St Thomas...I heart you!

We arrived yesterday at 3:00 pm, de-planed and hopped in Sam's car. Sam is contracted by our condo owner to pick up his guests at the airport and drop them at the condo. Most of you may not know that they drive on the opposite side of the road here so renting a car was out of the question for us. On our way through town, Sam picked up another guest, Dougy Fresh (that is his frat name), and we continued on. They took us by the market to pick up groceries and then we dropped off our stuff and headed out to have a drink with them.

The condo: I found it on VRBO.com and I would say the pictures were not deceiving, but let's just say Marsha wouldn't be staying here :) It's for the minimalist and it works great for us. The islands do not deliver cheap or budget options as far as luxury hotels go. Sapphire Beach is breathtaking! White sand, blue water, coral reef to snorkel over ... it caters perfectly to us.

The area: We are staying on the east end of the island. Our location is pretty good! We are a 10 minute walk from the ferry to St Johns, surrounded by great restaurants, close to a great market that has it all (they even have Ezekiel Bread) and there are always Safari trucks and cabs nearby to utilize.
The Food: Last night we had FABULOUS pizza at Island Time and CHEAP drinks at Molly Malone's. Both were filled with people from the states, very friendly, and we automatically felt at home! For breakfast we purchased eggs, pancake mix, cereal and fruits. For lunch we purchased some fresh Mahi to make tacos with. We are trying to stay on a budget and it really is possible to do on the island.

Activities: To start our day (AT 11:00 AM... yea... I slept until 10:20...WOW) we did an hour of kayaking over the reef and stumbled upon 2 sea turtles literally feet from our vessel! It was a baby and mommy! Most of you know I love tiny animals... so naturally I wanted to scoop up the baby and take him home... but I didn’t :) After, we layed on the beach and read our books for a few hours. More than anything, this vacation is the "beach and a book" vacation. So I already got my wish.
Tomorrow: Hopefully if the weather permits, we will be off through the islands on a large catamaran to see some of the un-in-habited islands around here. My dream trip would be to yacht through these islands, but that’s at least 30 years down the road ;)
Check back tomorrow night for some cool pics!