Hey Everyone,
From this post’s title, it’s obvious that we have left St. John and are now back in New York (we’ve actually been back for over 2 weeks). It was very sad leaving our island paradise, but it’s been really nice seeing family and friends.
I thought this would be a good time to recap my top 5 favorite things about St. John, as well as some of things that I won’t miss so much (aka “Not-So-Favorite Things”):
Favorite Thing #5: Tie Between The Beaches, The Views and Hiking in Virgin Islands National Park
Regarding hiking, I won’t go into too much detail here as there are plenty of details in my Hiking post. As for the beaches and views, I’ll let pictures do the talking here (and you can also check out my Watersports post):
Trunk Bay
Rocky on a hike (Johnny Horn Trail)
Alisa’s parents (aka Mom & Dad) catching a smooch
Awesome view of Maho Bay and Francis Bay
Enjoying the view during a hike
Great view of Alisa’s Favorite Spot at Great Lameshur Bay
Valley view during the Maria Hope Trail
And here are some amazing views from our balcony:
Not-So-Favorite Thing: No Gym
This is a strange one…I loved working out outside and using the beach as my gym, however, it is fun to be able to go into a gym and do some heavy lifting again. I may only be saying that because I know that I only have the gym access for the next month, however, it’s been fun so far. I have to admit, however, that I am excited to see the workouts I can create in different places all over Australia (and of course get back into hiking)
Favorite Thing #4: Tie Between Happy Hour and No Open Container Laws
Regarding Happy Hour, this is a no-brainer…$1 well drinks and beers from 3-7pm every day and $3 U-Call-Its from 3-6pm (meaning literally any concoction you can create for just 3 bucks…such as my “Top Shelf Long Island Iced Teas” – a lethal goblet of Patron tequila, Aged Mt. Gay rum, Grey Goose vodka, Bombay Sapphire gin and some triple sec). As for no Open Container Laws, I have been the not-so-proud recipient of two open container violations in New York in the past (yes, I had to go to court for them) and absolutely love not having to worry about walking down the street with a cold beer. Coming back from a year where there were no open container laws and VERY lax drinking regulations is an unwelcome reality!
Favorite Thing #3: Not Dreading the End of the Weekend
I have a post about bartending at The Lime Inn coming soon, so I’ll save my details and pictures until then, but the major point here is that I worked a 14 hour double shift on Mondays in St. John and never cared at all on Sunday nights (something I cannot say about Sunday nights when I knew that there was a full week of work at JetBlue coming up).
Not-So-Favorite Thing: Slow Internet
The irony with this is that now we don’t need fast internet to stream Hulu and Netflix, since we have cable at our disposal, however, it’s still really nice to not have to worry about whether or not the internet will be super slow (or even work at all) at any given time. The last 3 months, Alisa was doing a “hard reset” of our modem almost every day.
Favorite Thing #2: Living in a “Small Town”
Living on a tiny island has taught me that I really like small towns. I like walking around town and waving hi to people I know, or walking into a bar and greeting ten people by name. I don’t know where Alisa and I will settle, but I definitely see it being somewhere without a hell of a lot of people. Spending this last week in NYC (and in many subways) has made me appreciate a small town even more.
Beautiful Cruz Bay (our town)
Not-So-Favorite Thing: Being Away from Friends and Family
The good thing about St. John is that it was close enough that we had a TON of visitors (read that post here). The bad thing is that we still missed holidays and other major events with friends and family. This will be even worse in Australia, but a reality of living a traveler’s life. At least there’s Facebook and Skype, right? It’s not much on the surface, but think back to the days of postcards…I’ll take video chat over that any day!
Favorite Thing #1: Our Friends!
It’s weird…you spend so much time with people day after day for months, and then just like that you don’t see them. This is another reality of being a traveler, but I wouldn’t trade our memories of Sunday Fundays, hikes, boat trips, happy hours, drunken movie nights, snorkeling, spear fishing and so much more for anything. I know that St. John would have been great with just Alisa, Rocky, and I on the beautiful island, however, it’s the friends we made that truly made it an AMAZING experience. Some shout outs to the people I spent the most time with: Sean, Ashton, Kelsea (check out her blog and travel adventures here: followmissmatter.com), Julia, Cyndal, and Chelsea, Tyler and the entire Lime Inn crew!
Ashton, Sean and I
As you can tell, St. John will always hold a special place in our hearts. But I’m sure we’ll be back some day.
St. John friends – Can you say Reunion Trip?!?
Until next time,
Mike
mikesnotatwork 