4/27
Caught the 9 AM car barge to STT. Again an easy smooth ride. Dropped off our bags at Secret Harbor where we would be staying the next 2 nights and then drove into CA for the cultural fair. Not sure that I could spend a lot of time on STT. I thought that the roads on STJ were crazy. Take those same roads and add 10 times more traffic. Does anyone else find it interesting that “island time” applies to everything except for driving on both STT and STJ? Anyway we finally found a place to park a few blocks from the fair. So much food to choose from! We ended up with conch, salt fish and chicken pates. Very good. Bought a few trinkets, listened to a huge steel drum band (50+ members), had Joseph’s picture taken on a donkey with a rastifarian and then decided to take a walk to Backbeards tower. We counted, there are actually more than 99 steps. Did a quick tour of the tower and took a few pictures with Blackbeard. Steve wanted to go back to the fair to try some mutton but I was maxed out in the heat and crowds and just wanted to get in the water.

Headed back to Secret Harbor just in time to check in at 3 PM. Very nice rooms. The air conditioning felt amazing after 9 nights without it on STJ. We headed to the beach and took a swim out to the platform, took turns diving in, took a quick dip in the pool and then back to the room to clean up. We decided on Fungis for dinner. The food was pretty good but I especially liked the location, which was literally 2 steps from the water. Spent a leisurely dinner conversing with some friendly diners before heading back to Secret Harbor. If I have my way I won’t budge from the beach the whole next day. Our last!

4/28
Our last day. Boo Hoo! We had breakfast in our room and then to the beach at Secret Harbor by around 9 AM. We snokeled on and off for most of the day. Saw lots of fish and a couple of turtles. Steve even saw an octopus. When the end of the day came it was so hard to get out of the water for our last time this trip. Not sure when our next trip will be but I did promise Steve that next year we can vacation in the mountains, which is his natural habitat.

Joseph had a blast playing in the water all day long with some local and not so local kids. We finally had to pry him out of the water when dinner time came. He also loved the iguanas which are plentiful at Secret Harbor. Just a side note to you ladies. I was told that red toe nail polish sends iguanas into a tissy because they love to eat red hibiscus flowers. I didn’t have any on so I wasn’t able to test this hypotheses.

We met some great VINOW posters for lunch at the Beach Bar and had a great time. Ginger and Steve, Donna (dltreks) and Steve and Max and Irene. That makes 3 Steves! It was so much fun putting faces to the posts and meeting some great people.

Finally it was time to leave the beach, get cleaned up and head to dinner. We went to Off the Hook, which had great food in a great setting on the beach. One of my goals in life is to live somewhere where I can eat every meal outside. I just love sitting in the warm evening air enjoying some good food and some good company. We got to bed that night a little late but figured it would be better for sleeping on the plane the next day.

4/29
Up early to catch a 9:50 AM flight. Stopped by Dependable at 8 AM, dropped off the jeep and they took us right to the airport. Cleared customs easily and had plenty of time to do a little more souvenir shopping at the airport. It was a long long day but all of our flights went smoothly. Our 5 hour flight from San Juan to Dallas showed the Incredibles so that helped keep Joseph occupied. They even served us lunch that flight. It was actually good. Landed in Portland, Oregon at 8 PM and home and in bed by 11 PM.

I can’t believe its over already, but there are so many good memories. And I still have a great tan to remind me of where I have been. I’m sure we will return again someday but probably not soon enough.

Thanks everyone for all of the help in planning our trip!

P.S. I’m working on getting our photos on a web site. I’ll let you know when I get it done.