Posted by David Porter on August 2, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Caneel Bay Resort, St. John, US Virgin Islands – it is day #7 of our romantic 25th wedding anniversary tour of the Caribbean.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the Caneel Bay Resort features “an omission of telephones, TVs and other modern-day distractions to allow for a true escape from one’s technology-driven world”.
I suppose some people might be put off by this seemingly forced unplugging, but I must confess that we found it incredibly relaxing. Furthermore, without the technological noise, we found time to reconnect, enjoy forgotten quietness, and simply breath.
So that some of you don’t start to hyperventilate, please know that all the rooms have free WiFi.
The incredible beauty of the Caneel Bay Resort are its seven magnificent private white sand beaches. And with Scott Beach a mere stones throw from the back porch of our bungalow, we were drawn to spend another day enjoying its beauty.
If you look closely in the top right of this photograph, you can see one of the swimming area buoys in the water. The area preserved for snorkeling Scott Beach is enormous, and today we decided to take advantage of that.
As you can see, there is a great deal of beautiful sandy turquoise waters to enjoy at the Caneel Bay Resort. As you go a little further out, you will come upon areas of sea grass. This is where you will find the local sea turtles munching away on the sea grass.
We found one area where we were surrounded by about 20 sea turtles. We looked down as they foraged the sea grass, and then every once in a while one would pop to the surface for life giving air. If you looked horizontally across this scene, there was a constant parade of sea turtles popping up and down. It was beautiful to behold.
Swimming right alongside the sea turtles were the local stingrays. These majestic creatures glided across the very bottom of the ocean, and then would stop, undulate their wings, and stir up a cloud of sand.
We also noticed a great many times that the stingrays would meander up very close to the shore. It’s a little unnerving, at first, to be standing in the waters near the beach and see a very large stingray swimming directly towards you. We learned, however, that they have no interest in you, and will simply swerve around you.
Beyond the area of sea grass lies a vast area of coral, and this is where all the beautiful fish were hanging out. In this area we saw countless varieties of colorful fish, many varieties of coral, including an abundance of brain coral, untold numbers of sea anemones, beautiful sea fans undulating in the currents, and occasionally whole schools of fish would pass around us.
We literally spent the whole day marveling at this incredible display.
I am absolutely certain that the Caneel Bay Resort will forever remain in our top ten places to visit. The unsurpassed beauty of the surroundings, the simply stunning beaches, the peaceful serenity, and the opportunity to spend hours witnessing this astonishing underwater world makes for remarkable memories.
And, after all, after the experience, aren’t we looking for memories?
Posted by David Porter on August 1, 2010 · 2 Comments
Caneel Bay Resort, St. John, US Virgin Islands – it is day #6 of our romantic 25th wedding anniversary tour of the Caribbean. Today we spent over 2 hours hiking around Caneel Bay Resort’s 170 acres, and I thought you might enjoy a little tour.
First of all, please indulge a little of my inner Monet. If you follow this on-line travel magazine for any length of time, you will soon learn that I enjoy adding an impressionistic flavor to some of my photographs. This is an impression of a beautiful flowering bush we found here at Caneel Bay Resort.
Archaeologists tell us that the first people arrived on the island of St. John in 1,000 BC. Many centuries later, in 1493, Christopher Columbus arrived here and named this island group Once Mil Virgenes , or Eleven Thousand Virgins in honor of the feast day of St. Ursula and her 11,000 virginal hand-maidens who were martyred with her.
In 1672, the Danes settled neighboring St. Thomas, and henceforth brought centuries of struggle for identity, with skirmishes between the Danes, British, and the locals, until the United States purchased the island, in 1917 for $25,000,000 from the Danes.
As you can see in my photograph above, the island possesses flora that are generally found in arid climates, yet, in the photograph below, we find lush greenery typical of a very wet tropical climate.
Of course, in spite of all the majestic beauty of the island of St. John, this is why millions of people flock to this island each year…
Here is a little more of my photographic floral Impressionism…
What is now The Caneel Bay Resort was once one of the island’s many sugar mills. Here you can see ruins of a long ago sugar mill transformed into Caneel Bay Resort’s fine dining restaurant, The Equator.
We enjoyed a wonderful meal, at Caneel Bay Resort’s Equator Restaurant, of local lobster (Caribbean lobsters have no claws), and fresh grouper. Prior to sampling the local cuisine, however, I snapped this photograph of the night’s sunset.
No Caribbean island day is complete without an evening walk on the beach. This evening we enjoyed the gentle sound of the waves washing up on the beach, and this view of St. Thomas across the channel.
Ah! Another day celebrated in paradise with my bride of 25 years.
We highly recommend that you consider the Caneel Bay Resort and create your own remarkable memories.
Posted by David Porter on July 31, 2010 · 1 Comment
Caneel Bay Resort, St. John, US Virgin Islands – it is day #5 of our romantic 25th wedding anniversary tour of the Caribbean. Deciding what to do with Caneel Bay Resort‘s Scott Beach 30 paces from the door of our bungalow was very, very easy for these two baby boomers to do.
We were either enjoying the Caribbean’s famous trade winds swinging in this hammock, sitting in a lounge chair in the shade of this natural tropical umbrella, or greatly enjoying the 80º +/- temperatures of the beautiful azure waters that constantly beckoned our company.
Today was the day for snorkeling, and we swam with sea turtles, stingray, and a whole host of beautiful tropical fish. It was breathtaking to watch this underwater world moving about in the sparse patches of undulating sea weed and white sand.
The waters here, in Caneel Bay Resort’s Scott Beach, are so buoyant that you can literally sit straight up and float with absolutely no required flapping of your appendages. If you move to float on your back, your feet are going to pop straight to the top of the water.
The Caneel Bay Resort is one of those resorts where “an omission of telephones, TVs and other modern-day distractions to allow for a true escape from one’s technology-driven world” was greatly enjoyed.
We spent hour upon hour simply floating in these beautiful waters, sharing and talking with one another, and frequently found ourselves mute before God’s creation.
The Caneel Bay Resort, on the island of St. John, USVI, is my kind of place, and I am going to have a hard time leaving in a few days.
Posted by David Porter on July 30, 2010 · 2 Comments
St. John, US Virgin Islands – it is day #4 of our romantic 25th wedding anniversary tour of the Caribbean. Sadly, today we left the island of St. Thomas. But, happily we are only a 15 minute channel crossing from the island of St. John, US Virgin Islands.
As you can see in the map below, the Ritz-Carlton is on the dry east side of the island affording great sunrise views, while Caneel Bay is on St. John’s wet, tropical west side affording great sunset views.
As Caneel Bay’s private ferry pulled us into their private dock, we were immediately whisked away into seemingly another time and place.
In the 1950s, the island of St. John had only 400 inhabitants. While sailing in the Caribbean, Laurance S. Rockefeller happened across the 170 acre Caneel Bay Plantation, bought it, and turned it into his own personal tropical residence. Later on, Rockefeller also bought 5,000 acres of unspoiled tropical rain forest land around his residence.
Today, Rockefeller’s estate is the Caneel Bay Resort, and the 5,000 acres of land was donated to the United States National Park system.
Caneel Bay Resort, while luxurious and modern in every way, has purposefully maintained the 1950s feel of each of its bungalows spread around it seven, count ’em seven, private beaches!
Here is the view from our Caribbean ocean bungalow on Scott Beach at the Caneel Bay Resort.
The wildlife here is simply amazing. Sitting in those beach chairs we watched a very large iguana stroll by us, within three feet, as if he owned the place. The skies are full of beautiful black and white sea birds of some sort, and even a fair number of pelicans fly by checking for their next tasty fish dinner.
When we were out swimming in the ocean, we found ourselves surrounded by sea turtles, and we are told that we are very likely to see stingrays. Carol is a little apprehensive about that, but I can’t wait.
Also, to make this place even more like Eden, seemingly under every shade tree is either a deer, or one of the islands wild donkeys. Here is a picture of wild donkeys right off our back porch.
As if all this wasn’t enough, we were treated to the wonderful soft hued sunset below.
Tomorrow we snorkel outside our back porch. Stay tuned!
Posted by David Porter on July 29, 2010 · 3 Comments
St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands – it is day #3 of our 25th wedding anniversary tour, and sadly this is our last night at the Ritz-Carlton. It is also our last night on the island of St. Thomas. WAAAH!
We spent a good amount of the morning producing the video which will highlight our stay here at the beautiful Ritz-Carlton – St. Thomas.
After getting our video “in the can” we hopped in a cab, and headed for Charlotte Amalie for a day of shopping. Charlotte Amalie is one of the Caribbean’s most popular stops for cruise ships, and its main street features a world famous collection of jewelry stores.
I quietly noticed, when we left for town, that Carol’s neck was conspicuously barren. Might this have been premeditated? Might my bride of 25 years be plotting for a little more “bling” in her life?
We arrived in town with our bellies rumbling for lunch, so we made our first stop at Gladys’ Café. Being the adventurous eater, I enjoyed Curried Goat, w/ Peas & Rice, Plantain, and Sweet Potato, while Carol whimped out and enjoyed a Jerk Chicken Sandwich.
Here is Carol with our very friendly waitress, Janet.
After our lunch, I accepted my duty and went in search of something sparkly for Carol’s barren neck. See that barren neck? She never goes out with a barren neck. Hey! I’m being set up!
Well, it is our 25th wedding anniversary and I am obligated to brighten the eyes of my bride with something shiny. We settled on a cross with black and blazing white diamonds. I’m guessing that you will see her new necklace in a future photograph.
The afternoon was coming to an end, and it was now time to head back to the Ritz-Carlton to clean up for dinner.
I will write about our dining experience in a future separate post, but just let me say here that the Ritz-Carlton pulled out all the stops to make our evening a memorable one. We enjoyed an eight-course chef’s sampling complete with wine-pairing. It was absolutely amazing, and was one of the best meals of our life.
When we finished our meal, we headed back to our room to find our bed bedecked with rose petals. The words “LOVE” were spelled out with rose petals on the floor, and we found this special message from our friends at Ritz-Carlton amidst the flurry of roses.
Thank you Ritz-Carlton for creating a very special memory for our 25th wedding anniversary. We felt honor from you for our commitment to one another, and greatly appreciated your clear intention to create an extraordinary experience for our special celebration.
The Roaming Boomers
