St. John (rest of trip)

Gimlets and a sea view from the back porch

Most of the rest of our trip was spent at the villa, just kicking back. In general, I prefer to be a bit more active on a vacation. However, we had discusses that - after four visits - perhaps it might be time to plan visiting other places in the future. Also, we both liked the idea of just being lazy, and there could not be a better environment for it than the privacy of Andante. We took a few selfies for kicks, and we had more gimlets (I got really happy one afternoon).

Our last true activity was spending a half day deep sea fishing, which I'd not done in St. John. We rented a private boat because the last time we went deep sea fishing we were crowded on a boat with two dozen other people. The crowd was kind of a hassle as wasn't as it seemed like we spent half our time untangling lines from other anglers. Having our own boat was a much more relaxing way to travel and fish.

Despite my initially catching a mahi mahi, we had a very slow start. The sky was clear and the sea very calm and, according to our captain, the best fishing happens when the water is a little disturbed and/or there is lower visibility. But we were fine with sitting out on the boat, having something to drink, and getting more sun.

Soon enough, the work set in and we caught grouper, red snapper, and yellowtail. Jim even caught a baby barracuda and a remora. We attached the remora to our hands to see what the suction disk felt like before letting it go. There was talk of a whale shark patrolling the area, but we didn't see it. I'm pretty sure I would have jumped into the sea to swim with it had we successfully gone to look for it. At the end of the day, we didn't have a massive catch, but we had a good amount of action and that's pretty much all we were looking for.

After we were done fishing, we went back to Andante and pretty much stayed there. We discovered Candi's Delights, a restaurant with BBQ as good (or maybe even better) than Uncle Joe's but without the attitude from the she-trolls who work at Uncle Joe's. We also did a little shopping...a very little...as Cruz Bay just doesn't offer a whole lot in that area. But mostly it was all about suntanning, pool time, hammock naps, stargazing, watching sunsets, iguana spotting, and cards (I finally put an end to Jim's outrageous winning streak!).

As we Friday evening came along and the sun started to set, we had to say our goodbyes for real. After spending four trips at Andante, it was tough to leave knowing we might not be back. Andante had really become like a home away from home, so it was sad to think that we might not see it again.

But all things come to an end, and we know that there are many new adventures yet to come.

Our last sunset in St. John