Honeymoon in St. John - Days 4 and 5

Wednesday, Day 4: First thing we went to the local car rental place at the Westin coincidentally called O'Connors Jeep Rentals. Unfortunately they were out of Jeeps, no love for the newlywed O'Connors, so we got stuck with a Dodge Nitro. Next, we got snorkeling equipment. After stopping off for breakfast at a great little place called Baked in the Sun and getting sandwiches from a locally famous deli called Deli Grotto for a later lunch, we took off traveling clockwise around the island checking out the various beaches. First stop was Cinnamon Bay where my parents once stayed with a native named Victor who owned land there - it was a work for a place to stay situation - and also the place where Ali stayed on her trip to St. John with UNC. Next up was Trunk Bay where Danny and Marisol tied the knot. Maybe the only better way to get married, in our opinion, than the way we did it, might have been a wedding in Trunk Bay. Man was it beautiful. We spent a good amount of time snorkeling the beautiful reefs there, complete with an underwater snorkeling trail - very cool - got a little sun, then heading back to the Westin. That night we decided to have appetizers and drinks at a few places to get our fill for dinner. First up was the Beach Cafe, open air, right on the beach in Cruz Bay and great happy hour drink specials. Finally, we went to a Mexican place called Margarita Phil's for awesome nachos and way humongous margaritas. Very good, but enough to do us in for the night.


Thursday, Day 5: We kept the ole Nitro for one more day and decided to use it to explore more of St. John and ultimately do a hike down to Reef Bay. Everyone kept telling us to go with the USVI Park and hike down to Reef Bay, but then get a ferry back to Cruz Bay versus hiking back up the Reef Bay Trail, but we weren't scared. In the woods we saw giant spiders, giant hermit crabs (not like the ones you get at Wings and then they die the next day) and a couple deer. The trail also consisted of a couple sites of sugar mill ruins, the biggest and most intact being at the bottom of the trail. After checking out Reef Bay, we decided to trek over to Gentile Bay. There we collected an obscene amount of sea glass and waded in the water with a couple juvenile black tip sharks. Walking back up the trail started out easy, but towards the top we could definitely tell why locals urge tourists to just take the ferry. It would have been very hard for someone not in good shape. Despite being sweaty and nasty we drove to the Eastern side of the island to check out Coral Bay. Famous Skinny Legs bar and restaurant was closed, but Island Blues was open and had great fish and chips with Mahi and burgers. Coral Bay was pretty cool, but maybe too many goats and donkeys for my taste. After much needed showers we ventured into Cruz Bay again, this time hungry for Cafe Roma, known for their pizzas. It may sound like a heart attack waiting to happen, but the pizza we got was amazing - homemade meatballs, pineapple, onions and green peppers. Mmm Mmm. I think we just went home again after dinner which makes us seem kinda lame. There were definitely after dinner drinks at a few local bars on most nights, but nothing too crazy and , at least for me, nothing more memorable than our delicious dinners.