The countdown is finally over – today was the day to go to St. John! It seems like just yesterday this amazing family invited us to share their second home in St. John. Earlier this week, we met with the family that offered this incredible vacation to us to get the final details about our trip. We had such a lovely evening – they are an amazingly wonderful, generous family in so many ways!
Gram spent the weekend with us and took us to MARTA at 7am… just in time to join all the late- arriving Peachtree Road racers. From our kids’ laughter and enjoyment, you would’ve thought the MARTA ride was as good as Disney World – it was great! From there, we stood in line after line at the airport… they saw us coming to the gate and said “Plunks?” They were waiting on us – we were the next to the last people to board the plane! Checking our bags took forever and security took forever, and it was a little stressful keeping Matthew calm about the time (at that point I was wishing we had the same “pass” we get at Disney! Straight to the front of the line.) All in all, though, he and Maddie managed well. We had a small suitcase of food as a carryon, not thinking that it had a random can of peaches in it… well, they confiscated our CANNED PEACHES! Who knew!
Our 10:00am flight left out of Atlanta pretty much on time, and the flight was non-eventful. Neither Matthew nor Maddie even TOUCHED their carry-on bag of “stuff to do”. Maddie even fell asleep for a while, during which time I finished my book “My Sister’s Keeper.” WOW – WOW. What a great book!!
We landed in St. Thomas, walked down steps from the plane onto the tarmac. As we rounded the sidewalk into the baggage claim area of the airport, we were greeted and offered a complimentary shot of rum (which we politely declined). From there, we hailed our taxi, road quite awhile across the island to the ferry dock – a $60 taxi ride!! We got to the ferry dock just in time to catch the 3:00 ferry to St. John (the ferry’s run once an hour). All day our timing was close but perfect! The ferry ride was just OK… it started raining (all of the 13 giant drops), so Matthew and Maddie and I went downstairs to be undercover (they are still pretty nervous when gray clouds approach, especially once rain starts falling).
We got off the ferry in St. John… we were in awe of the views and the beauty all ready. It was a little tricky finding a taxi driver that was willing to drive us all the way to where we were staying, on the other side of the island, but Jeff finally did it (of course). We climbed into the back of the truck (lined with seats mind you) and held on for dear life as this driver whizzed around the mountain roads like he could drive them in his sleep. I had a death grip on Matthew and Maddie, and Jeff and I nearly swallowed our gum every time we encountered a car on the other side of the road (they drive on the opposite sides over here, and it’s so hard to get used to seeing cars in “our lane”. We passed donkeys on the road – and goats! When we finally got pretty close to the house, the driver turned and backed down part of the road to the drive way and said that’s as far as he could go. He was worried about getting his truck back out. SO, we unloaded our bags, left them on the side of the road and walked the rest of the way to the house to get the car.
Stonewood Cottage. WOW. It used to be called Stonewood Castle, and now we see why. It has huge, wooden doors, stone walls… incredible views. It’s cozier than a castle for sure, so cottage definitely fits it better. It’s perched on mountainside, overlooking part of Coral Bay in the Caribbean Sea… in the distance is more of St. John followed by the British Virgin Isle (Tortola). I’m gazing at them as I type… listening to and watching the waves break.
DAY 1 wrapped up with a short ride to Coral Bay where we grabbed dinner at an outside joint called Aqua Bistro (not much was open and we didn’t want to drive too far tonight). We really enjoyed our dinner. We came back to the house, unpacked and set up for our stay. We decided to bunk down in the “guest cottage” and do all of our living in the main house… both have incredible views. We were exhausted but so glad to get here… it was a long day!
I can't believe we have the privilege to be here... pretty much unplugged and relaxed... for TWELVE DAYS. What a blessing. To think our recent series at church was on "SABBATH". I can't think of a better one.....
