Ocean Surfari | Peaches Prattlings

{February 1, 2024} St Thomas Day 5: Oops, I forgot a few things!

Apologies, apparently when I made albums on my phone, I got dates wrong, I knew we did more on day 5! Let me tell you about the rest of the day!

It’s December 26th, we were up before dawn, go figure, not a new occurance on this trip for some reason, but it afforded us the opportunity to see some amazing sunrises and today was no different! We decided to go down to the beach to watch the sunrise.

We didn’t make it very long and realized why there weren’t other people on the beach at that time…the no-see-ums, biting little suckers! We have bites all over our legs from these things! UGH! They bite when the sun’s not out, hence sunrise, sunset, and if you have one on you, apparently you bring it with you, gee thanks! Anyway…we enjoyed the sunrise as long as we could and headed back to the room for breakfast and to get ready for the day, if you recall, we have a snorkel trip at 1p, but we’re not going to let the morning go to waste!

Back to Charlotte Amalie, park and make our way to the Hebrew Congregation of St Thomas, we tried to get there on Christmas, no go, they were closed like everyone else! I had been to the synagogue years ago on a cruise, unfortunately, I don’t really remember it, the one thing I do remember, the floor is covered in sand, isn’t that grand!?

It’s a beautiful synagogue, and there was a bat mitzvah that was going to happen that morning, we asked if it was alright if we still came in and they were gracious enough to allow us in, we could even stay for the mitzvah if we wanted to, very generous. We wished the bat mitzvah girl and her family much nachas, which is joy, and pride in someone’s accomplishments, she was excited and nervous. Becoming a bat mitzvah, or “daughter of the commandments,” signifies that a young woman has attained legal adulthood under Jewish law. A bat mitzvah is based on the centuries-old ritual of bar mitzvah, or “son of the commandments,” the ceremony for 13-year-old boys. I still remember my bat mitzvah date, November 4, 1984. Not sure if it’s something anyone forgets.

The synagogue was founded in 1796 and has a long and rich history. We toured the chapel, the tributes, the history and then joined the synagogue to support and keep them going, as honorary members, that was something I could support. Look at us, we joined a synagogue!

We left as the family was pouring in from all over the world, what a wonderful time in a young person’s life and what a joy for their family.

When we left we headed back to the car to cross something else off our list of things to do in St Thomas. We went to the Skyride to Paradise Point. It was a must see, we looked at the line and thought, ugh, they’re charging what to go up? Wait, we have a vehicle and we can drive up! Sold! Paradise Point is definitely worth seeing, the view is amazing! On a clear day, you can see St Croix and Puerto Rico! At the rate we were not having luck getting to St Croix, this view and from the snorkel trips are as close as we’re getting on this trip!

It was a windy ride up, but very much worth it! We walked around, PSM had a painkiller, signature drink of St Thomas apparently! I didn’t care for it, but you probably already knew that! One thing we found that we really grooved with was My Brother’s Workshop, an organization ‘Providing hope, faith, and purpose to at-risk and high-risk young people in U.S Virgin Islands.’ Everything in the shop was made by someone from My Brother’s Workshop, we bought a few things because we love to support organizations like that. And we get a wonderful memory from our trip, wonderful.

We checked our watches and knew we needed to get back to Ocean Surfari in Red Hook for our Do It All Snorkel trip! We got there, got our tickets and then went down to the dock and grabbed a bite at Tarpon’s Table. We enjoyed view, being on the dock and the tarpon in abundance. Ya gotta love creative bathroom signs!

And now…you’re caught up, I shared everything we did until we went on the snorkel trip. Was that enough? We definitely don’t let moss grow under our feet!

And now, I bid you adieu. Night!

{January 31, 2024} St Thomas Day 5: Do it all Snorkel

Sounds like a fine offer, ok we will! Let’s Do It…All! Snorkel!

The days started beautifully with a beautiful sunrise, not setting an alarm, yeah, I’d say beautiful! We had our next snorkel trip booked for 1pm, so we decided to head down to Charlotte Amalie first thing, to see what we could see and we saw!

We were looking for a place for breakfast, specifically at the moment, some decaf coffee for PSM, someone recommended the Parley Cafe and when we found it, we were very glad we did! It was cozy, bright, tropical, everything it should be, and…smelling y u m! We got tea and coffee and two home made pastries, oh yeah!

I texted my dad and my sister, who were in London at the time, what are the odds, I’m on an island in the Caribbean and in the cafe I walked in to, Paddington Bear is on the tv and they’re in London, maybe close to Paddington station!

After a light breakfast, we walked around Charlotte Amalie, a few more people, still not crowded, but the shops were open, the nice thing, not crazy busy since there weren’t any cruise ships in this morning. As with all our trips, we always look for a motorcycle dealership to get a t-shirt. The Harley Davidson dealership, which was a store, was closed, but their merchandise was being sold right around the corner, of course we had to go!

We picked up a shirt or two, I got a magnet and a sticker, and we both got water bottles and some stickers for the bottles so we could bring water with us wherever we went. We have a serious metal water bottle collection, but….we buy them where we travel, it’s a great memento of our trip and they usually have the logo of where we’ve been. I’ll show you our collection some time! Oh brother! We walked around, enjoyed the sights and sounds and then headed back towards Red Hook, we had a boat to catch!

We made our way to Red Hook to Ocean Surfari where we booked the Do it all Snorkel trip! We checked in, got our tickets, and waited for the go-ahead to head to the boat. And now it’s time! We got down to the dock, relinquished our shoes, handed in our tickets, and boarded the boat, the Reef Safari. We got the lowdown from the captain and first mates and we were off! They offered water, soft drinks, juice, no alcohol until we did our first snorkel, so they could tell what type of swimmers we were like and if we were different after a drink! ha ha. They had these cool cups that turned blue if the drink was cold! yes, we took a few, they said we could!

We headed over to Cruz Bay on St John pick some folks up, Ocean Surfari has locations on both islands, then it was off to our first stop. We geared up and got ready to jump in the water. It’s funny, you never know what the temperature of the water is going to be when you jump in, even if you were just in the water earlier, or know that the water is perfect where you are. But nothing to fear, jumped in and ahhhhh… the water was perfect temperature, it was clear in some places, cloudy in others, but just being in the water is enough for me!

I love my GoPro, but I don’t know if I get the most out of it! [I have a GoPro saga for you in another post!]. But I’m so happy not to have to deal with or worry about using my phone under water, no matter how waterproof my waterproof case is!

Back on the boat, off to the next location. We get about 45 minutes to an hour in the water in each place, not too shabby! PSM and I swim together, separate, come back together, swim, point things out to each other, just explore and love being in the water! There weren’t a lot of fish, it was mostly coral, but the coral was stunning, I’m just happy being around Mother Nature and Trident, what more can I say!

Back on the boat, the rum punch and painkillers were flowing as we headed back towards St John, but first…lunch at Pizza Pi VI in Christmas Cove of Great St. James. This was a floating pizza restaurant and it was great! You can see they have seating tied off the boat and we were stopped and the pizza was delivered to the boat! We had plain cheese and pepperoni and the pizza was pretty good! Yes, I ate it, when in Rome and all!

After lunch, we made our way back to St John to drop folks off, then back to St Thomas as the sun was setting, it was so beautiful, we had rain on one side and sunshine on the other, a very rare occurance indeed. The sun took her time setting and it was so worth it, the captain played music and told stories about the area.

One of the things I love about island life is the holidays, people light up their palm trees and boats, just imagine being on the water, after dark and people have their boats trimmed in different holiday lights, what could be better to put you in the holiday spirit?!

All in all, a great day, what more could you ask for? And now…I’m going to go to bed and dream about the ocean, pizza, coral, fish, boats. Mmmmm night!

{January 12, 2024} St Thomas Day 2: Red Hook and a Snorkel

I don’t think I ever got tired of that view! The only thing I wish our room had was a screen door to the balcony so we could have slept with the door open and had the sea air and breeze, sometimes, coming through the room. I do so love the sleeping with the windows open! Especially at the beach!

Waking up on our own with the sun, maybe even a little before…eventually got motivated and went down to the beach to put our feet in the sand and the sea, feel the water on my toes. I may have mentioned, our goal at every beach is to get our feet in the water and get a picture! I think I only missed doing that on one beach! I got pictures of the beach and in the water, but not our feet in the water.

What’s that song by Zac Brown, Toes? Yup, I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand. Not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand. Life is good today. For me, all except for the beer, spot on! I just put that song on and now I’m staring longingly at the window and the rain on it imagining its waves gently laping at the window! Sorry, back to you!

We went down to Sangria’s and got some breakfast, quite tasty actually, and not horribly expensive. It was the view that beat all! And with that view, what more could you want?! And one of my favorite parts of being at the beach and on an island, you can go almost anywhere barefoot! I am a barefoot baby, aside from being a beach baby, and if I can go barefoot, I’m doing it! And..having sand on your feet, what a great way to scratch your feet if there’s an itch! Win-win!

After breakfast we went to talk to the concierge and booked our first boat excursion for the next day! We picked up a calendar and some ideas on things to do, asked the hotel to get us a taxi to take us into Red Hook to get some groceries. I apologize, I don’t have any pictures of Red Hook except what I shared from the Tap & Still.

We went to Moe’s Fresh Market to pick up supplies. Turns out Moe’s, where they say “Welcome to Moe’s”! I couldn’t believe it!, is one of the pricier markets on the island, go figure! We did go to another market later in the week that was definitely cheaper, but we’re in a touristy area, so… but…what Moe’s does have is an amazing wine cellar, with not just wine, but hard alcohols, rum from the islands, of course. The food, it’s a gourmet market, was stupid expensive, you have to remember, everything has to be shipped in, think Whole Foods, but more expensive! But their wine cellar had some of the best alcohol prices on the island.

This was also when we found out, no Uber on the island, just taxis, and they charge not per trip, but per person, and it’s more expensive if you’re travling solo! We’re supporting local economy…If you do take taxis, be sure you have exact change, or at least singles, you won’t always get change back if your ride was $7 per person, were you going to give a $6 tip on a 5 minute ride? Just a piece of travel advice. The taxi drivers are all very nice and some will give you tips on local flavor, some try to send you to the very touristy spots, it’s a mixed bag, and adds to the experience.

After Moe’s we crossed the street to Ocean Surfari who would become some of our new best friends! They set us up with our next two ocean excursions! Tuesday will be our Do It All Snorkel, I can’t tell you about it now, but it involves water, a boat, snorkeling, alcohol, and pizza! More next time on that! And they also set us up with a day trip to Jost Van Dyke, British VI, more on that later!

Almost everything in the store was BOGO [buy one-get one free]! You cannot beat that! And…if you spend $50, you got a $10 off coupon. We spent, we got, we spent, we got! We ended up with some fun treats, a hat and swim trunks for PSM and I got a swim shirt and sweater/sweatshirt. And you could tell almost everyone on the island, tourist and local, went to their place! The island was a walking advertisement for this place! I also picked something up that I’m super excited about, but I’ll tell you another time!

After Red Hook, we went back to the hotel, it was time for water! We changed into a beach gear, grabbed our snorkel gear, headed to the hotel lobby to get beach towels, a short walk and we were at our beach. It really was a nice beach. We both got in the water, the snorkeling wasn’t great, turns out we needed to go past the swimming area to see stuff, we’ll know for next time.

After snorkeling, PSM went to rest on the beach, I put up my gear and went back to swim and stand in the water, I was just happy. A few days later PSM said it was almost impossible to get me out of the water! And? ha ha

As I was in the water I started talking to some people, you just randomly talk to people at the beach, especially when you’re at a resort, people are more chatty, it’s nice. I ended up talking to a woman about traveling and told her about PSM’s Bourbon Trail Ride, I’ll tell you about that another time! And we became friends, I even sent her the itinerary I built for PSM. Now, speaking of meeting people, almost everyone we met while we were there, I say almost everyone, was either from Massachusettes or Pennsylvania, not far from where we live, some southern connection, and Jewish. What are the odds on that one?!

I got out a little while later, PSM was happy on the beach talking to a guy, with a drink in his hand. We were both hungry so I went to Sangria’s and put some snacks on his open tab, and another rum, works for me! We ate and chatted with the family, I talked to my dad, sat in the sun, went in the water…it was like a wash, rinse, repeat for the holidays!

We stayed on the beach until the sun went down. Why do I hear The Cars song You Might Think…could be the line “But you kept it going, till the sun fell down, You kept it, going. Now you see how my brain works sometimes!
We kept moving from one spot to the next on the beach because the sun would set over here, but not over there, so we moved over there, then that would become over here, and the sun would set over here, but not over there. It was a vicisous cycle! You definitely do not hear me complaining!

For the life of me, I cannot remember what we did for dinner that night! It’s all good because the next day was great, and the next day, and the next. How could it be wrong in paradise.

More tomorrow!

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