St Thomas 2020
Day 7: Saturday, July 25
Brewe
Brewers Bay, Lindbergh Beach, Sapphire Beach, Pool
I knew that I wanted to head to a "new" area of St Thomas and decided I was going to head over toward the airport and spend some time checking out the beaches in that area. That meant we were going to Brewers Bay and Lindbergh Beach. Originally I had planned to head to Bologno Bay as well but since we went there for B's birthday, I had already seen the beach and decided we'd skip that.
I was up at the crack of dawn again. I haven't been able to sleep well this vacation and as the days ticked on, it only got worse. I would spend my normal morning sitting on the porch with my cup of...not coffee because I don't drink coffee, instead it would be pop. Gotta get my caffeine fix somehow. Mr Eeerka was doing his morning rounds to wake everyone up and there were already several people setting up their "spot" with chairs along the beach and several already in the water. It just seems weird to me that people get up at 6am and head straight to the water. Does this mean they are up at 5am to have breakfast?
I gave it a few hours and then contacted Kendra about today's plans. We already knew that parasailing was out of the question because it was booked. We also knew that since it was Saturday, all beaches would be closing by 4pm. After telling her we were hitting up several beaches, her response was "Billy and Brayden don't want to go to any beaches". Um ok, well....they can do whatever they want but that's what I'm doing...are you with me or not?? I tried to entice her by letting her know that I had read there were turtles at this beach. Her reply was "mom, you always say that and there never are". Well, I can only report what others have said and it is the ocean and nothing is guaranteed. She said her and Kam would go. We had our breakfast and I headed down to pick up the girls. In front of her condo was a beautiful stork.
About this time, I was contacted by the company we were scuba diving with tomorrow...only they are telling me that it was today and I had missed our appointment. Say what??? From the very day I had booked this dive with them I have been saying that it was for Sunday. I'm not sure where the mix up was because that was the date I had said, but somehow they booked me for Saturday. Well, we already had plans and it was already passed the time we were supposed to be there so they said they had availability for Monday at 1:30pm. So, we told them we would be there then.
I set my MapsMe and we headed out. It was a fairly easy drive and I'm pretty sure I have mastered this driving on the left hand side thing. We are in the area of the airport and the first beach we decided to go to was Brewers. It was right past the college campus. When we pulled up, parking looked to be on the road so we took the very first open spot we could find. I will admit, I'm not the best parallel parker but I managed to get us in the spot with only going back and forth about 10 times. ;)
It was a bit of a walk (for me) down to the beach area. There was a hill so I had to go nice and slow (no sidewalk or path from the area we were). They do have nice facilities here with bathrooms and showers outside.
We walked into a shaded area along the beach and my immediate thoughts of the beach was "wow, it's beautiful"! There were trees up and down the beach for shade with signs that stated to stay 6' apart.
We found a spot right close to where we walked in at and set up our chairs and things. There were some huge rocks behind us (think cave like setting) and plenty of shade. There was a lady at the next tree over on the phone (a local) and she would spend the next hour+ constantly complaining in a very loud voice. Like after awhile, it got super annoying. I hate when people talk on the phone so loud that everyone within a distance around them can hear their entire conversation. It's even worse when they are doing nothing but complaining non-stop. Like take your conversation somewhere that it can be private. No one wants to hear that...especially while trying to have a nice day at the beach. I usually don't verbally complain about these things but it was seriously on everyone's nerves after a solid hour of it.
Here's the beautiful beach and sand. The water was gorgeous and the waves pretty calm.
I immediately geared up and headed for the water. No time to waste!
I was in about 8' of water when I spotted my first turtle!!! See, the reviews and reports I had read weren't lying. I immediately signaled for Sakari to "COME! Turtle!!!" She could hear the excitement in my voice and rushed right out. We would spend the next 30 minutes just watching THEM all. They were everywhere! Big turtles, little turtles....DUDE! It was amazing. They were so graceful gliding from area to area and they must be pretty used to people here because we didn't phase them at all. They came as close as around 4' of water, which gave Kam a chance to see them as well.
Kendra held Kam in the water so that she could see the one's close up to where they were standing. She was so excited. I can tell she's going to have love to the water and sea, just like Sakari, no matter who her dad is. LOL
The below picture shows how close they were to the beach
I wanted Kendra and the hubby to go out and see them so I offered to stay back with Kam while Kendra went out and the hubs headed out as well after I told him how many there were out there. Hey, at least I was right this time around and Kendra was having a great time. I think she was just as excited to see the turtles as Kam was. She did say after she came out of the water "Well, usually they say something can be found at places we go and then you never see it so I just figured it was the same way here too".
Sakari managed to sneak a feel a few times as a baby turtle swam within inches of her or during grazing. I couldn't believe they didn't take off really quickly and would just continue to eat or move a little like it was no big deal.
Kam was busy playing in the sand and building more "condo's".
After the hubby came back in, I decided to head out again but to the left. There I would also find 2 stingrays as well. I had read they were also in the area, but these would be the only 2 that I found there.
I tried a few under/over shots, but they really didn't turn out well. It was cloudy off and on with a few sprinkles.
Since we were right by the airport, watching the planes come in were kinda neat too. It's nothing like Maho in St Maarten, but just knowing they really don't have a long runway to take off or stop made it fun to watch.
Here's a video I made of our day there.
We had arrived around 11:30am and it was now around 1:15 and we decided to pack up and head to the next beach. We were really pushing our time since they said that you should start packing up your things on the beach around 3pm and be out by 4pm. At least the next beach was close by so there wouldn't be much time in driving.
On the way out, you had to go down the street and circle around. I took a short cut and did a U turn when there was an opening. I'm not sure if U turns are allowed on the island?
I did see a spot that had some stairs to go down to get onto the beach. But, there didn't seem to be as much shade in that area of the beach.
We arrived at Lindbergh Beach around 1:30pm. It was right by the airport and down the street from the airport entrance. We could see the planes coming and going right beside the parking area at the beach. I'm really not sure where you are supposed to park for this beach but we pretty much pulled off the side of the road at some place that looked like it used to be a place to eat or something for the beach. There were a lot of pot holes. We decided to grab a sandwich and some snacks out of the back and have a quick bite to eat before going on the beach.
Upon walking on to the beach it was nice but it didn't give me the same vibe as the other beach. This place looked a little more run down with buildings boarded up, roofs gone, porches fallen off the houses right next to the beach. Maybe from the hurricane's and never rebuilt? I'm not sure. It did appear to be a local beach and a lot of the locals were there swimming and cooling off. There was also a guy sitting on a bucket behind us by the raggedy old house falling apart and was rolling him some "smoke". He was watching us closely and it didn't give me a very good feeling. I don't care what people do, but it sets uneasy with me when they are right there out in the open, on a beach, with families, and smoking their weed...and especially when they approach us and ask for a light, light it up right there and smoke it with children around (even a family that had around 8 kids with them beside us).
There were chicken families enjoying the day as well. Right behind us mom and pops were digging holes in the sand and the babies were getting in them. So cute.
Down the beach was a resort: Emerald Beach Resort. To me (and I can't judge because I have never been there) it reminded me of the hotel/motels that we used to stay in on Spring Break in Daytona Beach Florida. I don't know what it was about it, but that's just the way it looked from a distance. I did go back and read reviews on it after I got home and it seemed to confirm not only the area but the "resort". It said the resort and rooms were dated, some reports of bugs, trash (including bags of trash, litter, even used condoms laying around) and locals that would sit outside and smoke weed. They also said there was an abandoned hotel next door and people with tents staying there...possibly homeless people. It definitely didn't sound like a place I would stay (no matter how cheap it is) and this is probably a beach I wouldn't come back to in the future.
It was a large beach though, with some shade (not a lot) and pretty sand. It just doesn't give me the warm and fuzzy feeling.
The hubby and I went out in the water for awhile and watched the kids on the beach building their sand condo's...only this time, it wasn't a sand condo. They were digging another hole to China. I'm not sure why this became such a fascination with them this trip, but they constantly did it. Kendra did even bother to get in the water at all. I could tell she was pretty much ready to leave.
I honestly didn't realize just how deep this hole they had dug was until Sakari told me to take a picture of her....and her leg was all the way down in the hole...straight down! Kam also had to show me that she could fit in the hole "Watch me mamaw" "Watch me mamaw" "Watch me mamaw"
It was around 2:30pm and we decided to go ahead and leave. We really weren't feeling this beach at all.
We were walking back out the way we came in and the hubs had told me they had showers and bathrooms as we walked in but I hadn't noticed.
There were the bathrooms and the showers were outside. Most of them didn't work and they were hard to get on and keep on. Once again, the looks of this place just wasn't too nice IMO.
We arrived back at the condo and I dropped Kendra and Kam off and told her we were going to put our things up and head down to the pool after that.
Outside our balcony, there was someone paragliding. I watched them for awhile and gathered our things for the pool. We had confirmed that although the beach closed at 4pm, we were still able to go to the pool.
This would be the tree that we always sat under...
When we got to the pool, I noticed a wedding had just happened. I was watching them for awhile and then the wedding party walked down the jetty and just the bride and groom stayed to take pictures. The jetty is called Pretty Klip and goes out around 100 yards out of the bay and surrounded by huge rocks and waves crashing against them. It has a few palm trees on each side and a beautiful background for a wedding. While we were there we seen several people getting married there. However, there's not sand to walk on out to the end of it as I showed in a previous picture of Sakari trying to run on the rocks/pebbles along the way. I later ran into the bride and congratulated her on her marriage. She proudly wore her dress all day around the beach and that night in front of her condo.
Everyone hung out at the pool the rest of the day and I just took pictures of the area...and of course hunted for seaglass. I'm still amazed at how much there is and every day there was more to be found.
I had been working with Kam to get her to learn to float on her back. She was getting better each time she practiced. She wanted me to watch her and she'd jump off the steps and then float. Good job Kam.
It had been hours since we had ate and we decided it was time to go back and make dinner. Spaghetti it was. I had a bunch of hamburger to use up.
I really loved that we stayed in a place that had a stove and "kitchen" with everything we needed to make our meals.
After dinner, shower and relax in bed watching t.v. It was funny because a guy my hubby grew up with as teenagers and they were skaters together had popped up on t.v. He was promoting some type of show that was on. He was always trying to get into show biz and the last I had seen him on tv was when he competed on Big Brother. It was weird to see him on t.v. just knowing him in person. LOL
Off to bed we went because it gets dark between 6-6:30pm and by 9pm, it felt like midnight to us (even though we would check the camera's back home and it was still daylight).