Archive for February, 2007
Friday, February 16th, 2007
 Go ahead and finish the sentence. Because there is a brand new ice cream shop in town and Colette, the owner, is serving up SOFT SERVE! Oh yes ice cream fans. The real thing. And, once again, here is somebody who came up with a great idea and chased the dream. From school teacher to soft serve queen. Her brand new ice cream shop is called “i scream!”, and it’s in Wharfside Village, a relocation from what had been her tiny, tiny ice cream shop near the old barge dock. Sample the Caramel Cookie sundae, and meet very pretty Colette, cute elf hat and all, here!
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Friday, February 16th, 2007
You think TSA doesn’t have fun with us at the x-ray belt? To tell you the truth, we sail through security at National Airport in Washington. It is at the St. Thomas airport that we have to play show and tell. Not sure if that means they don’t know what they’re doing up here…or they don’t know what a camera is down there.
Off we go for our monthly visit to find fun stuff to keep OSJ well fed. Fire up the Viking. Time to test some Vittles!
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Thursday, February 15th, 2007
 Here is Michelle, from the Beach Bar, part two. And today, Michelle makes us a Bushwacker “the right way.” (Her words, not ours.) We have no idea what the history of this drink is, but there are a lot of bottles tipped in its making. We’ve never tried it, but Bolongo Bay on St. Thomas has a bushwacker crème brulee on the menu. No blow torch required for Michelle’s version. Order your bushwacker, made the right way, here!
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Thursday, February 15th, 2007
This showed up in the vittles inbox, and we thought we’d pass it along. Sounds fun!
BEST RUM CAKE EVER
1 or 2 Quarts highest Quality Rum (Cruzan Gold) 
1 Cup Butter
1 tsp Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 Cup Dried Fruit
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Soda
Lemon Juice
Brown Sugar
Nuts
Before you start, sample the rum to check for quality. good, isn’t it? Now go ahead. Select a large mixing bowl, measuring cups, etc. Check the rum again, it must be just right. Pour 1 level cup of rum into a glass and drink it straight down. High quality rum will not burn, but will go down smooth and impart a mellow feeling. If there is any doubt, repeat the above step. With an electric mixer, beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of thuger and beat again. Meanwhile, check the rum again, to ensure that the quality is still there. Open another bottle, if necessary. Add 2 arge leggs, 2 cups of fried druit and beat till high. The druit gets stick in the beaters just pry ot loose with a drewscriver. Check the rum again for tonscisticity. Next sift 3 cups of pepper or salt (it doesn’t matter which you use). SAmple the rum again. Sift 1/2 pint of lemon juice. Fold in chopped butter and strained nuts. Add 1 babblespoon full of brown sugar or whatever other color you can find. Wix well. Grease over and turn cake pan to 350 gredees. Now pour the whole mess into the coven and ake. If there is any run left, treat yourself to a drink and bo to ged.
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Wednesday, February 14th, 2007
 Trunk Bay is one of the most-photographed beaches in the Caribbean. And rightly so. The first time you stop at the overlook on the North Shore road and look down on Trunk Bay, it takes your breath away. It is often crowded by St. John standards, but crowded on St. John is a relative term. You can get something to eat here, or buy a T-shirt, or rent snorkel gear. And there is the famous underwater snorkeling trail. No trip to St. John is complete without at least one visit to Trunk Bay. Trunk Bay deserves two Beach Break installments. So in part one, an introduction to your arrival. Keep your money in your water wallet. This visit is free. Go here!
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Tuesday, February 13th, 2007
 The number one reason building a house on St. John has gotten so expensive is the cost of concrete. We’ve heard all sorts of excuses for why concrete costs have gone so wildly out of control and why concrete is so hard to get. Some of them plausible, some ridiculous. “It’s all going to China.” “OSHA shut down the plant.” “A speed boat hit the barge and it sunk to the bottom of the ocean.” “There’s no sand.” “A guy died.”
Here is the latest excuse for why concrete is hard to get. Cricket. Yep. Cricket. The ICC Cricket World Cup is being held at several venues down-island, “and all the islands are building new stadiums.” That’s as good as any excuse we’ve ever heard! It’s hardly “all of the islands”, but quite a few (including one being built…by China.) See for yourself here.
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Monday, February 12th, 2007
 In On-StJohn’s newest feature, Villa Vittles and Vitals, we ask you to submit a recipe for your favorite make-it-at-the-villa dish or drink. We’ll make it, shoot it and review it. (There is a darn tasty-sounding shrimp recipe posted on the usvi-on-line forum right now, and if you know this guy, encourage him to submit it here.) Winners get one of our brand new, way cool, OnStJohn t-shirts (details to follow!). We’ll choose a winner once or twice a month. DO NOT submit your food or drink recipe under comments. Submit your recipe here! (Just put “vittles” in the subject line.)
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Sunday, February 11th, 2007
 Here’s our submission for the new USVI flag. Says enough, don’t you think? Oh, you missed this story? A VI senator (Alvin Williams, Jr.) is proposing a bill that would create a committee to come up with a new design for the USVI flag. He thinks the current flag, designed in 1921, is too colonial. And the flag committee would get a $300,000 budget, PLUS salaries for clerical and administrative staff, PLUS per diem pay for flag commission meetings. The nine member flag commission would include 8 people from St. Thomas and St. Croix and only one member from St. John. We kinda like the current flag. We now know why the eagle is clutching three arrows. One for each island. Here’s the story.
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Saturday, February 10th, 2007
 We saw some questions about this camera posted on one of the travel forums, so we thought we’d weigh in with our two cents worth. We bought an Olympus Stylus 720 SW about six months ago and just recently had guts enough to see how well it works under water. (Well, duh, but at around $300, you kinda get nervous the first time.) Pentax also makes a waterproof camera, which was our first choice, but it was sold out everywhere when we were shopping.
Our impression of the Olympus? This camera is GREAT on land. It is full-featured and sexy-small. There is however no viewfinder. LCD screen framing of your shots only. Underwater, the pictures are good, as is the video. We’re disappointed the lens doesn’t have threads for filters. A yellow or orange filter really improves underwater pictures. Those are the first colors water filters out of the spectrum, and that’s why underwater pictures often look blue. For underwater stills, there are several settings to choose, and the flash WILL work with most of them. It is best to force the flash (turn it to “on”, not “auto”.) Use the flash. It goes a long way toward correcting the blue. At least up close.
The video is a fun feature, and actually not bad quality. Here is 20 seconds of video of a parrot fish at Trunk Bay. It will take a while for this to download, because it is raw, right off the camera. We didn’t compress it or stream it, so anyone interested in this camera can see the exact quality video it captures. The camera operator also won’t be getting any calls from the Cousteau team anytime soon.
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Saturday, February 10th, 2007
 Spotted near Alfredo’s….a flatbed truck driver managed to maneuver these gigantic palm trees up the drive. Josephine Roller at Coral Bay Garden Center says palms like this can live in root ball form for quite awhile. These are rich people palms. This kind of instant gratification…20 or 30 foot palms…can cost anywhere from $6,000 to as much as $10,000 a piece or more, especially the king daddy Royal Palm. Next time you’re at Cinnamon Bay, look up at Ritchie Rich’s house (that’s what we call the monster house on the tip at Peter Bay.) At least 3 dozen gigantic, gigantic palms were recently planted up there, towering over the property. Sure, there’s probably some kind of bulk-palm-tree-discount, but still…do the math! That’s a lot of normal people paychecks blowing in the wind up there.
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Friday, February 9th, 2007
 There is no shortage of great, live music on St. John. Marty Beechler, aka Marty Beech, is one of the island’s most prolific performers, covering great rock bands as well as his own material at venues around the island, like Chloe and Bernards, Infusions and The Beach Bar. And now Marty Beech has his own CD called Summer Wind, a Tribute to Frank Sinatra. Meet Marty, hear his “how I got here” St. John story, and find out the inspiration for his tribute to Old Blue Eyes in OnStJohn TV’s newest interview. Watch it here!
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Thursday, February 8th, 2007
A very strange thing has been happening at Frank Bay in recent days. Someone, unknown who, has been seen very, very early in the mornings building mysterious objects out of rocks and coral. Eerily similar to figures that regularly appear miles away on the far side of the island at Drunk Bay. An uneasy tension has fallen over nervous Frank Bay neighbors. Who is this man? What is his message? Is it a man at all? If you’re on island soon, don’t miss the chance to watch at least one sunset at Frank Bay. But beware. Somewhere close by, a mystery (man?) with rocks and coral is planning his next creation.
VIDEO ALERT: What does Frank Sinatra have in common with St. John real estate? Meet Marty Beech, tomorrow on OnStJohn TV!
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Wednesday, February 7th, 2007
This week’s Beach Break is one of St. John’s most beautiful beaches, and it’s also one of the least people-lated. There’s frequently very few people on this beach. For one reason: You either have to boat there or walk there. If you’re rich, anchor your multi-million dollar yacht or sailboat just off the beach. If you’re not, dinghy in, or hike in. It’s an easy, easy hike on the Lind Point Trail that you can pick up by the National Park Dock across from Mongoose Junction. Today, we’ll walk there. (It’s really more of of a sort of long walk, not a hike.) Salomon Beach Break here.
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Wednesday, February 7th, 2007
 Not funny. But kinda is, since nobody got hurt. The local paper reports two jeeps (both yellow by the way) collided head-on last week on the road that runs from the barge dock to Marketplace. The Tradewinds says one of the drivers was on the wrong side of the road. We are more worried about all the trucks than forgetful vacationers. The trucks have always been a scary problem, but it just kind of seems they’re driving faster and crazier than ever. Please remember to stay on the left. And if you hear a big truck gearing down around the corner or over the hill, stay way, way left. Some of these truck drivers think the line in the road is meant to be straddled.
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Tuesday, February 6th, 2007
 Virgin Grand Estates finally has new signage at its entrance, after years of a tattered, faded piece of plywood. We think VGE is the new IN ‘hood. After decades of starts and stops, it has really started to develop. There are some great villas up there, many of them in rental programs. Years ago, you could access Virgin Grand Estates right from South Shore Road. The road is still there. Turn left at the Westin into the timeshare drive. It’s been blocked off for a long time, after a dispute between the developer and the hotel. SOMETHING YOU MAY NOT KNOW: If you rent a villa up there, you can still walk down the hill to that entrance. A nice short cut to the Westin for lunch or hanging out at Great Cruz Bay. Don’t think I’d do it at night though. It’d be creepy scary walking up the hill in the dark.
VIDEO ALERT: Tomorrow we’ll take a short hike to Salomon Beach.
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Monday, February 5th, 2007
 The photo in last Sunday’s NYT identified as a St. John villa is “Cote’ Sud,” according to the nice folks at the Travel Section desk. (When you’re On-StJohn, your emails get answered.) And now we know why we didn’t recognize the villa. Cote’ Sud is actually on Frenchman’s Bay on St. Thomas. The NYT even referenced it in a recent NYT article about Virgin Islands real estate. I’ve informed the Gray Lady of this horrible, horrible error. Look for it to show up in the Corrections box (not.)
It looks like a great house though. Check it out here.
Also…there was not one Caribbean mention anyplace in either the WPO or NYT travel sections this weekend. And you know what that means. We’re on the downhill side of winter! You’ll be walking the dog in your flip-flops again before you know it.
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