The Savage Traveler: US Virgin Islands--Part 5

Despite a cooler, more comfortable sleep than we had all week on St. John, Monday Marv woke up feeling lousy. Since he was our driver and the porch at the Creekside was such a breezy private place to hang out we were all happy to spend a lazy day reading and relaxing. Marv napped a few times and by 4:00 felt good enough to drive to the Brewery just down the road, which turned out to be closed all week for the Virgin Islands Festival. Since it was nearby, we drove down to Hull Bay, a small, picturesque harbor on the quiet north side of the island. Marv and I walked the beach a little bit and then we all dropped in on the beachside Hull Bay Hideaway. The ramshackle, rambling, outside but covered bar and grill is a favorite of locals and had live music that started up soon after we sat down. It was Taco Night and they had a Margarita special so we spent a leisurely, pleasant dinner there. Marv got their burger but the rest of us picked from the variety of tacos including beef brisket, blackened shrimp, chicken and fish. Our waitress, Kari, told us she had been in VI for 8 years, since her dad came here on a fishing trip, returned to Wyoming, packed up the family and moved here to stay. She isn't sure that she wants to go to college but thinks she might like to become a pastry chef. In the meantime, she's waitressing at the Hideaway, where her dad is the line-cook. Everybody has a story, right? Back at the house we spent another quiet evening reading and enjoying the ever present breeze.

Bananakeet at the hummingbird feeder

Porch with the hammock outside Kris & Heidi's bedroom

One of many, many beautiful tropical plants around The Creekside

Black-crowned Hummingbird

Anyone know this Hummingbird species?

Hull Bay

Tuesday we relaxed most of the morning then packed up everything and did a driving tour of the island that I had found on Frommers.com. It started at Fort Christian (closed for restoration), which is in the middle of Charlotte Amalie, which is overrun with the Festival Village. From the limited driving we had done down there and on the waterfront we knew we wanted to avoid the whole area. So we started out just east of the airport. First we bought some groceries and then we headed west, past the airport and the University of the Virgin Islands. Right near campus we stopped at Brewer Beach, highlighted as one of the island's finest. It was surprisingly deserted and had it been later we might have stayed longer. Instead we continued driving the roads of the very quiet, west side of St. Thomas. The maps made it look like we would traverse on all gravel roads but that wasn't true. There was very little traffic and people, especially tourists, just don't come to that half of the island. There are plenty of homes there but not many stores or services. It was the same mountainous terrain we had traveled the whole time on ridiculously steep roads with hairpin turns (all on the "wrong" side of the road, remember!) but I think Marv enjoys it. When we got back towards the north side on the drive we stopped back at the house so Marv could get his wallet (oops!) and the camera. Since we were there, we went ahead and ate lunch at the house before we continued the driving tour. We headed up to the highest point on the island, where a sugar plantation estate used to be. There is a tourist trap gift shop and "home of the original Banana Daiquiri" (the smallest is $10.95 so we didn't partake) but there is a sweeping porch with a panoramic view overlooking Magen's Bay and beyond to St. John and the British Virgin Islands. On this hot, sultry day, however, the view was hazy. Partway down the mountain we stopped at Drake's Seat, where Sir Francis Drake plotted the best passage through the islands but again the view was hazy. We descended the rest of the way and stopped at Magen's Beach, St. Thomas' finest. It cost us $18, $4 each and $2 for the car, but the beach wasn't busy at 3:30 or so when we arrived. Marv and I walked nearly to the end of the mile long beach and back, with me in the water's edge enjoying the fine sand. None of us went swimming but we read, and drank cold beers we had brought along, and enjoyed watching the pelicans have a feeding frenzy, dropping like dive bombers into the shallow waters where there must have been schools of fish. On our way home we stopped at "13", a restaurant near the house that Mark had recommended to us. We found out one must have a reservation to get a table in the "room with the view" out over the water high on the hillside, but we did get a high table in the bar where we could order. Kris and Heidi had the white chicken pizza and Marv and I shared the Mediterranean pizza, both of which were delicious. They take about a half an hour to make so we relaxed and chatted as we waited. When we asked our waitress, Becca, what she could tell is about the parade on Thursday morning she said, "Avoid it at all costs!" She said bad things happen there and it often gets shut down early because of it. Added to the advice we got from the folks we shared a table with at Jazz Brunch, we took the parade off our to-do list.