Sharon Carlaine, from Puerto Rico, travels the Caribbean looking for good vegetarian dining spots for her blogs, VegDining.com and CARIVEGAN, and we ran into her in Cruz Bay recently. She was on island for a camping trip and interviewed folks at the St. John Animal Care Center and the Maho Campground.
While we have differing views on why God gave us incisors, we did dig her solar powered backpack. Inside, a laptop, camera and cell phone, all always charged, no matter where her travels take her.
“With the purchase of my backpack, I am not only able to recharge our electronics while walking or biking, but we’re also using it daily by keeping it on our patio and plugging in our daily electronics at home as well,” she tells us. “It’s us doing our part at home and away.”
Sharon says she ate meat free and well at Satyamuna, Aqua Bistro and the Sundog Café. Nice gal. Vegetarians are also cheap dates.
This is Maddie Mele, from the Philadelphia suburbs (Willow Grove.) We met her recently at Maho Beach and had to ask her about her Liquid Image snorkel mask with built in underwater video camera (and still camera too.)
Maddie and her family have a Westin Villa – a three bedroom pool villa no less – and come for a couple of weeks at the end of January and beginning of February every year. And one of the advantages to being a Westin owner is the coveted “owner’s closet.” That’s where they stash that gigantic tent you see in the background.
Maddie, who is thinking about enrolling at the University of the Virgin Islands soon, promised to send us some video from her mask-cam when she got home, and she just did. Maddie and her mask are no threat to Steve Simonsen, but for a $99 mask, it shoots pretty fun video. And she found a turtle. See for yourself, below.
If you’re looking for the perfect spot to spend the days watching countless sailboats traverse some of the most popular sailing waters in the world, then this would be it. Skyridge is a very comfy, very large, two bedroom, treehouse-like villa in the very private Upper Carolina neighborhood…and the views are amazing. (Skyridge also has a lower level with two more bedrooms and can be rented as a four bedroom villa, but the owners do not rent them separately.)
There’s a big pool, a gated driveway (we call it a really fun “skyway”) …and that green you see immediately in front of the view is all National Parklands.
And since sometimes, a picture doesn’t do a view its full justice, below is a 15 second video panorama of what you’ll see. More information about Skyridge, here!
Jeep Cam takes you on the loop that goes up the hill past Gallows Point and back down the hill to the police station, with a quick look at Frank Bay along the way. The Gallows loop, and a shaky Russ again, below!
When the Westin decided to shut down its information booth in Cruz Bay, Rick Tarr found himself out of a job. So he made a deal.
“I didn’t want to go back to pounding nails, so I asked the Westin if I could open the booth back up,” Rick, who came to St. John 12 years ago, tells us. The Westin agreed to sublease the space to Rick, and the windows are back open, 10 am to 8 pm daily.
Rick, who was born and raised in Denmark, now lives with his wife on a boat in Great Cruz Bay. He’s also a captain, and calls his new business The Captain Knows.
Rick will help you book excursions, find a restaurant or figure out the bus schedule. Businesses pay Rick to get a place in the booth, but the information to you is free. (And he says the most popular question from the day-trippers is still “Where’s the restroom?”)
Phillip A. Long, exposed last February as the mystery rock sculptor at Frank Bay, is back on St. John.
Phillip, who is staying at a relative’s place in Frank Bay, is up at the crack of dawn creating his balancing rock sculptures again this week, and his best ones turn into photographic works of art that Phillip sells through his studio, VinyardRocks.com.
“It has been a good year. I made a huge sale of stone art to the new Sentara Belle Harbour Hospital in Southern Virginia,” Phillip tells us. “They went all out and decorated the entire building with balanced stone art, and they really liked the zen, relaxing mood the free balanced stones emit.”
Phillip says he hasn’t created a favorite this trip just yet, but he’s not giving up. “I’m just getting started. I have some ideas for some different stuff I want to try.”
Phillip will be back again next year, already planning 12 days in February 2010. Check out his Website, here.
That’s Steady, one of the cutest boats in Cruz Bay. And Steady is about to get some national exposure.
Eddie Bauer recently used Steady for a model shoot for its spring catalog, and owner Jennifer Troisi couldn’t be happier.
“The magazine’s scout wanted to find the owner, and eventually he found me,” Jennifer tells us. “Years ago, Victoria’s Secret wanted to use her in a photo shoot, but I was off-island at the time. I always wanted Steady to be a star.”
Steady isn’t a true sailboat. Jennifer says it’s a copy of a rescue boat from a Norwegian cruise ship and was built in 1969. It’s 21 feet long with a diesel engine and a steadying sale sail (Oops!). Thus, her name.
“When I moved here from Southern California in 1981, I fell in love with it. I thought it was the perfect girl’s boat, and I asked the owner if he’d sell it to me. A few years later, he did,” she says.
“It’s the perfect boat. It doesn’t go fast and you have to relax on it.” (Look for Steady in the May/June Eddie Bauer catalog.)
Our latest installment in our occasional series, Our Favorite Bartenders is Tyler at the Gecko Gazebo.
If Tyler is behind the bar when you’re at Mongoose Junction, stop and say hello. You’re in for a treat. And order an “Iguana in the Blender” while you’re there. Watch Tyler make one, below!
There’s something unsettling about knowing there is only one very well tied knot between you and an unplanned lunch in Puerto Rico. But everybody who has done it says there is nothing to be scared of. Until you do it you don’t know that.
We know it now.
We’ll take you up with us in a couple of days and you’ll see; not only so not scary, it was really fun. (And the knot holds.)
