On the rare morning when the sun is shining and I get to enjoy a run outside, please let me finish without being caught in a violent, windy, rain storm.
Oh and could you PLEASE do something about the 80-90% humidity?
Sincerely,
"Soaked"
6.30.2009
6.25.2009
6.20.2009
The City I love + Tropical Paradise= one AMAZING Vacay!
My fabulous vacay with my mother-in-law started in the one and only, NYC! We stayed at a hotel right in midtown so that we could wake up early and stay out late and get the most that we possibly could out of this beautiful city! Here are some highlights:
There are now bleachers and lawn chairs set up on Times Square so people can just sit and enjoy the ambiance of the city. When I asked an officer what was the purpose--he profoundly said just that--"If you put out chairs, people will sit". I like it.
- Shopped till we dropped in the wholesale district.
- We attempted TWICE to win the lottery for Wicked.
- Won the lottery for 9 to 5! Malinda's name was the very first to get drawn out!
- Searched high and low for this famous burger joint. Once in the hotel it's located in the only help we received was a head tilt from the bartender. (wow is this place really that secretive?). Finally, after looking behind a big red curtain in the lobby we found this lovely sign pointing to the restaurant.
- The menu consisted of ONLY burgers, fries, and shakes. But they were some of the best I've had. If you're ever in NYC, I highly recommend joining the locals and eating at this place --if you can find it.
- 9 to 5 was cute and sassy. I really wanted to see Wicked again BUT it was splendid to see a show I haven't seen.
- Because we love this place oh so much we walked many blocks after midnight to find it.
To our delight they had a new flavor of yogurt--pomegranate! YUMMY!
We regretted not getting the big sizes.
- The next morning we happened across an antique flea market! MY FAVORITE! I love antiques! Even though we already had a full to-do list we spent a couple of hours looking at all the old goodies.
- I picked up some lovely things for myself! Jewelry, the cutest little baby dress (no I am not pregnant) and some stuff to make some lovely vintage necklaces...hopefully.
- Ate lunch at this fabulous deli--if you are ever walking around the wholesale district and run into this deli you must stop in for a bite.
- Shopped on canal and visited our fabulous vendors there.
- Magnolia's Bakery. Featured on sex and the city and in many other shows--famous for cupcakes--also a favorite of mine!
Vanilla with chocolate, pumpkin with cream cheese, vanilla/vanilla, and red velvet. I ate all but one. And it was SO worth it! We also had coconut cake (pretty good) and key lime cheesecake (amazing!)
- We went to the park across the street from Magnolias to eat our goodies. As I looked around I saw everyone eating cupcakes--so I fondly named the park "cupcake park".
- Dinner at Tartine, a fabulous LITTLE french restaurant. We ate some interesting things--including caviar. One of my favorite things about the restaurant is that it was lit by little light houses placed all throughout the restaurant.
After 2 FABULOUS days in NYC we arrived in ST. THOMAS!
This is the view from our hotel room. Heavenly. Our hotel was located on Lindbergh Bay, one of the top 10 beaches of St. Thomas.
- We surprised Alyse at Del Sol where we were "laid" with sea shells.
- Ate lunch at greenhouse.
- Went to Alyse's house where we jumped in her home made foam pit and drank pina coladas!
- We tried to go to the movie on the beach but they had canceled it that night so we went to a BBQ at one of the local's mansions on Magen's Bay. There was a full moon!
- Malinda and I spent the majority of the next day lounging at the beach.
This guy stopped in for a visit--we thought it was funny at first--and then he started chasing us.
He jumped up on Malinda's chair while she was on it.
And then he jumped over to my chair---you can see in this picture he is on the move. He kept chasing us down the beach. We thought he wanted our food but one of the locals told us he wanted ME--I guess they eat pink flowers and my bathing suit was bright pink--he thought I was lunch!
- Laid out and read ALL day.
I missed my hubby!
- We ate at a mexican restaurant on the beach for dinner.
- The rest of the night we sat on the balcony reading our books (we were both reading the book "Outlander" and it was so good) while enjoying the sound of the ocean.
- The next day was spent in BEAUTIFUL St. John.
This next picture is of Cruz Bay.
- We spent the day snorkeling in Trunk Bay. There is a cool under water snorkel trail there. The water was so blue and clear--I think it was my favorite beach.
Cruz Bay from above.
- We ate at Cafe Roma (the best italian in the Virgin Islands according to the locals).
- Rode the ferry back to St. Thomas in the dark. There is something scary about being in a small boat on a huge ocean in the pitch black.
- Watched SYTYCD.
- Drank more pina coladas.
- The next day we went to St. John again, this time with Alyse and a couple of her room mates.
Riding in the open air taxi--or "safari" as they call it.
- We first visited the 18th century Annaberg sugar mill ruins.
- We got to enjoy some sugar cane and it was actually really good. You "chew it like chicklets" is what a local told us.
Coconut tree.
- We hiked along Leinstar bay so that we could snorkel around Water lemon cay (the best snorkeling on the island).
The tip of the main land is where we hiked to and the little island is water lemon cay. We had to swim over to it to be able to snorkel around it.
This little island is what we swam to, it was a lot farther than it looked! The snorkeling was fabulous but the current was pretty strong so it was a little tricky to swim around.
After snorkeling we went to cinnamon bay. It was pretty but it started to rain shortly after we got there so we didn't stay very long.
- One of Alyse's room mates is friends with the head chef/owner of an italian restaurant in St. Thomas named Romanos. It was very pricey but he ended up giving us free appetizers, entrees and dessert! It was delicious!
- Next day we woke up early and went to Coki beach. There were no cruise ships the whole week we were there so the beaches weren't busy at all--it was lovely!
- We did some more snorkeling at Coki and surprisingly saw different fish and sea creatures than we did in St. John. It was neat.
- View from lookout point.
- Alyse took us to a secret beach by Magen's Bay. Apparently it is the beach that a few of the mansions nearby use but no one was there so we took full advantage of having our own little beach for the afternoon.
Beautiful. This is part of Magen's Bay from the secret beach.
- Laid in the sun and read all afternoon!
- On saturday we spent the day at Sapphire beach. Famous for sea turtles but unfortunately we didn't see any! =(
- That night we went to Udder Delight--a famous dairy bar. Most of the shakes have alcohol but you can get it without! It was one of the best shakes I have ever had! I, of course, had to go a second time before we left!
- We went to Peterborg to watch the sunset. It is located on one of the tips of the island and is basically a whole bunch of crags. It was very hard to climb down in flip flops! I got a couple of gashes on my toes from falling on the sharp rocks!
- We had time before the sunset so Alyse, Brian, and I decided to jump in the whirlpool at the very bottom of the rocks.
- You can't tell in the picture but the rim of this whirpool was surrounded by sea urchins. It was only about 6 feet wide but about 12 feet deep. The only way to get in, to avoid being stung, was to jump right in (not knowing what was in the water). When we all got in a whole bunch of crabs scurried out (it made me wonder what else was in there). After threading water for a while we realized we hadn't planned how to get out without being stung. Unfortunately Alyse was the only one who made it out with a sting on her foot!
- Malinda removed the 6 spines in my foot but the ink and poison stayed inside for awhile. My foot was swollen and achy for the next week. But it was worth being stung for the adventure we had!
- The whole gang enjoying the sunset.
- After Peterborg Malinda and I went to tinkles, a bar at the marina, and listened to Andy play (he's in a popular band but I can't remember the name). He even played an Eric Clapton song for me.
- Bright and early the next morning we visited Drakes Seat. Supposedly sir Francis Drake sat here to watch his fleet sail the passage and to spy on vessels that entered the channel.
The view was amazing--I wish I had taken a panoramic picture because this doesn't do it justice.
- One of the friends of the girls took us on a tour of the entire island.
- Spent the rest of the day at Lindquist beach and had a potluck BBQ with a bunch of the girls friends--most of them were old enough to be their dads but they were cool.
- We also played some volleyball at the beach--minus the net. It was actually a lot of fuN!
- Someone on the beach told me I looked familiar and asked if I worked at Hooters--when I said "NO..." He said not the Hooters on so and so but the hooters over there blah blah... OK, SERIOUSLY do I look like I work at hooters? I didn't say that but graciously ran away instead.
- We also watched the sunset over Magen's bay.
Here are some pictures of the gorgeous St. Thomas sunsets!
- The next day we toured and shopped in Charolotte Amalie until our flight left that night.
I had never seen a plant quite like this--very interesting!
Worlds biggest amber waterfall.
- Toured Blackbeards castle. Learned a lot about all the famous pirates--it was pretty cool actually.
- Walked the famous 99 steps built in the 1700's.
- We also toured some old furnished houses from the 1700's--I love old furniture! It's so neat to think of the people who used, sat on, slept in or ate at that particular piece of furniture. There is a story behind every piece.
This particular home was built by a sea captain as a gift to a lady he wanted to marry. It was the biggest home on the island at the time (now second to the governors mansion). She declined the house and the proposal because the weather was too hot to her liking. What a wimp! If a guy built me a big beautiful mansion on a gorgeous tropical island I would marry him in an instant! =)
It was an amazing vacation but I missed Austin the entire time and was so GLAD to go home to him. 11 days is much too long to be apart! While I was away he was sick for 4 days with the flu and a fever---the majority of our ward has the swine flu to the point where they have advised people not to come to the meetings---so I am a little worried that he may have had/or still has the swine flu! I am happy to be able to take care of him! Next vacation I go on, he better be with me!
Hope you're all enjoying your summers!
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