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St. Johnopoly: Sneak Peek

We’ve been trying to keep this under wraps as best we could, but I can no longer contain myself. We received proofs in the mail yesterday for St. Johnopoly and it looks amazing!!! Here’s a sneak peek…

St. Johnopoly: Sneak Peek 1

Go Space

playing pieces

bars

properties

chance card

money

What do you all think??? Love it?


Great New Store Opens in Cruz Bay

st john beach bum logoI am so excited to share this one with all of you… a great new store just opened in Cruz Bay steps from the ferry dock, and I think you’re all going to love it.

The store’s called St. John Beach Bum, and it has everything you could ever need for a great day at the beach. Need a beach chair? They’ve got it.  Snorkel gear? They’ve got that too. Sand toys, a cooler or perhaps a beer pong table? Yes, they’ve got that too. How fun is that?!

Andrew Cameron and Kara Morgan opened the store last week, and we love the concept. You can either rent or purchase almost anything you need for a great day at the beach. And the best part – it’s located right at the ferry dock on the second floor of the blue building (just across from St. John Spice), so it can be your first stop when you step foot on island. You can’t get more convenient than that!

And if Andrew’s face looks familiar to you, well it’s because he worked downstairs at the info booth for the past three years.

Andrew Kara
Andrew and Kara

The couple plans to add items to their inventory in the upcoming weeks, including GoPro cameras that you can rent, beach games and more. They also plan to sell local stuff like the Castaways shirts you see in the picture above.

St. John Beach Bums is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week. You can also find them on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/StJohnBeachBum – Make sure to check them out and give them a “like.” They post some pretty amazing sunset photos there. In the meantime, check out some more pics…

beach bum 1

beach bums 3

beach bums 2

Image taken by St. John Beach Bum
Image taken by St. John Beach Bum


Carnival 2014

Hope this video makes you all smile … taken Sunday afternoon. Enjoy!


Paddleboarder Circumnavigates Two Islands

shane board

Now this is cool… A little more than a week ago, Shane Perrin became the first person to ever circumnavigate both St. John and St. Thomas on a paddleboard. Yes you read that right – on a paddleboard.

In just 33 hours and 57 minutes, the Connecticut native who now calls St. Louis home paddled a total of 71 miles through the territory. That’s amazing!

According to Shane, paddleboarding is his “thing.” He owns his own standup paddleboard company in St. Louis and also works for a company called Vertical Oar, a veteran owned business for those who love standup paddleboarding. And he’s got a cool little gig with the company. Shane goes on these cool little adventures and films them. Vertical Oar then broadcasts them so people can follow the expedition almost in real time.

The way Shane’s Virgin Islands adventure came about is pretty neat. One of the guys at Vertical Oar happened to go to school with Cheech from St. John Brewers, so together they came up with the idea. Up until last weekend, no one’s ever circumnavigated both islands. Lucy from Rockhoppin’ Adventures circumnavigated St. John last year, but no one’s ever linked the two. (Click here to read more about that.)

The trip began last Saturday around 7 a.m. when Shane left Cruz Bay just in front of Motu. He paddled toward Red Hook and then cruised downwind along the south shore. The north shore of St. Thomas was a bit tough, he said, as he was going upwind all the way along the North Shore. He then paddled back into Cruz Bay to rethink his original plan regarding the St. John navigation.

Shane Near airport
Shane paddling past the airport on St. Thomas

After leaving Cruz bay the second time, Shane paddled along the North Shore, over to Ram Head and then down around the South Shore. He returned to Cruz Bay on Sunday, June 15 just before 5 p.m.

So the obvious questions – did he sleep? Did he eat?

According to Shane, he did a little “stealth” camping as he calls it. He found a spot overnight, set up in the dark and grabbed about an hour of sleep. He packed up before the sun rose, so no one would know he was ever there. As far as eating, he stuck to liquid nutrition the entire time.

So what was the hardest part?

“The night time travel,” Shane said. “The worst was a section on St. Thomas that the local surfers and paddlers call The Gut. You have a cross chop coming at you and it hits the rock walls and ricochets back at you. It’s like being in a washing machine.

“And coming around Ram Head was really rough too,” Shane continued. “I fell off. The swell, the cross chopping and the ricocheting off the walls really just tosses you around like a washing machine.”

This past weekend was Shane’s first visit to the island and he’s pretty excited to return with his wife and their two children. He even hinted that another cool expedition might be in the works. I guess we’ll all have to stay tuned…


Stay in the Heart of it All

Exterior View

We get a lot of emails and Facebook messages here at News of St. John. Oftentimes people inquire about island happenings, events and gossip, but more often than not, they want to know about accommodations and location. They ask about the best place to stay to catch killer sunsets or perhaps the sunrise. Others are looking for an affordable place to stay within walking distance to “everything.” Well today we have that answer for you – Hotel Cruz Bay.

For those of you unfamiliar with Hotel Cruz Bay, it’s a quaint little boutique hotel right in the heart of town. Located across from The Lime Inn and above DaLivio’s (which has great pizza by the way),  Hotel Cruz Bay was formerly known as the Cruz Bay Boutique Hotel.

“Everyone kept calling us ‘Hotel Cruz Bay, you know, the boutique hotel,’ so we just went with it,” said Denise Walker, who owns the hotel with her husband David.

Denise and David opened the hotel in late 2010 and recently completely a pretty extensive renovation. The hotel now boasts 10 guest suites and one penthouse apartment suite. Each room is clean, modern and decorated very tastefully. Guests can enjoy a full complimentary continental breakfast, as well as free wifi.

New Bedroom

Breakfast

The best part – rates for the guest rooms are only $155 a night in low season and $210 a night in high season. The penthouse apartment, which has a full kitchen, living space and separate bedroom, is only $200 a night in low season and $275 in high season. The hotel does lack parking, however you can rent a car at any of the nearby rental companies and park in their lot for free.

As part of the renovation, the couple recently installed 52 solar panels and four solar drum hot water heaters, which provides power for more than 60 percent of their energy usage. That’s a pretty big number if you ask me.

Solar

Papa News of St. John spent some time over at the hotel back in November and absolutely loved it. He loved it so much that he plans to stay there on his next visit, rather than staying with me at my place. Now that’s saying something… (or perhaps he’s trying to get away from me – lol).

Hotel Cruz Bay still has summer availability, so why not book a trip to paradise? For more information on the hotel, please visit www.HotelCruzBay.com


Original Artwork For Sale

Today’s post is short and simple. Our friend Daniel is selling two amazing, original pieces of art. Daniel is by far one of the best artists I have ever met. He has two original paintings for sale. If you’re interested, please email me at [email protected]

Three feet by three feet, stretched canvas – $1,200

Daniel painting
Click to enlarge

I am not sure the exact size on this one – $350 – SOLD

daniel 3
Click to enlarge

Click here to learn more about Daniel. 

Gotta Love a Good Sunset Cruise…

Hey everyone, happy Saturday! We had a blast last night aboard the Sadie Sea for the Barefoot at Sundown sunset snorkel cruise. I want to extend a big thanks to a few of our loyal readers who hopped aboard for some juicy island gossip, adults beverages, snorkeling and of course a beautiful sunset!

As I mentioned, this trip runs every Friday and is one of the best deals on island. Click here to read more about it…

And for now, check out some pics we took last night:

Sunset 1

Image credit: Dawn Rehling
Image credit: Dawn Rehling

Oh and how could I forget…

We hit our 5,000th like last night on Facebook! For those of you who don’t follow us on Facebook, we were in a “like” battle with Castaway’s and we won! A big thanks to Traci Owens Hemann for giving us the win!

traci
Traci at the Barefoot Cowboy Lounge

Now that we won, we’d like to support our friends at Castway’s. Please head on over and give them a like if you haven’t down so already. You can click here to do so. 


Join Me Tonight for a Sunset Cruise!

Image taken during Barefoot Cruz at Sundown sunset snorkel sail
Image taken during Barefoot Cruz at Sundown sunset snorkel sail

How many of you are lucky enough to be on island right now? If you are, come join me tonight for the Barefoot Cruz at Sundown!

I’ll be hopping aboard the Sadie Sea at 5 p.m. tonight  and you should all come too. For a mere $40, you can come out on a two-stop snorkel trip and watch the sun fall below the horizon. Afterward, we’ll head up to the Barefoot Cowboy Lounge for a quick bite to eat … all for only $40!

Now you all know how much I love to chat about how fabulous this little island is, but I also love to chat about all of the ridiculous things that happen too like the new ferries (or lack thereof despite yesterday’s brief appearance), Centerline Road, the fact that Darryl Smalls still has a job, etc. So if you want to gossip, knock back a few cold ones, snorkel and watch the sunset all while cruising around on the Sadie Sea, please join us! We’ll even clue you in on some of our StJohnopoly secrets … Ooh and maybe we’ll even show you the board! And no worries, if you’re not into snorkeling, you can simply chill on the boat with me and Captain Tom.

Tickets are for sale at Barefoot Cowboy Lounge, which is located on the second floor of the Lumberyard complex, and must be purchased by 4:45 p.m. The cruise leaves at 5 p.m. at the National Park dock and last about two hours or so. The more fun we have, the longer we stay on the water. 🙂

Hope to see you all tonight!


Major Music Fest Coming to St. John

country fest

Hey everyone, happy Friday! We’ve got some fun news to start off the weekend. For those of you who follow us on Facebook, you may have seen our post on this. But for those of you who don’t, here are the details…

There’s a pretty major music festival in the works for next year. It’s called the Love City Country Music Festival and it’s happening on May 14, 15 and 16.

According to the organizers, there will be 14 bands … four stages … and 22 beaches. They decided to hold the three day festival in May because of reduced flights and cheaper off season accommodations – smart thinking!

Now I don’t know about all of you, but I certainly hope Love City Country Music Festival plans to bring a certain country star who happens to be in love with our fabulous little island to this event. Only time will tell I guess…

In the meantime, start booking your flights and look for accommodations. Click here and here to read our stories on how to find the best airfare. And click here to visit our Island Information page, which contains a ton of info on accommodations.


Is it the apocalypse???

Yesterday, our dear friend Leslie McKibben (owner of Kids Night In babysitting service) sent us pictures of work being done on Centerline Road. And today, Leslie sent us this (via St. John Beach Bums)…

ferryNo need to wipe your eyes. That really is one of the new ferries! In operation! With real people on it!!!

A big kudos to Public Work Commissioner Darryl Smalls for actually doing his job this week! 🙂

Mr. Smalls said they’d be running within 30 days 141 days ago. Factor in a bit of island time and it looks like its right on time!

Now I wonder when they second one will start operating…

Update: Well folks, it looks like the people who hopped off the ferry weren’t passengers. Let the countdown continue…