The last time we were on St. Croix was in 2001. For several years we had tried Hawaii, Jamaica, and Cancun in search of the perfect vacation spot, some more than once. While they all had charms, most were either too built up and busy or, in the case of Jamaica, too much warning to stay in the resorts to really get familiar with the island. So, in ’01 we went down to STX and spent Scott’s 50th at The Buccaneer. The resort was very nice, the golf was above par…but it was the town of Christiansted and the people, history and architecture that really won us over. We left the island with all intentions of returning.

In early 2002 we received a new issue of CT&L magazine with a story on the BVIs: Ivan and his beach front bar and camp, the “campiness” of Bomba’s Shack, the charm of Sydney’s place in Little Harbor and a photo of him with his huge lobsters and amazing photos of The Baths. We made it down and spent 3 days on Jost, 3 days on Virgin Gorda and 3 days on Tortola…and we were hooked. Over the next 7 years we headed down for land based trips, sailing charters and land/sailing combo trips 8 more times. In between we sailed St. Vincent/Grenadines for a week and loved that too.

But, the memory of the warm people and the history of the island was always lurking in the back of our minds as the place to go when we were ready to consider buying a place in the Virgins. As we remembered, it had a much more “residential” feel than the other islands, and with an oil refinery on island there were plenty of businesses catering to more than just tourists. We had heard rumors that the island had become “unsafe”, and indeed most if not all cruise ships stopped visiting STX for several years. But it was time for us to go down and see for ourselves if it was as we remembered. We arranged to have a realtor show us condos and small homes that we found on the internet and arranged for a room at Carringtons Inn based on a TTOL recommendation.

We usually try to take the red eye out of LAX and did so this time, with a non-stop to SJU and then an AA Eagle to STX. We left on time, which was the first time in several trips and got into STX around noon on Thursday. We got our rental and checked into Carringtons. We had reserved a small room as we are sailing later in the year and this was to be “on the cheap” but Claudia had upgraded us to a larger room (Morning Glory) and it was a very good size with a large bathroom and plenty of windows for breezes. All rooms have a fridge and some have a microwave. The inn has a nice pool, T.V. room, dining room, and balconies with views of C’sted Harbor. I highly recommend this inn. The full breakfasts were superb, homey and filling. Most days we had things you might make at home on Sunday: pancakes, Caribbean Toast (Claudia’s version of French Toast), scrambled eggs, etc. but one day she did make an amazing baked egg dish. Coffee is good and strong…I could go on.

We decided to make the most of the day and after checking in, we drove down the road that bisects the island in half to the south side of the island and drove counter clockwise around the east side of the island, passing Divi Carina Casino and stopping for a Carib, our first of the trip and what makes me feel as though I’ve landed in the virgins. We drove on to Point Udall, the eastern most point of the U.S. and took a few photos. It seems to be a bit of a lonely spot but so did “south point” on the big island of Hawaii, which is supposed to be the “southern most” point of the U.S!

We drove on to see the outside of a few condos we were going to see the next day, and see what the rest of the east and northern side of the island looked like. In 2001 we did not rent a car so we did not get out this far and wanted to see what we had missed. It is a lovely island with good roads and hillsides showcasing several large villas. There were not a lot of the sort of beaches we are used to seeing on Virgin Gorda and Jost, but we were relieved that there was a lack of switch-backs and tummy flipping roads to navigate. Heading back to the inn we had to drive through C’sted and it was nice to see the town held its charming look, very similar to New Orleans (quite a few of the buildings are from the same era as some of the buildings in N.O.’s French Quarter).

We stopped in town and had a light dinner at the Brewing Company on the waterfront. Not a gourmet meal, but a nice club sandwich and amazing potato salad. Once per month the galleries in town have an Art Walk and serve wine or rum punch and stay open a little later. We found some great water color prints, and an interesting jeweler. We were tired from the trip across the country and would have liked to spend more time in the galleries. We have a Thursday art walk here in Laguna Beach which makes the STX walk seem like the hors d’ oeuvre in a buffet, but there was some quality work.

We slept w/ AC our first night and found the bed very comfy. Our realtor was picking us up at 9, so we were up and ready for breakfast by 8. Our realtor, Kerry, was right on time and we headed out to see some condos on the east side of the island where we had been the day before. Kerry filled us in on the island’s changes since we had been there last. They now have one cruise ship in port every other Saturday. She explained that many cruise ships had stopped coming because they wanted the island’s tourism board to be able to ensure enough activities and infrastructure to “entertain” a minimum of 1500 people. While STX has the size to handle the crowd, there really isn’t the shopping found on STT nor beaches to bus them to such as is done from Tortola and VG. As is the case in the BVI, there are those who would like to see the population benefit from more tourism, but those who fear the island will become over run with cruise ship passengers and disturb the “residential” feel of the place.

We looked at 6 properties that day. Some were in large complexes, some small. We saw one house that charmed the socks off us and a condo on a golf course with an ocean view…and about 1/10th what those 2 amenities would cost us in Southern California! Kerry dropped us off with lots to talk about and plans to see more on Monday. Our assignment was to look at other properties on line and she would also have some suggestions for us. We drove to the east of C’sted and had a top notch cheese burger at Cheeseburgers in America’s Paradise.

We spent the next 2 days as tourists instead of house-hunters. On Saturday after another delicious breakfast we went into C’sted to take an organized sail over to Buck Island, sort of the Sandy Spit of STX. It was a little hard to be on the water on someone else’s boat, but the island and the snorkeling were outstanding. I would say that the underwater national park trail took us over some of the most amazing coral I’ve seen in about 6 trips down to the BVI…of course it is very healthy as there is a limit to the number of boats allowed to bring tourists over and most of the operators are aware of the fragility of both the reef and their business if they don’t emphasize the need to keep off the coral. The parrot fish were in abundance and we had 2 barracuda hanging out near one big field of brain coral.
After the boat sailed back to C’sted we did some shopping in town. The town has a good selection of souvenirs without too many of the “made in china” tshirt/shot glass/snow globe shops (actually there was one). We enjoyed a nice casual meal at Rumrunners before heading back to the inn for Caribs in the television room to see the Lakers/Magic game which sounded very relaxing.

On Sunday, after our delicious baked eggs breakfast, we headed out to see the west end of the island. STX is similar to the big island in Hawaii in that it has a dry side and a rain-forest side. The west side is where you will find Frederiksted and the rain forest. We headed south and then went clockwise.

Unfortunately, Sandy Point, the largest white sand beach on the island was closed for turtle breeding season so we drove along the entry road to the blockade just to see if we could get a glimpse of the beach and water. We headed up to F’sted which is a ghost town on Sunday morning (which C’sted is also) and then drove Creque Dam Rd (58) into the rain forest.

You cannot believe that this is the same island that you left when you started heading east on this road. The trees close in around you, it is quiet and moist and green and still and verdant. There are smells of moss mixed with salt air. There are termite nests high in the trees that resemble Godzilla-size wasp nests. The road narrows to about 1-1/2 car width, but we only came across one car going in the other direction.

Not long after leaving 58 for the 78 road, we came to the Mt. Pellier Domino Club Bar, home of the beer-drinking pigs. Since it was near noon when we arrived and it was “5 o’clock” somewhere, we decided the pigs did indeed need to drink some beer. The “beer” is actually cans of O’Doulls non-alcoholic beer. For a dollar a beer, the bar maid takes you back to the pens. There are 2 very friendly but very large pigs with their snouts and dreamy eyes showing over the pen gates. You put the can in their mouth and jump back, because they bite into the cans and beer goes everywhere! The pigs sort of chew and swallow and then spit the cans out. They also serve a signature rum shot at Mt. Pelliers…was it bamamama? Mamabama? Anyway, it is rum and honey steeped together…potent enough that Scott and I split one shot. I do believe the bar maid said it was a sipping rum…sipping indeed.

We made our way out of the forest and up to Salt River, where Columbus sent a shore boat during his second trip to the “new world” and spoke with some of the live-aboard folks. The boating community there is close knit but small. Salt River is a very protected area though and most boats ride out tropical storms quite well there.

We also took the time that day to take the self-guided tour of the fort in C’sted: interesting cannons, gun sites and cells as well as great photo ops.

We went back to the inn for a refreshing swim in the pool and then cleaned up for our one splurge: dinner at Kendricks. We had dined there years before and knew the repast would be top notch. Kendricks is part of an old homestead in town, with the courtyard being where the carriages and horses would come in through the gate, the tables on the porch are actually on a deck built on the front of the old stable and the kitchen in part of the old slave quarters. Scott had a veal dish with a balsamic glaze and roasted apples. I had the chipotle chili, garlic and onion soup which was a creamy yet spicy bisque. I also had the butternut squash ravioli in sage cream appetizer as my entrée. The cream sauce was very nice but the ravioli was little too filled…the squash almost over-powered the other tastes in the dish. The night we were there, they were offering a 2 for one wine special. We each sampled 2 different whites, and judged the Pinot Grigio our favorite of the 4 glasses….I believe it was the Santa Margarita, which we do enjoy at home as well.

On Monday, Kerry drove us out to see a couple more units in one of the complexes we had visited on Friday toward the east. We liked it enough that we were interested in what some other size units looked like. That particular property had a real community feel about it. We also saw some units in larger complexes with beach front boasting rights to the west of C’sted that seem to do a good vacation rental business, but the east side place was the one that kept coming up as the first choice. We said our goodbyes to Kerry after a couple hours and 5 condos later with a lot to think about.

As much as we love sailing out of Nanny Cay on Tortola and as much as we adore Savannah Bay on Virgin Gorda, our short time on STX did convince us that it may indeed be where we need to put down some roots in 4 or 5 years when we can slow down and do something we love instead of something we have to do. Our tentative plan is to buy a one bedroom now and find a long term renter (plenty of those due to the oil refinery’s need for contractors)…with long term plans to then move up to a larger unit when we go down for 6-8 months of each year.

We said our goodbyes to Claudia and her lovely husband Roger. Claudia is also a realtor and we had picked her brain a bit while we were there. She is a true local and had some advice about some of the properties we saw. Roger is a tennis ace as well as being responsible for much of the breakfast. We promised to stay at their inn the next time we are down. They had a full house when we were there, so we'll be sure to book early.

We were taking the 4:45 flight to Miami, so we turned in our car, went quickly through customs (I didn’t remember that from the last time…while you do not need passports to go to the USVI, according to their tourism site they did check all of our bags by hand) and had an event-free trip home.

St. Croix has very helpful and friendly locals. It has more than its share of great dining spots. There are a handful of white sandy beaches, you just have to find them and some of them require a short hike. The island is definitely the residential V.I. You can drive all the way round the island easier than STT or STJ or Tortola, but not as easily as you can drive from one end of VG to the other. We had no problems with feeling safe and again, found the locals more friendly and talkative than those on the BVI.

Probably our only regret is that the sailing community is not as present as it is in STT or the BVI. Scott stopped at the yacht club facility which seemed like more of a social club and the main marina there just wasn’t what we hoped it would be. If anything keeps us from buying, it may be our need to be on the water some of the time. We do not own here, but we do belong to a club that enables us to rent when we want to sail….but, we’ll keep our options open.