St. John lover Kenny Chesney has picked my birthday, September 11, as release date for his latest CD. It‘s called “Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates.” If you’re interested, you can pre-order it for about half price at Amazon right now. There are 11 tracks, including a duet with George Strait called “Shiftwork”, and another called “Wild Ride” featuring Joe Walsh.
So, what‘s the CD‘s title mean exactly? “To me, it’s the pirates living in plain (sight) who, in some ways, are the greatest ones of all,” CBS‘s Showbuzz quoted Chesney as saying about the title. “You know, they’re living the normal life, but when they get away from that, their souls are just as free as anybody’s.”
Kenny, if you read this please email me another quote because I don’t understand this one. Anyway, here’s the Amazon link to pre-order.
We saw this in a cooler on a fishing boat at the National Park dock this week. The captain called it a Caribbean reef shark. That’s a three foot cooler. So add its tail and put its head back on, and that’s about a five foot shark. The Captain said it was caught near French Cap. We asked if that was good snorkeling out there. He looked at us, then at the cooler, then back at us and said “Good for who?”
(French Cap is WAY off the South shore, so this isn’t your typical beach snorkeling company.)
I would’ve opened its mouth for the camera, but I remembered the recent story about that kid who chopped off a rattlesnake’s head, and the head bit him anyway.
St. John’s entering that calendar void where hotel bookings and villa rentals slow to the lowest level of the year. Low season is when bars, restaurants, villa owners, management companies and just about anybody else who depends on you liking them repairs, replaces and repaints. Like Noah’s Little Arks. A brand new fleet of yellow dinghies (Yellow Boats are Cool) has just arrived, and this year, they’ll be sporting fancy, branded, painted motor hoods. So you don’t forget where to return it. Have we told you lately how fun a day on a dinghy is?
We’ll go out on a limb and call this Lindberg Beach, although technically the beach is actually in front of two hotels, Island Beachcomber and Emerald Beach Resort, which we’d stay at in a heartbeat if we were doing an overnight on St. Thomas. This is the park just before the airport, which is a GREAT place to stop if your travels from St. John went really well and you ended up getting to the airport way early. Finish your barge beer here, stroll the beach for one last taste of paradise, and pack an extra bottle of water. A liter of water is enough to wash off four sandy feet.
One caveat. We shot this on a day when a kid was having a birthday party in the park. There are many reasons I don’t have kids and at the top of the list is the fact that kids just make a whole lot of noise. So instead of a relaxing music bed, here’s the park by the airport, set to the endless cacophony of screaming little kids. Enjoy!
Since you liked Cruz Bay Cruise so much, we’ve decided to add a brand new, weekly feature. The JeepCam. But if we’re going to make this a regular feature, we’ve got to work on the production values. As one reader pointed out, “that inspection sticker’s got to go.” So…no shooting through the windshield.
After poking around at the hardware store considering various combinations of bungee cords, duct tape, pipe clamps and nuts and bolts…we decided not to risk seeing one of our cameras bouncing on the road in the rear view mirror. Simple is always best. We rigged a tripod in the cockpit and, voila! JeepCam.
Weekly JeepCam features coming soon. Requests encouraged!
Talk about a dream job. Jerry O’Connell is the proud owner of one of the best places in paradise. But he had to convince the previous owners he was the right guy to take it over first. Meet the guy who has the deed to Soggy Dollar Bar and Sandcastle Hotel, below…
My desktop is cluttered. To my dad, that literally meant his desk top. To me, and all of you, that means your desktop. But all those icons melt oh so peacefully into a constantly changing backdrop. And it is ALWAYS a St. John photo. So, what’s your monitor wallpaper? This is my current favorite. (Recognize that palm?)
(You don’t have to post a picture. Just tell us. But if you do…make sure it’s no more than 400 pixels wide. Otherwise, the site you mash it!)
If you’re new, here’s a quick introduction to the Cruz Bay loop. If you’re not, you’ll enjoy the quick drive around familiar territory. We’ll start at the Texaco station and end up at Mongoose Junction. We’ll point out the must-see spots along the way. (Got a drive you want us to take? Tell us. This stuff’s easy!) Jump in the back seat. The Cruz Bay Cruise, below….
The Body Deli is a kind of grocery store for your face and body. All of the beauty products are made from fruits, vegetables or other healthy, organic stuff. The store, at Mongoose Junction, is an offshoot of the original Body Deli in Palm Desert, California. Teri Moulton took over the St. John store a year and a half ago, and she tells us she does a good business with tourists, who spend an average of $150 to $250, but she she’s got a big local following too.
Best selling product? You’re looking at it. The botanical butter scrubs, which are lined up in big tubs like ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Not quite 31 flavors, but it does come in about a dozen different concoctions, including almond, coconut cream and ginger.
If all goes well, there will be a third Body Deli soon. Teri will open a new location on St. Thomas…at the uber-fancy Yacht Haven. She says she hopes to have it open by October. (There was a little story in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune about the co-founder of the original the Body Deli…kind of fun…read it here.)
VIDEO ALERT: Wanna drive around Cruz Bay? Jump in the back seat, tomorrow.
If you told a 5 year old to draw an island, this is the island he’d draw. A hump of sand surrounded by blue water with a palm tree stuck in it. This is a “boat day” stop (you’re planning one of those, right?), and it’s a pretty spectacular place. Sandy Spit, below…
The Wally Pool era, in the mid-90’s, only lasted a couple of years, but it had a tremendous impact on the St. John vacation market. They filled a need: installing a pool where it was economically or physically impractical. That has kept a lot of really great, older villas competitive in the rental market. And there’s nothing wrong with these pools. Kids love them, they’re big enough for a floatie or two, and they cool you off after a day at the beach. (Don’t let Website pictures fool you. The big ones are 20 feet long.)
By Wally Leopold’s best guess, there are about 75 fiberglass Wally Pools on St. John. It all started in 1995, when Wally wanted to add a pool to his house called Lizard Hill. But after finding the perfect prefab pool, he found out it would cost more to ship it down than the pool itself cost. So he came up with the idea to stack several of them together…and all of a sudden, he was in the pool business. The first container full was sold before they even got to the island. (Click here to see a picture of St. John’s very first Wally Pool.)
Wally and his wife now live on Lovango Cay, and life must be good, because the only thing my 8 am phone call interrupted was a game of Scrabble. Read our whole interview with Wally Leopold, and find out about The Wally Pool here.
St. John lover Kenny Chesney has picked my birthday, September 11, as release date for his latest CD. It‘s called “Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates.” If you’re interested, you can pre-order it for about half price at Amazon right now. There are 11 tracks, including a duet with George Strait called “Shiftwork”, and another called “Wild Ride” featuring Joe Walsh. 
The Wally Pool era, in the mid-90’s, only lasted a couple of years, but it had a tremendous impact on the St. John vacation market. They filled a need: installing a pool where it was economically or physically impractical. That has kept a lot of really great, older villas competitive in the rental market. And there’s nothing wrong with these pools. Kids love them, they’re big enough for a floatie or two, and they cool you off after a day at the beach. (Don’t let Website pictures fool you. The big ones are 20 feet long.)
