We had seen all there was to see at Coral World by lunch time and were stuck saying, "Um, what now?" Mom's friend from work used to live on St. Thomas and said there was a nice view of St. John from Red Hook, so we decided to head that way. We came across Red Hook shortly, but didn't really see a good place to stop and before we knew it we were out of town and headed back towards Charlotte Amalie. We turned around and drove around and around trying to find a good spot to stop until we gave up and decided to head back to the center of Red Hook for lunch. Trying to stay in the island theme I had a jerk chicken wrap.
Did I mention I was sort of the designated tour guide? Therefore, everyone turned to me to figure out something to do for the afternoon. We all agreed upon Blackbeard's Castle and headed back towards Charlotte Amalie to find it. We got to where the magazine I was referring to said it should be and it wasn't there, so I switched magazines found a new point of reference for where it should be and we kept on driving. We finally found Bluebeard's Castle and wound up the hill to check it out. Bluebeard's Castle turned out to have been built up into a hotel, so after some fancy driving on Dad's part we got out of there and went looking for a tourist information center. Since Chris needed to stop at a bank and it was near a tourist shopping area, we set out looking for someone who might know something, but all we could find was this dude running a pirate shop who gave us vague directions but didn't know the street names. Heading back into Charlotte Amalie, we got lost in neighborhoods a couple more times before finally locating the castle around 3:10 pm. We headed in and started looking around, but were soon informed that they closed at 3:00 pm. After all that driving, we had figured out where a couple other sites were so we headed back downtown to climb the historic 99 steps and visit the garden of the First Ladies of the Virgin Islands.
Did I mention I was sort of the designated tour guide? Therefore, everyone turned to me to figure out something to do for the afternoon. We all agreed upon Blackbeard's Castle and headed back towards Charlotte Amalie to find it. We got to where the magazine I was referring to said it should be and it wasn't there, so I switched magazines found a new point of reference for where it should be and we kept on driving. We finally found Bluebeard's Castle and wound up the hill to check it out. Bluebeard's Castle turned out to have been built up into a hotel, so after some fancy driving on Dad's part we got out of there and went looking for a tourist information center. Since Chris needed to stop at a bank and it was near a tourist shopping area, we set out looking for someone who might know something, but all we could find was this dude running a pirate shop who gave us vague directions but didn't know the street names. Heading back into Charlotte Amalie, we got lost in neighborhoods a couple more times before finally locating the castle around 3:10 pm. We headed in and started looking around, but were soon informed that they closed at 3:00 pm. After all that driving, we had figured out where a couple other sites were so we headed back downtown to climb the historic 99 steps and visit the garden of the First Ladies of the Virgin Islands.
Pirate queen fountain below Blackbeard's Castle and above the 99 Steps.
After all that driving around, we were ready to just head back to the guesthouse to relax. For dinner, we headed to Tickle's Dockside Pub which was a little bit pricey but then all Virgin Islands food seems to cost more. The fresh ocean air and the location mere yards from a submarine and fancy-schmancy yachts gave it a nice atmosphere and it gets mega-bonus points for not being next to impossible to find. The fish & chips don't compare to Scotland, but I blame that in part to my preference for haddock over grouper.
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