We just had a wonderful week in St. John, USVI with my sister Beth and her husband Andreas. Beth and Andreas rented a beautiful villa in the mountains of St. John called Villa Tiffany. You can check out the link on VBRO HERE. This post will be about our first day and our experiences.
We started the day with a very early 3 am wake up. We were surprised to wake up to a completely dark house. We had lost power and were very glad we set our phones too. It took a few minutes to set in. How we were supposed to get ready and finish packing with no power!! Ahhh!! No blow dryer? No lights? What am I a cave woman?
We muddled through in the dark and set off for the Detroit Metro airport. We parked at Airlines Parking, as we usually do, got a shuttle right away to take us to the terminal. Check in was pretty smooth, except the giant luggage we brought was 5 lbs too heavy. They let us check it anyway, which was very nice of Delta. Unfortunately, due to the wee morning hours, most of the good places to eat were closed so we were stuck and had to grab a very overpriced english muffin with a pre-packaged egg disc and some sort of meat product. Delish. That, paired with a $10 cup of coffee and our meal was complete.
We first had our trip booked with American Airlines so we could stop over in Miami and hop on the same flight as my sis and bro-in-law, but American Airlines changed our flight a couple months ago, making our layover land 30 minutes AFTER the connecting flight. When we called to say that wasn’t possible, unless they have had some revolutionary breakthrough and discovered time travel, they were not very accommodating. The said there now was no flight that would accommodate us. Have a nice day. I promptly cancelled the flight, I guess you are allowed when they cancel the flight you booked and cannot find, no matter how they try, another one.
We switched over to Delta and will never again veer from the tried and true service of Delta. Booked our flight, reserved our seats and did not have another issue.
We boarded our plan about 6:30 am for a 7 am flight. The flight was uneventful, flying into Atlanta with a connecting flight to St. Thomas, Charlotte Amalie. During the flight from Atlanta to St. Thomas, I was starving and didn’t know when the next meal was coming. The airlines food menu was lacking as usual, with a very small variety of snack boxes, and a turkey sandwich. I was going to order a turkey sandwich, but as us poor folks tend to get stuck at the back of the plane, by the time the flight crew finally made it to our row, they were out of almost everything. I ordered a “crave” box that was supposed to have spreadable cheese, wheat thins, gold fish crackers, salami, cookies, skittles and even tic tacs. What I got for my $8 was a box that was exactly 3 inches cubed. I wondered how that vast amount of food could fit into such a tiny package. It was then I discovered that my food had obviously shrunken by Rick Moranis is some sort of weird rendition of “Honey I shrunk your snacks”. The cheese spread was about a tablespoon of a hunky goo like substance, along with 3 wheat thins, 4 pepperoni, 5 goldfish crackers, 1 milano cookie, a fun size bag of skittles and the coup de grâce, 3 tiny tic tacs in the worlds tiniest package. How satisfying!
We arrived in St. Thomas about 1:30 pm. My sister and Andreas had already landed just a few minutes earlier. They were already at the bar near baggage claim calling our driver. Beth was smart and set up both a driver and private water taxi to get us over to St. John, so we didn’t have to hassle with crowds or having to wait for cabs or ferries. Our driver, Licious, yes that’s right Licious. He probably spelled it Leeshus or something but we sure had fun with it. Licious was engaging and friendly, taking our bags and directing us to his van, with interesting stories of St. Thomas, its history, geography and of course the recent hurricane(s) devastation.
We made our way to Sapphire Beach where we were going to meet our private water transfer to St. John. Our captain was, ironically, also named John. Captain John had a great boat, newly remodeled, and comfortable for us and all our luggage. John was also engaging, telling tales of his life in corporate America, when he finally gave up working for “the man” and took off to the islands to find a peaceful, laid back life.
Upon our arrival in St. John, we were immediately greeted by our Jeep rental rep, who brought us our Purple Jeep for the week. She then drove us back to the rental building where we filled out papers, dropped her off and got on our way.
We made our way to Coral Bay to meet our representative, Rosanne, from Antares Property Management, who was to guide us up the mountain to get us acclimated to the drive and to the villa.
We made a quick detour into Dolphin Market, almost at the bottom of the road necessary to get to the villa. It was our last chance to stock up on supplies, booze and well, more booze. As we didn’t know what the evening held, we picked up some hot dogs, buns, chips and of course, booze.
Roseanne drove up the mountain and we followed. The road twisted and turned. Went from paved to dirt back to paved, was about a 45 degree angle upwards, with sharp turns that dropped off hundreds of feet into the ocean. Pretty much terrifying.
When you arrive at the villa, you have to take what is known as the “leap of faith” it looks like driving off the edge of a cliff and plunging to your death to go in the driveway. We even had to get out and look over the edge to make sure we were not going to die. The video is posted below. Just imagine it at a 45 degree angle.
The villa was perfect, high in the mountain, overlooking Coral Bay. With 3 “Master” suites, two outdoor showers, large kitchen, nice TV/living room area, private pool, hot tub, what else could you ask for?
We unpacked, settled in, swam a bit in the pool, took in the beautiful view, and we dined on a gourmet dinner of hot dogs and chips. I have to say, after a long tiring day, it hit the spot!
We went off to bed, with sounds of frogs and birds with a cacophony of chirps, croaks and tweets, and not the stupid social media ones. We dozed off with thoughts of tomorrows adventures!
