That title? Was long. Perhaps too long.

Haven’t been to Jack’s Bight before? I’ll assume you literally JUST got here. It’s on the East end, located at Point Pleasant.

The view? Pretty awesome.

The wings? Finger lickin’! and the reuben?? Sooooo goooooddd…especially with their ‘tater salad. Yum. YUM.

Of course their beers are cold, Steve’s a professional keeper of cold beers.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more relaxing place for lunch, especially with the big pool deck just steps away. Watch the boats skim the horizon, sit on the steps and dip your feet in the ocean, scan the water for sea creatures or sit at the bar and talk sports with Kevin (he probably won’t tell you this but he’s a closet Red Sox fan. Loves ‘em. Go on, bring it up to him. Then duck, quickly).

Of course if you show up tonight that picture of calm goes out the window as tonight is the last Stoli Trippin’ Thursday! The FABULOUS Becca Darling and Hot Tunes will be providing the live music -

…and the Bight will be providing the following specials…$3.00 Stoli cocktails, $2.50 Miller Light and Miller High Life! Happy Hour starts at 5, the live music starts at 7.

If you concentrate really hard you’ll feel the island tip towards the East tonight as the crowd builds. It’s a fun, rowdy night and whether you go alone or with a group you’re bound to catch up with someone you haven’t seen for awhile! Unless you’re one of the people that literally JUST got here – but don’t worry, you’ll make new friends. Promise.

I love the fact that these teachers are having some fun with the students even though it’s at their expense

Check out the teacher at 0.56, LMAO!

It’s worth watching  the entire video, very funny.

Afternoon faithful readers! Decided to dig into my email to pull out a few questions from some possible future islanders. We do have a lot of people email us with questions about how one gives up Real America and moves to a lifetime of beach days and frozen drinks. (the first thing you need to know? It’s fewer beach days and frozen drinks than you think, but you should be able to squeeze those in somewhere between work and waiting in lines at Kmart and/or the post office…). For those looking to become a resident of the Rock (or St. John/St. Croix) please check out these previous posts: Moving to St. Thomas Part One, Part Two, and Part Three. There’s over 450 comments between the three that make for good reading.

Hello! My boyfriend & I plan on moving to St Thomas when I’m done with college. One question I haven’t seen you answer is when the best time of the year is to move. We are both looking into the bar & restaurant industry if that makes a difference. Love reading your blog, thanks for sharing! 

The islands have two seasons, high and low. High season starts in November and runs through April. Basically when it’s cold up North we’re busy down here. Summertime is our low season and August/September are two of our slowest months. A lot of businesses trim their staff for the slow months and some close up during September as high electric bills mixed with fewer customers means you lose less money being closed than staying open with the A/C cranking. September is also the height of our hurricane season (knock wood). With that said if you both want to work in the restaurant industry you’ll want to be here before potential employers stock up their staff in preparation for high season. We’re a face-to-face island which means you can definitely burn up the phone lines prior to your trip but most people will just tell you to come in and see them once you’re on-island. If possible a PMV (pre-move visit) is always recommended, even if it’s for a few short days. It gives you a chance to see the island, seek out where you’d like to move and make some contacts that can be helpful once you land here full-time. Good luck with college, study hard!

Good morning, I am interested in finding out what part of St  Thomas is considered a wealthy area to live in. I was told that Macon (Magens) bay was nice. I would like to have your opinion of the top three areas that would be nice to live in if you have money. Thank you for your time.

There are a lot of great areas to live in St. Thomas. Most people don’t move down seeking a specific ‘neighborhood’ so to speak, but they do move down with a few requirements for their island living. A great view, being close to the ocean, a pool, safety, beautiful sunsets/sunrises, whether they need a car or not, being close to where they work (yes, this is a valid concern even on an island that’s thirteen miles long), privacy…etc. Your best bet would be to contact a realtor (our friend Karen is a great one, you can reach her at korsgren@joimail.com) and let them know what you’re looking for. For some online research you can check out this map, if you zoom in you can see what areas appeal to you and find out what that area is called. Good luck with your search.

Hello, the Saint Thomas Blog is awesome!! You guys have done a great job. I’m curious, I really want to make the move to St. Thomas, and I read that you two know people who have come with almost nothing. I realize anything is possible, but how exactly does one obtain a place to stay until she gets on her feet with a very limited amount of funds? I’m ready and willing to step into any industry that will have me. Are there opportunities for rooms to rent?  Any advice beyond all the posts and wonderful comments would be much appreciated. Thanks again for all of the work you put into the blog, it’s a great resource.

The St. Thomas Source and the Virgin Islands Daily News are both online with classified sections that include housing…you can check them out here and here. The VI Daily News also has a link to the Island Trader – a great resource that comes out on Thursdays, you can find that here. Contacting a real estate agent is also recommended, they often have a ton of information regarding island rentals (Karen @ korsgren@joimail.com)…and yes, we also have craigslist for the island, which you can find here.  Once you’re here you can start pounding the pavement for work – don’t be afraid to talk to people, introduce yourself to potential employers…there’s no formula for how long it takes to find work on an island but don’t get frustrated.

Have a question? Shoot me an email nicci@stthomasblog.com.

On the heels of yesterday’s post about the Virgin Island’s number one ranking in world spirit consumption I present to you part of the reason…Caribbean Saloon’s two (count ‘em, one – two) daily Happy Hours:

Two dollah drinks are the best kind!

Oh, and for those of us who travel to Saloon from the far reaches of the Northside they also have Happy Hour food Monday thru Friday to fill you up for that long drive home

Tastee! Enjoy! And please Happy Hour responsibly.

No, silly, not the Virgin Islands…the Very Inebriated! At least according to this account that has recently lapped my Fbook newsfeed multiple times:

Someone, somewhere, found this page in some book, posted it – and just like that they verified something that most of us had already guessed

There’s a handful of reasons to explain why the USVI is leading the world in bleary-eyed hangovers:

A) Rum is cheaper than milk. And juice. And, in some instances, water – once you’ve filtered and/or bottled it.

B) Jager is like the ‘F’ word, used and abused often, by many, in a variety of different ways. Ask any bartender how often they have to change out the bottles on their jager machine. (then ask how many of them run quality controls on it throughout their shift to make sure it’s cold…)

3) Happy hour prices are cheap, cheap, cheap – and many bars have two (2, dos, deux) happy hours.

*) No one leaves a bar empty-handed, and, now that I think about it, many people never enter a bar empty-handed either.

5) Bushwackers include between five to seven alcohols, and we sell a lot a dem down here. A lot.

9) FREE POUR. And no, I don’t mean we pour for free…I mean island bartenders use a free pour when making drinks. Which leads to a lot of dismay when islanders travel up to Real America, order a drink and watch the bartender pick up that nasty little alcohol-measuring tool. Yucky.

G) The airport hands out shots of Cruzan rum to arriving passengers. (they hand out aspirin to departing passengers. Ha! I kid. Why would you leave?)

9) We have beer-drinking pigs on St. Croix. I know, I know, beer isn’t a spirit…and I’m pretty sure the pigs are chugging non-alcoholic beer, so they really don’t do anything for our number one status – but I felt like mentioning it, okay?

So, back to this mysterious list that puts the USVI on top of the world. I’ve googled and read and can’t seem to find the origin. I have found a couple of other maps and charts that paint a different picture…such as this one, which has us somewhere between thirsty Russia and not-so-thirsty Algeria (and neighbors):

A little more digging and I found some other randomly interesting facts on the Virgin Islands:

~ we’re #18 out of 52 for Heavy drinkers – defined as adult men having more than two drinks per day and adult women having more than one per day. (more than one is considered ‘heavy’? Poppycock! I’ve already had two while writing this.)

~ we’re #34 out of 52 for Binge drinkers – defined as adults having five or more drinks on one occasion. (can someone define ‘occasion’ for me – do they mean New Years Eve? Or dinner?)

~ we came in last for tobacco use.

~ we’re #46 out of 52 for Physical exercise. (hey, we live on an island, all we do is drink pina coladas and lay on the beach, right? And those pigs aren’t helping, they do a lot of standing around when they’re not drinking fake beer)

~ we’re #1 (NUMBER ONE PEOPLE!!) in fruits and vegetable consumption. (Mango daiquiris…strawberry daiquiris…pineapple rum…cucumber-infused martinis…)

Those facts appear here…and please, feel free to scour the web for other interesting Virgin Islands facts and figures, but for goodness sakes do it with a drink in your hand so we can keep our number one spot on that random list

I hope all the moms out there are enjoying a very relaxing Sunday!

Especially our two…Margaret:

…and Shelly.

Mother’s Day Brunch Menu

8am-2pm

  All you can eat buffet for $35.00 for adults & $17 for children 10 yrs & younger

Cold Plates

• Tropical fruit platter
• Artisanal Cheese platter
• Assorted Muffins and Breads (Jams, Butters, Spreads)
• Granola, Yogurt, Mixed Berries
• Caesar Salad, Mixed Green Salad, Fresh Potato Salad
• Smoked Salmon with the traditional garnishes

Carving Station

• Prime Rib, Horseradish Crème, Rosemary Demi

Hot Plates

• Bacon, Sausage, Hash Browns (Home Fries)
• Quiche, Spinach, Wild Mushroom, Goat Cheese
• Scrambled Eggs
• Blueberry Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast
• Eggs Benedict

Dessert Station

• Chocolate Fountain (Marshmallow, Fruit, Graham Crackers, Pretzels)
• Assorted Mini Fruit Tarts
• Cheesecake

*Moms receive a complimentary glass of champagne & a rose!

If that chicken lives on St. Thomas it was probably to get back to his dumpster. At least that seemed to be the case about five months ago as I was driving up Crown Mountain and came to the random traffic lights by the barriers where the road fell away and they have seemingly decided that the traffic lights are a system that works so why fix it yet to repair the road.

As I pulled up the doomed chicken darted from the left into the road. I hit the brakes but alas, he met his maker underneath my back right tire…and judging from the bump and the pile of feathers I watched fly up in the rear-view mirror he was a bigger chicken than I originally thought. The light turned green, I continued up the mountain and as I glanced in the rear-view mirror I saw why this story was so popular about fifty years ago.

My apologies to that chicken. My apologies also to that chicken’s family and friends who were gathered by the dumpsters on the right of the street and saw the whole thing go down. My apologies likewise to the girl riding in the back of the pick up that was in front of me. She also saw the whole thing go down. Didn’t seem to faze her although it fazed me – enough that I pulled over at the next dumpster to get out and check my car for damages and stuck feathers.

Lastly my apologies to the iguana that ran under my car yesterday and reminded me about the chicken.

Yes, islanders-to-be, dumpster chickens are just one of many things that will charm you when you move here. Along with our beautiful beaches, the fact that someone is always around to have a drink with, how people greet an entire room when they walk in and we all greet them back (something I really do love, as much as I loved the reaction the first time I tried that back home in the post office and everyone looked at me like I had three heads…), the way we differentiate our Kmarts (Big and Little), the goat family that roams Tutu, the car washing crackies who never stray from their turf and you worry when you don’t see them for a couple of days, tourist questions, teeth-sucking, how long you need to live here before you start to earn your stripes as a local (varies, I say a year, I’ve heard longer) and how you’ll quickly learn that no one knows the route numbers of the roads so find out where the Bridge to Nowhere is as it’s included in half the directions of how to get anywhere. Same with Big Kmart, Nisky, Hometown gas station, Four Corners, and Friendlys gas station convenience store. Find these places and you should be good to go.

And now I have to go, to Little Kmart and the post office.

Cheers! And TGIF!

This year buy your mother the gift of beauty and comfort that will remind her how special she is to you for years to come at Island Empire…

A beautiful sectional that the whole family can enjoy together…

Or a sophisticated room setting she can relax and entertain in…

Help Mom freshen up an older look by giving her beautiful new design elements – choose from many unique small tables and cabinets…

Or pieces that help bring the sunshine inside all year long…(what an awesome piece!!)

Whatever you decide to do for Mom this year make sure it counts by giving her Quality. That’s exactly what you will find at Island Empire. From pressure relieving Tempur-Pedics, to a thoughtful gift certificate.  Island Empire has something to make everyone smile!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Island Empire open 7 days a week M-F 9-6pm. Sat & Sun 10-5pm.

340-776-7529 info@islandempire.com

Located behind the hospital in St. Thomas, across from Fortress Storage.

We’ve blogged before about the great job the humane society does trying to get the many stray dogs and cats off the roads and into loving homes. We’ve even told you how you can take a dog or cat with you when you leave the island. There are many people here who also take it upon themselves to feed strays and bring them in to get spayed and neutered. Of course there are others who don’t get their pets fixed and end up adding to the large population of strays.

FiXiT Foundation is an organization that strives to motivate people to bring their pets in to get spayed/neutered. FiXiT launched a spay/neuter clinic under the name St. Croix Animal Welfare Network, collaborative effort between FiXiT and private veterinarians on the island. They note that 65% of St. Croix pet owners have not had their animals fixed, and they have run a couple of incentives in the past to improve that number. Last month they introduced their latest incentive: bring your animal in to get fixed and we’ll hand you a coupon for a free bottle of the island’s finest Cruzan Rum!

Their previous incentive was a free fast-food combo meal. Healthy? No. Effective? According to their blog – yes! “The fast food inspired many people that had never brought their animal to the vet previously. Those people that indicated no relationship with a veterinary clinic on the island DOUBLED. Many of their dogs, primarily, had never been out of the yard.”

They hope to have the same reaction with the Cruzan rum incentive, noting that “St. Croix has such a rich history of rum production, having Cruzan Rum as our incentive seems like a good tie-in.”

The group understands that the incentive might seem a bit controversial, and apparently it is for Allan Jung, a dog lover and newspaper scribbler from our home state of MA who writes: “I get a lot of dog-related press releases cross my desk but this took the prize! Pet owners in ST. CROIX, U.S. Virgin Islands are being offered a free bottle of rum to spay and neuter their pets. It is important to fix pets but who is going to fix the owners after all this?” Allan, of course, is writing about an island where rum is cheaper than milk from a state in which you may or may not be able to buy booze on a Sunday – so his perception may be skewed just a tad Plus our baseball team is currently in the basement so I can understand his frustration (emotions in MA have been known to tie in directly with the success/failure of our sports teams. That’s a fact, people).

So, what do you think? Feel like taking the ferry plane to STX and bringing some animals in? Personally I think it’s a creative way to solve a real problem – and I hope it’s successful. I also look forward to seeing what their next idea is

The incentive was introduced at the beginning of April and will run for a couple of months. For more info on the St. Croix Animal Welfare Network you can call them at 340.715.7629, check out their website, their blog and their facebook page.

Oh, Happy Belated birthday Bob Barker – dude turned 88 this past December! Cheers!