Well, as you know my Dad passed away in early January. His wish was to be cremated and his ashes spread in St. Thomas. We (Mom, Laura, Lilly, and Katie) decided to make the trip to spread his ashes into a vacation. This was our first non Orlando based vacation with the girls, so they were excited and experienced a lot of new things. The first new experience was the airport. The girls went on their first plane and experienced their first connection flight and delay in Miami. Their next adventure was driving in St. Thomas, more precisely, my driving in St. Thomas. For those who don’t know, they drive on the left. You have to keep telling yourself “STAY LEFT”. The drive from the car rental parking lot to the house we rented was the longest 30 minutes of my life filled with near death experiences, but thankfully, the locals were all so nice and giving me words of encouragement and telling me I was number one, based on their hand gestures. I think we were all relieved to get to the house after the day of travel and half hour of terror. The house was pretty amazing. It is on the Peterborg peninsula overlooking Magens Bay, one of the nicer beaches on the island. It had two large bedrooms, three bathrooms, a huge open floor plan with the living room, dining room and kitchen with sliding glass doors everywhere and most impressive a private pool with lots of outdoor sitting areas. It was the kind of place you feel bad leaving to visit the sites, but visit the sites we did. We went to the following destinations over the next few days:
- Magens Bay
- Charlotte Amalie shopping district
- Udder Delite
- Cost U Less
- Mim’s Seaside Bistro at Bolongo Bay
- Secret Harbor
- Red Hook Ferry
- Sapphire Beach
- Boat charter from Benner Bay
- Cruz Bay at St. John
- Trunk Bay at St. John
- Bluebeards Castle
By coincidence, we were in St. Thomas over Lilly’s 9th birthday. She may not have gotten a party, but I think she made out pretty well and never complained. She chose lunch at Green House and we even found a birthday cake at the local grocery store and some candles.
The main purpose of our trip was to scatter my Dad’s ashes, so we chartered a boat for a day in hopes to find the perfect place. We considered driving the boat ourselves, but opted for a captain and it became immediately clear that was a good choice. Ironically, he was originally from Georgia, but had been down there for several years and seemed to have a good bit of knowledge of the areas and was a great guide. He took us to several bays and landmarks, but one stood out as we were passing by. It was a small, strange, almost man-made rock feature called Carvel Rock. The story was it had been repeatedly shot by cannons long ago when ships came to port and were required to discharge any weapons. Shortly past Carvel Rock is Congo Bay and Lavango Bay. The story we were told about Lavango Bay is that there was a brothel located on the island in the 18th century and it became known as “Love and Go Island”, hence the name Lovango. Ultimately we decided to scatter my Dad’s ashes between Congo Cay and Lovango Cay. We all said a few words and released his ashes.
I have never been and probably never will be a beach person, but I will admit the beaches and the scenery were impressive. It’s not the same white sugar sand found at Florida destinations, but the water is crystal clear, the beaches are less crowded and you will actually see tropical fish snorkeling about anywhere. The girls seemed to really enjoy the beaches and the pool. We tried to get them to snorkel with us, but they weren’t ready for that yet. About everywhere you go, you see lots of little fish, but at Secret Harbor and and Trunk Bay were particularly rich with sealife. We saw lots of fish, several sting rays, and a couple of turtles. I was able to get so close to the turtles I could have held on to their shells.
