traveldiary.stracke.us

During our week here on St. Thomas, we made it a point to visit the fish. We first went to an old favorite spot of Secret Harbor Beach. Here, twenty years ago, the fish were so abundant, one felt like one was swimming in an aquarium. On two later trips we saw the devastation hurricanes and tropical storm can cause to the coral world. Add the warming of the seas, bleaching, over fishing, and run-off from excessive building and you have a marine underworld in crisis. The underwater world is definitely not as healthy near the shore as it was twenty years. Since the last natural disaster, some of the corals are trying to come back. Fish are there, but not plentiful. We did see a Hawksbill turtle, whichallowed us to swim with him, a puffer, a few trumpet fish and varied tropical fish, as parrot, tang, and sergeant major.

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This is the pitch for a new 2 bedroom time-share condominium at the Westin Resort on St. John.

After a few days of the Caribbean life, we decided on an excursion with the car ferry to St. John. The Westin gave us a free day pass to the resort and lunch for listening to their spiel. The condominiums were beautiful, all new, manicured landscapes….very tempting, we actually considered the offer. It was especially enticing, when looking at the resorts one could exchange with in various countries of the world. But then we came back to our senses, we knew we liked to travel the world at the ground level and all the resorts here in the book looked alike, the same cookie cutter cut-outs, where one finds it difficult to realize they are in a foreign country and where one only meets the same type of people, be it in the Americas, Asia, or Europe.
Our short afternoon at the pool solidified our opinions; people were on cell phones, trying to look important, people were waited on by island staff without really interacting with them. The environment, wasn’t really Caribbean…it was totally Resort American, placed here onto a Caribbean island.
The following day, after reading an article on retirement in a travel magazine, the stupidity realization really set in…………..they claimed that one can live an entire year on Gozo, Malta or Belize, in Central America for the same amount of money. Haven’t been to Gozo, but it’s part of the EU, so it can’t be too bad. Have been to Belize and it’s definitely in competition with St. John.
Time to go back to our Point Pleasant Resort.

After our Monday grocery shopping trip, we let ourselves be carried into the summer Caribbean mindset. It is quiet season here, no one hustles and bustles, things happen, when they do, or often don’t. In the morning we make no plans, we just leave it up to the day to present itself, as it occurs and we do or not, according to the spur of the moment.
Sometimes we had bursts of energy, so we took the build in resort stair master, as we called the sets of steps, leading to the pools, to the beach and to the office on the property, and then we snorkeled in the sea, or swam in a pool, or took a walk on the beach. Meals were pleasurably prepared in the kitchenette and taken on our balcony, with the glorious palette of the sea.

Our flight from Albany, with a change in Philadelphia, to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands was uneventful. This is exactly what we had hoped for the commencement of our relaxation journey. This past year each of the previous three times we embarked on a flying getaway, we swore thereafter, we would never fly again. Knowing us, that is obviously inconceivable; we live for breathing stale recycled air, jet lag, and the lure of elsewhere.

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After our adventurous vacation to France this summer, having maneuvered a 50 foot boat through 64 locks on the Canal du Midi from Beziers to Castelnaudary, having explored the quaint villages of Maher’s A Year in Provence, and having partaken in France’s Bastille Day celebrations in Paris, it was time to relax.
Not so fast! First 3 weeks of tackling endless “around the house projects” were to be done, before we were going to be able to really relax for a week , camping on an island in the Lake George Narrows. Oh yes, boating, reading, and soaking up the sunshine.
During our “house projects” weeks we began to notice, daily showers and thunderstorms passing through our region. Four days before our anticipated “days of relaxation”, we decided to consult the weather God about the 10 day forecast. The internet Weather Channel had a very repetitive forecast, without foreseeable change for the next 10 days…..afternoon showers and thunderstorms, from 30-80% chance.

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