The Boys' Birthday Week Recap - Part 1: Jost Van Dyke

Yesterday was the end of the boys’ birthday week.  We ended the week as it started, at Long Bay Beach.  In between, we had a few adventures and a few rainy days where we stayed home, played board games, card games and watched (a lot) of movies!

White Bay, Jost Van Dyke

 On Tuesday, we decided to head over to Jost Van Dyke.  On the ferry, children aged 4 and under are free and since it was the last day the boys were 4, it was a perfect option.  Once on Jost, we taxied over to White Bay, home of the Soggy Dollar Bar!  Our taxi driver, Greg from Perfect Pineapple Taxi, informed us that his mom was the owner of Gertrude’s, the restaurant and bar we spent the afternoon at on our last trip.  We saw this as a sign that we would make Gertrude’s our “home” base on this trip.  Chris especially likes the make-our-own painkillers at Gertrude’s!

Gertrude's, Jost Van Dyke

Once on the beach, it was too early for lunch so we decided to hike over to the other side of the beach.  Reilly, Chris and I had fun.  Reagan, decided that we should never ask him to do that again as he was tired and just did not like it. 

Back on the other side of the beach we ordered lunch at Gertrude’s.  We ate roti the last time we were there and the boys wanted it again.  Chris and I shared an order of conch fritters.  The food was good, however, there were a lot of flies.  We later learned that an issue with trash pick up on the island was the cause of a fly outbreak and a lot of the restaurants were experiencing the same thing. 

This did not dampen our spirits, right after lunch, the boys jumped into the water and started playing.  They met a lot of people and invited everyone they met to their beach party!  I would say there were at least 50 women invited before the day was done.  Many we met were on party boats and were staying in St. John.  It was fun to spend the day talking to people from the States.  The boys were a big hit with everyone. 

Once it was time to head back to the ferry, we walked over to Perfect Pineapple Guest Houses and Greg was there to drive us back.  Great customer service, next time, we may stay overnight at Perfect Pineapple!

When we got back to Tortola, we were all starving and decided that after we cleaned up we would head out to dinner.  We have been hearing about a Chinese restaurant next to one of the bodegas in Sea Cow’s Bay.  We decided we would check the menu and if there were items we liked, we would give it a try.  We were all tired and Chris and I were worried about going “out” with tired boys.  Luckily, they had good choices and we came home with three bags of Chinese.  Our first since leaving the Bay Area!  It was not the best we’ve eaten, but it hit the spot and was the perfect way to end the day.