicure and some shopping time. We were told that Mim’s started serving at 1700, but when we arrive shortly after that time (it’s not good to be traveling late on St. Thomas) we were told that they didn’t start serving until 1800.

Coconut curry lobster

We opted to have happy hour at Iggy’s Beach Bar on Bolongo Beach next door. We walked over to Iggy’s and ordered some drinks and appetizers. Located directly on Bolongo Bay, Iggy’s is a popular night spot featuring live music, dancing, and island festivities. We enjoyed our drinks and food- Capt. Larry finally got his conch fritters, and headed back to Mim’s for dinner.
We enjoyed mango rum punch drinks and a crab dip before the main course came. Jane had ordered a stuffed lobster, and Capt. Larry’s was cut up and cooked in a coconut curry sauce. Both came with steamed vegetables and rice pilaf, and both were delicious (the curry could have been a little spicier). With all of the food we had consumed, dessert was not an option. We were really pleased with the service, food, and the seaside ambiance. We headed back to the condo and crashed for the evening.

We spent our last couple of days just hanging around the condo. Jane ventured into the Red Hook boutiques a couple of times, while Capt. Larry was content working on the blog.

Ducks in the pool

He also spent some time photographing the beautiful flowering plants and shrubs that landscaped the complexes. Jane spent time at her newest hobby- collecting sea glass.

Having their way

This soon became a preoccupation and Capt. Larry was left spending beach time alone while Jane shelled. After several days she had accumulated a fairly impressive collection and was looking online as how to fashion these pieces into jewelry. Capt. Larry was always being asked if he could drill glass and wire pieces together….. It was a really relaxing final couple of days and we were wishing that it wouldn’t end, but it must.

The iguana comes to the pool

On our last day we started packing things up. Of all of the places we’ve been, we have not enjoyed one place more than we have St. Thomas. Maybe it was just the relaxing time we had, we do not know, but we will miss spending time on this island. But then we have other adventures already planned- so stay tuned….