Margy’s Trip Report – St. Croix 2009 – April 14-30 - Hubs and I, April 14-23 - Part 2 – Island Time Villa

Sun is shining, the weather is sweet (Bob Marley and The Wailers)

Wednesday, April 15: It’s tax day and we don’t care a whit. It’s a warm sunny day and Hubs and I are here at Island Time Villa at Teague Bay on the east end of St. Croix and we’ve got our own CANNON – how cool is that? Still trying to figure out how to load it cuz you just never know...pirates are not such a joke these days...

Island Time is a relatively new periwinkle masonry villa with West Indian style cottage white gingerbread trim with starfish cutouts. It faces west over the St. Croix Yacht Club.

This is a lot of villa in a compact footprint. It has a great room that opens via French doors to the deck and encompasses a living area, dining area, and open kitchen. There are volume wood ceilings throughout – the ceiling in the great room has indirect perimeter lighting and 3 ceiling fans. IT has two split system a/c bedrooms with ceiling fans, each with a queen size step-up bed and coral tile bath. The furnishings are in the plantation style with lots of mahogany, teak and cane. There is a pro kitchen – custom cabinets, Sub-Zero side by side with ice maker, Wolf range, garbage disposal, filtered water faucet built into the sink, high-end small appliances, stone counter tops with one area a solid butcher block. The kitchen is separated from the living areas by a long counter with stools. The dining area has a round table with four chairs. There are lots of good pots and pans, nice dishes and cutlery, knives, good assortment of glassware and even double walled polycarb glasses for around the pool. There is an armoire in the living area with a good sized cable TV with surround sound coming through a stereo receiver (where we hooked up our iPod). The villa was stocked with a good assortment of music CDs, DVDs, and books. There were some games and a really good grouping of maps and info about STX. There’s a small utility room with full size stacked washer and dryer. The green bedroom has a four poster open canopy bed, antique dresser, and chair. Its bath has a coral tile shower and a vanity. There is a large walk-in closet where coolers and beach chairs are also stored. The blue room has a four poster, antique dresser, chair, a larger bath where the shower has a window and a view. There are double closets with mirrored doors. The bedrooms are located on opposite sides of the great room and both have French doors that open out to the coral stone deck.

Hubs and I really enjoyed our nine days there. I think this is a villa very well suited to one couple or two singles or to one couple with one or two children. As just the two of us it was nice to have the indoor living and the outdoor living merge with the deck and pool so close by – we didn’t need our “walkies” to communicate from a pool that was on a different level or so far away from the kitchen. We loved the different views – the yacht club with the gorgeous boats on their moorings and sailing school students being put through their paces to entertain us on week nights, the view of the reef and Buck Island, and the open ocean view to the north.

We appreciated the pro kitchen as we like to cook in and enjoy the pool and deck in the evenings. A garbage disposal? This was our first villa that had one of those! There was a dual tank stainless steel grill on the deck. The deck has a lanai area with volume ceilings and a couple of ceiling fans as well as a large outdoor dining table with six chairs – two of them swivel rockers. The furniture is newer and textilene. There are two chaises at each end of the pool for sunning. The pool has a constant depth of 5’, dual step entries, is lighted and has underwater ledges between the columns supporting the lanai roof. We really enjoyed the pool with its open side for an unobstructed view and the underwater ledges were wonderfully relaxing and, because the pool is in shade for the first hours of the day, it was always cool and refreshing. We also appreciated the outdoor stereo speakers. A deck box held noodles and floating chairs, etc. and there were two very nice Aqua Cell floats. IT is situated between two gorgeous homes – one to the south and the other out on the point to the north. The lots are so large, however, that noise was not a factor. Island Time's lot has a great many palms and some lovely landscaping with lots of flowering bushes. We were especially surprised to see the area in such good shape, especially since the yacht club area took such a bad hit from Omar. We had great cell reception and the WiFi was strong.

I have a new camera that takes videos – I really need to work on those skills a bit more, but here goes:

http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t127/margyz/STX%2009%20Island%20Time%20Villa/?action=view&current=2009_04152009STX0010.flv

There are steps (with a latched gate on the pool deck level) leading from the pool deck down to the “cannon” level of the lot. Below the pool deck is a small alcove with a coral stone outdoor shower for rinsing off. Island Time sits on a large lot that slopes down two levels to the waterfront. There is a stand of sea grape that shelters a double bench and a hammock and small sandy beach. We did not swim off this beach as, due to the algae plume, the calm water there was not the best. One of the neighbors fished this area with a fly rod several times while we were there and seemed to be pulling some good catch. We also had a hard-working egret who worked this area relentlessly every day:

I really had a thing for the ceilings at Island Time – can you tell? Geesh.

Lanai ceiling:

Kitchen, front door, and utility room:

Island Time has an electronic gate and a gently sloping palm-lined gravel driveway that leads up to the main door. There is also a circular turn-around area.

Island Time Villa is owned by a family that lives on St. Croix and has a business there. It is managed by Marti Gotts (Vacation St. Croix). Paul, from VSTX, is assigned to this villa and responsible for its care. He keeps the villa in great shape and we very much enjoyed meeting him and swapping stories. More info: http://www.vacationstcroix.com/IslandTime/villa_Island_Time.html

My favorite picture at Island Time:

Next, Part 3: Hubs and I begin to shake off the creeping crud a bit and enjoy the island