St Croix

We do pay a price for these exotic holidays you know - and not just in dollars (although the dollar amount wasn't too bad!). We were on an 8am flight out of Dulles, so factoring in the drive out there, Hils and Paul picked us up at 5:30am. Which meant that I was out of bed at 4:30am. And because I was running around until 11pm packing, buffing and polishing, I paid in sleep! And will subsequently pay in extra polyfiller and paint required to make me look human!

When I booked the holiday on Monday, the girl from Expedia had said something about there only being 2 seats each side, so it must be a small plane. WRONG!! The flight from IAD to San Juan (in Puerto Rico) was in business class so we had red carpet treatment all the way!! My goodness, its the way to travel. Life behind the curtain is good!! Proper glasses for your drinks, a cooked breakfast...a girl could get used to it!!

On the red carpet. First class all the way!! (Or at least for the first flight!)

We weren't overly impressed with Puerto Rico when we flew over. It looked very built up - all high rise hotels. We had a short stop-over which we spent in the bar (where else?), before we hopped onto the turbo-prop for the island hop to St Croix (or Saint Croy as we've learnt to pronounce it). They announced a small delay as they were loading more luggage. We decided to accept this with good humour as it looked suspiciously like our luggage!!

The boys went off to sort out the hire car, and Hils and I went off to collect the luggage (and have a complimentary rum punch). We managed this without incident, unlike the boys who were STILL at the Avis desk as the lady on duty was having a moment as there was more than one customer that day... It was a fairly uneventful drive to the hotel. Stephen was navigating (not familiar territory for him!) and there were only a couple of confused moments...mostly down to not recognising that the B road was actually the major highway we were supposed to take!!

The hotel was nice. Surrounded in a horseshoe by hills covered in lush tropical vegetation. The rooms were huge, with a veranda, a sitting room, bedroom, shower area and vanity area. The rooms were maybe a little tired, but the public areas of the hotel were really nicely done. The rooms are due a refurb over the summer, so I guess they'll address the minor issues with the rooms. The pool was lovely - pretty deserted the entire time we were there - so we settled down for some ray-catching and a rum punch. This was something of a recurring theme!! The rum punches were damn fine!!!

Our room

Approaching the pool

The hotel grounds

The utterly gorgeous beach. The water was crystal clear.

The beach

Looking down towards the resort from the road

We were up at a reasonable time, despite being woken at 4am by a huge thunderstorm. As we were sitting down to breakfast Stephen spotted a school of fish leaping in the waves near the shore, their silvery bodies glistening in the (rather subdued) sunlight. This caused much excitement among everyone on the terrace including the staff!

We headed out in the afternoon with the idea of going to Christiansted. We only got a mile or so down the road to Cane Beach when we passed the St Croix Annual Kallaloo and Gumbo contest. There was a band as well as gumbo, so we stopped for a bit. It was packing up as we got there, so we got our bowls of gumbo for free. Very delicious! But the chef wasn't giving away his secret ingredient, no matter how much he was pressed...

We drove on towards Christiansted - which was closed! We walked around taking photos of the town which was pretty in a Caribbean falling-down kind of way. We jumped onto a little water taxi over to a hotel situated on a little island just in the harbour. We got fantastic views back to the town and all the buildings (including the fort) in its vibrant yellow colour.

Christiansted - on the boardwalk

The hotel on the island

View from the island to the town

We had dinner in Bogey's on the way back to the hotel. It had great sunset views and so Hils and I settled down with a drink whilst Paul and Stephen disappeared off to take loads of sunset photos. Both are keen photographers, so we were truly photo widows for a while. Lots of talk of f-stops and white balance. Stephen's camera is brand new and the manual is around an inch thick, so its taking him a while to fully get to grips with all its features!







Hils was disappointed to be denied lobster (it looked delicious) as they were expecting a party of 10 in for dinner and wanted to hold all their available lobster for them. Obviously a lobster shortage on St Croix!!

On Monday we went to Fredericksted (after pool lounging of course!). The drive there was interesting. One minute the road was fine, the next (as we got to the rain forest bit) it was gravel and pot-holed track! It took us a while to bump our way down the road, with Stephen doing a sterling job of avoiding the suspension-breaking potholes. It spat us out on a really lovely beach with a bar! Yay!! We felt compelled to stop for a look around and a drink. Hils had a nasty experience when she was walking through the grass to the beach in her flip-flops and the grass viciously attacked her. Seriously - it was nasty barbed stuff that clung to everything. There was a very "enhanced" young lady on the beach who was the object of much male interest - our two included!! Us ladies were more intrigued by the fact she appeared to be rubbing lotion onto a guy old enough to be her father!! We got to Fredericksted - to find it was shut! It didn't look as appealing as Christiansted, so we basically got back in the car for a drive around the island. We ended up with the Inn at the Wall for dinner. Great pizza. Great Punch. Great guitarist/singer.

Keep off da tree mon!

At the Inn at the Wall - with our pints of punch! Very pink and shiny!!





Hils and Paul looking much less shiny and more refined!

As we had lost all sense by the time we got back to the hotel we had another couple of drinks. Stephen was on a catch up mission as he'd been the designated driver, so he ordered a Painkiller - about 3 or four types of rum mixed together topped off with a miniscule dash of coke - then sent it back because he didn't think it had enough rum in it!! It came back with another generous half bottle or so in it. He could taste it then!! We had an uproarious rum-fuelled time....and struggled the next morning! None of us had anything more taxing for breakfast than toast and fruit!! And it was very telling that the order for lunchtime drinks was 4 cokes instead of the usual 4 rum punches!! Of course, this was the day we had planned to do the rum distillery tour! It took us a little while to find the place. Stephen had got us to the right place, but all of us failed to spot the large signs which said "Cruzan rum distillery tours this way" and other such small hints... It was only $4 for the tour, and it was accordingly informative...I now know that rum is made from molasses, yeast and water and that their stuff is sent to Florida to be bottled before being sent back...and that's about it!! Nothing about the history of the distillery, what molasses is etc. You did get a free rum punch at the end though. I think we all drank it like medicine!! It was cheap to buy their product though - $4 for a bottle!!

Lots of grog

We then went onto Christiansted again for a little light shopping. It was open this time! And there were some charming little shops. Hils got a lovely beaded bracelet, and I got a butterfly wrap which can be worn 5 ways. Its pretty light and scrunches up small, so its perfect for stuffing into my travel bag as I always feel cold on flights. Hils was very taken with the furniture shop across the street - until she realised it was a hotel lobby! Easy mistake to make...it didn't have a name, just a sign which said Open and reception was hidden behind a table and enormous flower display. After an ice cream we jumped back into the car to go to the Eastern most point of the USA - Point Udall. It was another bumpy ride for the last mile or so...which made the sunset chasing on the way back a little interesting! It had been a little cloudy, but suddenly the sun appeared and was making a rapid descent so we were desperately trying to get back to a spot (a bar preferably!) where we could watch it set. Of course, we were at the most eastern point of the island and the sun sets in the west, so it wasn't going to be an easy job...we gave up after trying 3 spots and went back to Christiansted for dinner.

We were walking around the boardwalk looking for somewhere for dinner, when this couple came staggering towards us. The woman could not walk straight - she was literally bouncing off the walls as her husband did a valiant job of trying to keep her upright. As we rounded the corner we came across a whole bunch of similarly plastered people - right off the sunset sailing trip to Buck Island. Everyone was totally sozzled!! They must have been really generous with the rum punches onboard.

We had dinner in the brew pub, and were sufficiently recovered to take full advantage of the 2 for 1 offer on beer and well drinks (which turned out to be G&T and rum and coke etc). Don't know exactly why the call them well drinks, when they're going to make you anything but...

There was a great guitarist singer playing in the bar. Hold on! Doesn't he look familiar to you?? Yes, it was the same guy from last night!! So we had the pleasure of listening to Mercy Childs two nights in a row.

Point Udall

Looking West from Point Udall

I woke up slightly pink this morning, so it was probably as well that the weather was a little overcast. We spent several minutes huddled together under the pool umbrella waiting for the rain showers to pass. Stephen had a little visitor to his sunbed - a little baby gecko. Just as well he didn't crawl on me - otherwise he would have been an airborne baby gecko!

A baby gecko crawling onto Stephen's flip flop

Paul and Hils headed back to DC on Wednesday after lunch, so we hired a jeep and did a little exploring. The USVI tourist office are very generous. When we checked in we got a $100 room credit, a $50 gift card and 4 vouchers which could be traded in for spa treatments, tours, golf and car hire. So we have them to thank for our 2 day jeep hire. We decided to take a run to South Point beach - supposed to be the most beautiful on the island. We got there to discover it was closed until September as there were sea turtles nesting on the beach. Then we decided Whim Plantation would be interesting - Closed! The Botanical Gardens - Closed!! Really there was nothing else for it than to find a nice bar and enjoy happy hour. We headed back to the bar where we had seen the "Keep off da tree, Mon" sign and had a really delicious meal. It was the most "Caribbean" meal we'd had! (Although it was actually fusion cuisine). Jerked chicken spring rolls with lots of ginger, followed by West Indian Shrimp curry which was simply delicious and a slow burner....didn't seem too hot, but had a surprise in store! The chef was from Dominica and the waiter was from Virginia. The place was really busy that night and he was practically running from tables on the terrace to tables on the beach. He could definitely do speed-walking at the Olympics!!



We cashed in another couple of our vouchers for a massage and a manicure on Thursday morning. We hit the pool for a while, but it was really showery and it didn't take long before we got fed up being rained on and headed off and to try and get into the places we didn't see yesterday. Whim Plantation was quite interesting. There were structures all over the island which had been the subject of debate - some in the car had thought they were defensive towers, and others had thought they were windmills for sugar production. Well, all I can say is Girl Power!! We were of course, correct!! At one point the whole of St Croix - even the mountainous bit - were planted with sugar cane and, as all the plantations had to harvest and process the cane at the same time, they each had to have their own sugar mill - and often distillery! The visit answered some unanswered questions, so here is a brief guide to sugar production! After the cane was cut (apparently women were better at this than men), the stalks were fed through the mill once to break up the cane, then again to extract the cane juice. The juice was then heated in a series of copper pans, each smaller and hotter than the last with impurities being scooped off as they go. Finally the damp crystalised sugar (muscovado) was poured into large barrels (hogsheads) and the liquid that drains out is molasses - which is used in rum production. (Interesting fact - most brown sugars these days are made by combining white refined sugar with molasses, whereas muscovado is the real deal).



From Whim we went to the Botanical Gardens which were lovely. There was (another) sugar mill and distillery in the grounds as well as a water wheel and sections of tropical rain forest. We didn't realise that the map was practically lifesize and ended up missing the turning for the short route we had planned to take and ended up trecking through the rainforest section - complete with bitey insects and things rustling in the bushes. Arrgh! Get me out of here!!!!!

The Whim Windmill

The Plantation House at Whim

Ruins at the Botanic Gardens

Beautiful bouganvillia

I have to admit, I'm glad we didn't have the jeep when Paul and Hils were here. It was a struggle for me (with my short legs) to get into the front of the jeep. It would have taken two strong men and a winch to get me into the back!! It was only a two door, so getting into the back would have involved a double stretch. Lets face it - its hard enough getting into the back of a 2 door Fiesta - and that's pretty much at ground level!! But the jeep allowed us to take the scenic drive, so it was good to have for a couple of days.

The scenic drive was pretty scenic! You got fantastic views from the mountains that ringed the hotel, out over the island (views from one coast to the other! its only 7 miles...) and over the clear aquamarine sea. The scenic drive is also "4-WD only" for a good reason!! The tarmac disappeared after about 15 feet, and we were bumping along through enormous puddles, mud and potholes. Then we got onto the really bad bit - and discovered that it was actually route 58!!! We were laughing our heads off when we saw the sign! We weren't laughing quite as hard when we got to a junction of 3 dirt tracks and took one...which quickly degenerated into two tyre tracks though the grass. We stopped to take in the view and I was looking down a sheer drop down a cliff from the car window. We decided that we probably should make our way back. Stephen turned to me:

"I'm going to need your help"

"Okay. What do you want me to do?"

"Get into the drivers seat and turn the car around for me"

Having assessed the options we decided to press on for a bit until we could find somewhere to turn that wouldn't involve us manually lifting the car up to turn it!! Eventually we came to a turning spot, but only after driving along a track with a big drop and a huge camber which felt like we were about to pitch sideways over the edge...which we then had to pass back along to reach the more major dirt track. The adrenalin was pumping!!!

As feared - the shorts do make me look like Lofty! Me beside the jeep.

In retrospect this bit of the road didn't seem too bad!!

Highway 58....

A little bumpier - but again - in retrospect...

Compared to this section anything we had bounced across previously was like the M25!!

The views were worth it though! The resort nestling by the beach.

Look at that view!

Friday was the usual rush of fitting in the packing with the rays-catching by the pool. We shared a taxi down to the airport with another couple who were telling us that the former Attorney General Gonzales was staying at the resort and had been down at breakfast this morning. Can't say that I would have recognised him, but apparently all of the Americans did.

We had fun at the airport. Firstly it seems like American changed their checked baggage policy whilst we were away and wanted to charge us $25 to check a 3rd case. As it was tiny we decided to take it as carry-on. Of course, as we went through security I lost my super-duper tropical strength (necesary in by backyard!) mozzie repellant as I had forgotten I had stuffed it into the case and it was too big for TSA regulations. We also could have had fun when we got to immigration - just as well we actually took our passports is all I can say!! Everyone had told me that you don't need a passport to go to the USVI. And you don't - as long as you are American!!!! Because its a territory rather than a state, different rules apply. We got all the way to Hawaii and back on our US drivers licences...but this was different! No problem getting into the USVI - but it could have been a big problem getting out!!

The biker invasion

I swear all I have done each evening this week is laundry!! I've done at least a load every night this week. Even my dryer is finding it hard going! It ate one of Stephen's shirts in a fit of pique tonight. It chewed a neat square off the bottom - I guess it was biting back after its exhausting week!!

All of the laundry was in aid of packing for going to St Croix in the US Virgin Islands tomorrow (yay!). I know - yet another exotic holiday!! No-one will be speaking to me at this rate!! I promise we're not going anywhere else for at least another few weeks!

It is Memorial Day weekend this weekend and Old Town has been invaded by bikers. Not as scary as it sounds as pretty much all of them seem to be aged between 50 and 70 and sporting incontinence pads as well as bandanna's!! They have pretty cool bikes though, even I had to admit that! There were around 30-odd bikes parked each side of just ONE block of King Street, each of them polished until it was absolutely gleaming. Lots of Harleys. Lots of custom-shop Choppers. Stephen keeps saying he wants one, but he wants the self-polishing kind!

The Grand Finale

Well, rather disappointingly, Tim didn't make the effort with the sequins when he came round to watch the finale of Dancing with the Stars on Tuesday, but I he did admit that we could check Fake Tan off the list! It was a great show and the predicted winner came through victorious! Unlike American Idol last night, which was more of a surprise! It was a great results show, but I know that some of you watch it in the UK and won't have seen it yet, so I won't spoil the surprise. All I'll say is that the winner is called David...

All the TV shows are coming to an end this week as Summer officially starts on Monday which is Memorial Day and all of America moves outdoors until Labour Day at the beginning of September. Every night this week there have been umpteen finales as all the shows ties up the loose ends and leave you with a stonking cliffhanger to ensure that you stay interested when September rolls around. Our DVD is stuffed full with shows we still have to watch - and will probably never get round to watching either!

My little sweetie came home last night. He dropped me an e-mail from the golf course yesterday afternoon to say that he was coming back home last night and bringing Simon with him. So I duly cleaned the guest bathroom, made up the bed and generally cleaned like a woman possessed...only to discover when he turned up at 10pm that he was alone!! Ah well, I'm sure the effort wasn't in vain...I have two perfect rooms available for the next visitors!

We've just done a quick run round Target as we're off for a(nother) holiday on Saturday and I needed "stuff" - nail polish remover, shampoo, books - you know - stuff!! I also needed shorts and there was no time at all to go to a mall and look in clothes shops, so hopefully the ones I grabbed are okay and won't make me look like Lofty from It Ain't Half Hot Mum. Now I just need to find time to do a quick Mani/Pedi and all the other stuff girls need to do before a holiday!!

Laundry or Golf - Stephen makes his choice

Why is it that holiday washing seems to multiply in the case on the way back in the plane? I don't know where it all comes from, but I'm still doing laundry 3 days after we got home!! Stephen has disappeared over to Lansdowne (luxury hotel, spa and golf resort) for a 1 1/2 day conference which is taking the best part of 3 days (!) due to golf and has left me alone with the Tide and the Downy...He couldn't have planned it better really! Still, I'd better get it all done as we're off on hols with Hils and Paul at the weekend and can't be running out of undies before the next packing session...

Paul has been my KISA this week as Stephen has run off to Lansdowne with the car. This has been pretty much the only time this year when we could have done with having two...not bad really. It gets us into the groove for coming back to the UK and being economical and eco-friendly by only running one car...what am I saying?? Fat chance of that!!!

The final of Dancing with the Stars is on tonight, and Tim from the office is coming round to watch it with me. I need to go and prepare myself for the occasion - get my fake tan out, my sequins on and practise shaking my booty... I'll let you know if Tim has gone to the same trouble!

I've just been a clever clogs and managed to work out how to insert a hit counter on here. I'll now be able to see just how few of you actually read it!!!

See ya later Alligator...

It's our wedding anniversary this weekend, so as we had some leave booked we decided to hop on a plane somewhere warm and sunny. We booked to go to Naples in Florida earlier in the week and Thursday morning saw us getting on a plane at Reagan National airport bound for Ft Myers. It was an easy 2 hour flight and then an easy 45 minute drive down to Naples. I had forgotten how much I like Florida!! Sunshine and palm trees always makes me happy!

Naples is gorgeous! Very upscale! We were staying on 5th Avenue at Bayside and had a room overlooking the marina. We did a quick change and walked down 5th Avenue stopping off for a coffee and sandwich (got to have Starbucks!) and later on a beer in the Irish bar where we sat on the patio and did some people watching. 5th Avenue is full of little boutiques and restaurants and there were quite a few Ferrari's and Lamborghini's cruising up and down.

Before we wandered back down for dinner we stopped off at the terrace bar overlooking the marina. I was sitting there sipping my wine when I spotted Flipper in the marina. There was a dolphin swimming about beside the boats, which we took pleasure in watching for about 15 minutes before it disappeared off elsewhere.

We had dinner in a super restaurant called Bistro @ 821. We kicked off with a killer G&T - there was not a lot of T in the G that's for sure! The food was really good, but the portions were huge which was a little off-putting. My pasta dish would have fed 3 people, and it seems such a waste to me. Of course Americans would box it to go and have it later. This really is something of a cultural divide!! Ask most Europeans if they want a to-go box and they will go "Eeeeeeuuuugghhhh". The thought of eating last nights dinner for lunch is not appealing! And there is the food safety issue (my mum is rolling her eyes here - I just know it!). One waitress we spoke to said she keeps and eats her to-go boxes for several days. Think of the bacteria...having had bad food poisoning a few years ago, its not a risk I'm ever going to take!!

Actually, there was a certain someone who looked like they wanted to share my dinner. I kept seeing a shadow out of the corner of my eye, and down in the shrubbery was a little mouse who kept popping out have a look. I immediately moved my handbag onto the seat and my feet off the floor. If little mousie had run across my feet you would have heard my screams all the way back in the UK!

The Bayside complex and marina

On the terrace bar at the hotel

The shirt...

At dinner on 5th Avenue

We headed down to the pool to catch some rays first thing in the morning. We were having a lovely time reading, snoozing and luxuriating in the sunshine. Then both of our Blackberries burst into life. There was a problem with the IT system in work and they needed a Brit to reset something in the server room. Good news was Paul B was there and available to do it. Bad news was he needed the code for the safe (which I set 10 months ago). I had to search deep into the recesses of my brain to remember what it was!!

We went off exploring in the afternoon. We took a run down to Marco Island just south of Naples. It is another exclusive and expensive place! We passed street after street of huge houses which all have their own boat mooring on the network of canals leading out to the Gulf of Mexico. The beach was lovely - totally deserted and pure white sand. It would have been perfect if not for the high-rise apartments building built right beside the beach. WHY?????!!!!! We stood on the shore and watched the fish leaping high out of the water. It was very peaceful.

We also did an air boat tour in the Everglades. It was $20 more to have a small boat to ourselves so we decided that it was worth the extra. Carl was our captain and he gave us a choice...slow and dull or fast and fun. Of course, we opted for slow and dull....KIDDING! We went for fast and fun and it was certainly that!!! I should explain that Carl was a mountain man from the depths of deepest, darkest West Virginia and I suspect that he learned to drive evading the sheriff on the Moonshine run!!! He likened driving the air boat to driving a pickup on sheet ice. Wowee - it was a fun ride!! Skimming over the water at about 30-40mph, doing handbrake turns...what a rush! It was educational too. He knew a lot about the wildlife - the plants, the birds (we saw Egret and a Great Blue Heron) and of course, the alligators! His first job at the centre was wrestling the alligators (a popular Florida tourist attraction), and he was showing us the scars on his hands and arms from the times when one would get the better of him. He was great at spotting them in the water and we got pretty up close and personal with a few! We came across one at the edge of the mangroves and it moved off a few feet as we drew up so, to get it to say hello he was throwing bits of stick onto its snout. It completely ignored this - which I'm kind of glad about!! These beasties can apply a huge pressure (3000 psi) with their jaws and even though we were with the gator wrestler I wouldn't have liked to find out just how painful that was. If gators find Scottish ladies as tasty as the mossies do then I was in trouble!

We stopped in to see Naples pier on the way back. This was nothing like Blackpool I can tell you!! Its used mainly as a fishing pier, and as a spot to watch the sunset. Its set on white sand beaches as far as the eye can see. I had a totally senior moment when we were parking the car! Stephen asked if I had any quarters for the parking meter and I said "No, but I loaded up the compartment with about $10's worth the other day - there are loads in there"....he looked at me as if I was dumb (which I was!) and pointed out that I had loaded up OUR car with change and not the rental car. D'oh! My grey must be showing again!!

Naples beach looking north

The famous Naples fishing pier

Naples beach looking south

The deserted white sand beach at Marco Island.
A prime example of how a high rise can spoil a view!

In an air boat made for two

This is the gator Carl was throwing bits of stick at!

In the driving seat beside Captain Carl

A gator

Saturday was definitely hotter that Friday had been. We lasted a few hours by the pool, but I had to wave the white flag of surrender when I turned into a hot, sweaty thing. It was time for a shower and some lunch! For the first time on the trip we wanted an inside table so we could luxuriate in the air conditioning...and we certainly appreciated it!! Afterwards we drove along to 3rd Street and had a quick wander round. It was very pretty, but "quick" was the key word. It was so hot we had to seek shade! Ahoy Starbucks! Iced green tea certainly hit the spot. I could probably have drunk about 5 gallons of it though!!

3rd Street S

5th Avenue, Naples.

Naples in the evening

As it was our wedding anniversary on the Sunday when we were travelling home, so we decided to celebrate a day early. We went on a sunset tour round Naples Bay and out into the Gulf of Mexico. I mentioned that Naples was pretty upmarket? Well it seems that being a millionaire doesn't cut it these days. The Billionaires have squeezed out the millionaires! The houses (occupied only part of the year) were pretty spectacular! There were one or two of the original houses - large but nothing too spectacular compared to the hotel sized properties that were built more recently. I wonder if they suffer from house envy? One sight that we didn't really need to see was the 50-something bloke wearing nothing but a cowboy hat and a thong swimsuit riding past on his speedboat waving at us!!

The cheaper end of the luxury houses!

A fairly modest little pad. The cost of these houses ran to around $20M!

A compact and bijou holiday home

A two boat family!!

On the sunset boat tour of Naples - looking a little windswept!

Our anniversary dinner (a day early, but we were travelling on the day itself - not so romantic!)

We were up at 5am this morning as our flight was at 7:45 and the airport was 45 mins drive away. I'm getting better at getting up in the middle of the night! I had to give directions as it was taking too long to programme the satnav. It was a simple route so I wasn't worried...but did have to shout at Stephen when he saw a sign for an airport and began to move over to take the exit....I had to point out that we had driven for 30 minutes down the interstate to get to Naples on Thursday, that we had only driven for 15 mins and that was the sign for the local airport! I guess he doesn't do early mornings too well!! The other minor panic was getting gas for the hire car. We were supposed to fill it before returning but we tried 3 gas stations and couldn't find one that was open!! Arrggghhh!