The new Sam & Jack’s deli, the talk of the island since it opened in February, has expanded its offerings to include dinners to go.
They’re made daily, ready to take home and heat up, and include regular offerings and specials. A look at Monday’s menu included rigatoni and sautéed chicken with roasted peppers, artichoke hearts and a garlic and parmesan cream for $13, Spaghetti and meatballs in marinara for $12, shrimp scampi with linguine and white wine, lemon and garlic butter for $13 and eggplant parmesan with herbed ricotta, mozzarella and marinara for $13. The servings are big enough for two.
The store also now carries lots of other specialties, like jarred sauces, pizza dough, foccaccia and even locally grown tomatoes!
Sam & Jack’s is open Monday through Saturday from 9 to 6. The sign still says “Sorry, no credit cards.”
An OSJ reader in California unhappy with a half sunken dinghy flopping around at the Cruz Bay dinghy dock that was unattractive and readily seen by the entire world on the St. John SpiceCam. Not a good front yard image for St. John to be showing to the world.
We, not knowing to whom said deflated dinghy belonged, passed it on to SpiceCam purveyor Ruth at St. John Spice, who gently passed on our reader’s complaint to the dead dinghy’s owner.
An embarrassed owner immediately took action….
And promptly moved the deflated dinghy….
…to the other dock, out of camera view. Public relations problem solved! Now all the owner has to do is find his missing engine.
Now in their second year, Jennifer and Denise are out with a whole new treasure hunt map for St. John visitors, and this year they’ve expanded to St. Thomas.
They conceived the idea for tourists, but they were surprised by how many locals got into the game in 2010.
“Interestingly, we had 50/50 participation from tourists and locals, and in fact, a local ended up winning last year’s contest,” says Denise.
Patty Beach, who spends part of the year on a boat with her husband in Coral Bay, won booty that included a week at a villa, 500 bucks in groceries and a snorkel trip with Low Key Watersports.
Based on feedback from people who played and from advertisers, they’ve refined this year’s map.
“Our maps can now be viewed on iPhones or printed out as PDFs and the scavenger hunts are now downloadable, and this year we’ve added a ‘win a trip back’ photo contest that lets folks upload their best VI shots in eleven different categories.” (Click on “Best Places To Shop” for a photo that’ll bring back some OSJ memories.)
Check out the photo contest, learn more about the Treasure Map and how it works, and see how you could win a week in a villa, air fare and even car rental, here!
And in case you missed it, check out a re-run of our interview with Jen and Denise from last year below.
Remember when we went out with photographer Steve Simonsen and freelance writer Andrea Milam on Kekoa a couple of months ago while they were shooting/writing for Caribbean Travel+Life?
The article is in the April issue, and it turned out great. (Alas, your backwards ball caps heroes ended up on the cutting room floor, sigh.)
That is Janet George-Carty and Guy Benjamin, cutting the ribbon Wednesday at the grand opening of the new Cinnamon Bay Factory Ruins trail, the National Park’s newest accessible trail.
More than 30 volunteers donated some 600 hours of their time to help build the trail, says Heather Ruhsam at the Friends of the Virgin Islands national Park, which partnered with the VINP on the project.
The 610 foot trail is part concrete walkways and part raised wood boardwalks and winds its way from the exit of Cinnamon Bay Campground, through the ruin site and to the trial head for the Cinnamon Bay Loop Trail.
Friends is hoping to line up funding to complete the Francis Bay Accessible Trail next. If you’re interested in helping, call Friends at 779-4940.
A federal government shutdown would have affected operations at U.S. National Parks, including the U.S. Virgin Islands National Park.
But how exactly VINP on St. John would’ve been impacted is not completely clear. Here’s the statement we got from Paul Thomas at VINP Friday afternoon:
“Should the government shut down, Virgin Islands National Park will be closed. This refers to the entire Park and the facilities therein. In addition, there will be no support services and programs. Available essential personnel will respond to emergency situations.”
What exactly that would have meant for your access to the Park isn’t clear. But one thing’s for sure. Boehner and Reid came very close to costing us our Trunk Bay burgers and rum smoothies.
Elizabeth Schmidt and Gary Cox, aka Sinbad, were sailing to Maho from Cruz Bay recently when they witnessed this phenomenon. A rainbow that appeared to be rising right out of the water.
“It had been raining off and on, and at first I noticed a glowing red and yellow at the base of Mary’s Point,” says Elizabeth. “As we watched, it rose from the sea and began showing each of its colors.”
The show happened around 4 p.m. and neither were really sure of what they were seeing.
“We’d been drinking a little rum that day, so we dubbed it “the rising rumbow.”
Terry McCoy, aka Sloop Jones, has finally found a way to bring his two careers together. He’s a famous East End artist, and for the last couple of years he’s been running a pretty busy satellite TV installation business.
Now he’s putting his artwork on his satellite dishes.
“This one is called Stained Glass, and it is the first of five designs we’re going to offer,” says Terry. “It is just Golden (brand) Acrylics over a water based primer.”
How long has the brilliant marriage of art and electronics been in the works?
“About two years, since you guys first suggested it,” he says. We expect royalties.
Wagapalooza is set for May 21, and this year’s theme is The Wild West.
Cheryl Geller was asked to create this year’s art, and she took the opportunity to immortalize her longtime best friend Miles, who passed away last summer.
“I titled this artwork ‘Miles MacPhee: Showdown with Miss Kitty,’ and it was a great honor to do this work for the Animal Care Center,” says Cheryl.
But wait. Those aren’t six shooters in those holsters. They look like bottles of water. What’s up with that?
“I didn’t want to use guns or any violent imagery, and was going to feature a lasso instead. When I was working on it, one of my cats jumped onto the desk and wouldn’t get down, so I threatened to get out the water bottle,” Cheryl says. “Thus, ala Steam Boat Willy, I decided to replace the lasso with water filled spray bottles and make the drawing a showdown.”
(Russ often uses the spray bottle torture on me when I jump on his desk and I can vouch for its effectiveness.)
Wagapalooza needs t-shirt sponsors (you get your name in lights), so if you’re a business, click here to become a sponsor. Wagapalooza also needs t-shirt buyers, because that money goes to ACC.
By the way, Cheryl says Miles was a big fan of cats and would never have shot one. Below, Miles with his own cat, Rocky.
