US Virgin Islands
““if the ocean can calm itself, so can you. we are both salt water mixed with air.” ”
My body is about 60% water (with the remaining 40% being an amalgam of Mexican restaurant chips and salsa, a loathing for the current administration, 30 Rock quotes and a deep resentment for whichever shithead at Netflix cancelled Santa Clarita Diet), but I have never really been comfortable in a beach or ocean setting.
I grew up in Southall, England, where the most famous local body of water is the Thames - a serpentine river filled with sewage, mercury, and dead bodies. To my north was the North Sea, which is basically a rampaging graveyard of mad Vikings and fishermen (but also produces a bunch of cod and plaice which is apparently very nice for your fish and chips).
Also, the sea? Yeah—no thank you, please. Fish fuck in it.
My thoughts on open water can basically be summed up as: you stay over there, and I’ll stay over here on dry land, and we’ll be just fine.
It’s not that I don’t go to the beach. I live in South Florida, for God’s sake. I got engaged on the beach. I’m just not a very strong swimmer, I saw Jaws in my formative years, and also, do we not remember the fish fornicating in the water bit?
Right.
My husband, on the other hand? Complete opposite.
He was born in the USVI.
In fact, when you leave the airport and go down Moravian Highway in Charlotte Amalie, you can still see the shop his dad started - Elder Automotive. John is very much a water person. He was a lifeguard in high school and thinks nothing of leaping off a boat into the depths below.
Which makes a lot of sense when you’re connected to a place like this. I mean, there are beaches, and then, there’s the USVI.
This past summer was my fourth trip to the USVI, and it changed me.
This was also the first time we went to St. John, the smallest of the Virgin Islands. Trunk Bay might be one of the most gorgeous places I’ve ever been in my life.
I am not a girl with any compulsion to get into the water.
I’m perfectly happy to lay on the sand with my book and a banana or mango-based alcoholic rum beverage by my side.
But here? The water was calling, and I had to go.
I basically ran into the water—something I’ve never even considered doing.
For once, it felt like that’s where I belonged, and I spent the entire afternoon soaking up the sun in salty water. I have never felt more at peace.
Thankfully, Will takes more after his father than me and has no problem leaping (or being tossed) from the bow of a boat, and then spending the rest of the trip napping it out like the salty dog he is.
Did Y'all Eat?
Admittedly, my diet is comprised of entirely too many rum-based tropical beverages whenever I’m here but I also make it a point to eat well.
Duffy’s Love Shack
Red Hook, St. Thomas
When the sun sets and we all needed a respite from the sand and surf, there’s always my favorite place on St. Thomas - Duffy’s Love Shack.
A dive bar in a parking lot, Duffy’s has weirdly delicious food and an excellent vacation drink menu. Look, if you’re seeking a cask-aged Old Fashioned or a Bijou, you’re in the wrong spot. But if you want a rum-based drink with tropical fruit juice served in a ceramic glass that looks like a shark or a hula girl? Step right up.
Since they serve food, it’s a pretty family-friendly place… if your family happens to be awesome. I mean, my kid was dancing at Duffy’s barefoot during a thunderstorm when he was two years old, so take from that what you will.
Sea Salt at Sapphire Beach Club
Smith Bay, St. Thomas
I ordered the Chipotle White Bean Spread which came with marinated kalamata olives, cucumbers, carrots and grilled toscana flatbread. It was light and delicious. They also had two other vegetarian entrees on the menu - Tofu Chaufa Rice with ginger-soy marinated, jasmine rice, sunny-side egg, zucchini, carrots, squash, cabbage and onion and Truffle Manchego Gnocchi with wild mushrooms, shaved truffle and manchego cream.
My three least favorite foods are tofu, soy and mushrooms. I would not do well in China or Japan.
Meanwhile, my husband gets the whole fried fish whenever he can and eats the whole thing down to the bones.
It looks like something out of a cartoon when he’s finished and he loved it.
Red Hook, St. Thomas
Breakfast at Hook’d was one of my favorite meals. Will ordered a fortress of Nutella french toast served with berries and fresh fruit and everyone ended up having a bite.
And I ordered the breakfast tacos which were served with scrambled eggs, cheese, avocado relish, chipotle aioli, breakfast potatoes and some of the best, lip-smackin’est housemade hot sauce I’ve ever had.
Highly recommended but word of warning - these are the islands and the iguanas and chickens roam freely. Do not feed them; they’re ornery as hell.
St. John’s Brewers
Cruz Bay, St. John
St. John’s Brewers is worth checking out. Even if you’re not a beer person, you can get an excellent Dark and Stormy as well as veggie samosas, pretzels and nachos.
The older I get, the more I realize that John Muir was right:
Wildness is a necessity. Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.
We belong outside and the best thing we did as Americans was establish the National Park Service.
Go outside, breathe the daylight, and if you can, support the National Park Service. We owe it to ourselves, our kids, and our future.
