Caribbean Travel Magazine

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Zach Stovall

Using his parents' honeymoon diary as a guide, David LAHuta and his wife, Joy, go in search of St. Thomas, then and now.I never meant to read my father's journal. But when I found the yellowed stationery tucked away in my childhood home, I couldn't help myself. It was like discovering an antique treasure map - and my dad was the pirate who'd penned it. From a dusty manila envelope I pulled five sheets of paper, each with his unmistakable handwriting beneath a teal letterhead that read, "Pineapple Beach Resort, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, U.S.A." After a quick scan of page one, it was clear that I'd uncovered an intimate piece of family history: a day-by-day account of my parents' honeymoon in 1973. I'd always heard stories of that trip - how they ate fresh pineapple for breakfast, got sunburns even while sitting in the shade, tried snorkeling for the very first time - but this was different. This was a road map to Caribbean romance. After reading about their one-week trip, it was clear the St. Thomas of my parents' past was idyllic and largely undiscovered. "In those days going to the Virgin Islands was like going to Tahiti today," says my mother, who's still honeymooning with my dad more than 35 years later. "Everything felt so exotic." What remained of that era, that atmosphere? Only one way to find out: My wife, Joy, and I head to the island with my father's journal as our guide.Sunday, May 6, 1973: Arrival 12:06 amidst "dinky" but colorful airport. Crossed St. Thomas via cab driven on left. Country abodes look poor, as stray goats wander about bumpy high tortuous roads. Stop at Bluebeard's Castle afforded high, colorful glimpse of town nestled among the mountains. Into the luscious aqua-tinted waters by late afternoon. Spectacular paradise setting with colorful flowers, hummingbirds and coconut palms swaying amidst the ever-present gentle breezes. Pineapple Beach quite lovely with scenic, island views circling the bay.For a career English teacher and amateur poet, my father's sentences read much like a telegram. Visited the beach. Stop. Admired the palms. Stop. But as Joy and I deplane on the St. Thomas tarmac, his truncated reflections speak volumes. Cyril E. King Airport, while far from "dinky," is still awash in local color. We're welcomed by steel-pan music and offered free shots of Cruzan rum that tempt us to linger, but there's a rented Jeep waiting. The drive east takes us through historic Charlotte Amalie - pronounced "Charlotte Amal-yah," it's the island's main city and U.S.Virgin Islands capital  - but instead of stray goats, we encounter wandering cruise-ship passengers, and lots of them. Still, the setting is glorious. The harbor-hugging road gives us our first glimpse of the sea, then lifts us up into the hills, where our Jeep fills with tropical scents of the surrounding forest. No longer are St. Thomas' roads "bumpy" and "tortuous," and they soon deliver us to Bolongo Bay Beach Resort.Owned by the Doumeng family since 1974, the cozy hotel reaches back to my parents' era. It has 65 well-appointed rooms right on the beach, and a laid-back vibe you just don't find at many big resorts. Joy loves our room's tasteful wicker furniture and plantation style ceiling fan, and I can't get enough of the water view from our patio. Sitting at the pool bar, being served ice-cold Carib beers by an affable St. Thomian named Harry, Joy and I imagine it's much like what Pineapple Beach Resort must've been like before it closed in the early '80s: friendly owners who greet you by name, oversized hammocks slung across shady palms, all on a quiet cove to call your own. My mother likes to say that Pineapple Beach made them feel like they were characters in a romance novel, and that's just how Bolongo Bay feels to us.Hot on my parents' trail, we make dinner reservations at Banana Tree Grille, an Italian-inspired restaurant on the grounds of Bluebeard's Castle. Sure enough, my dad was right: It's got one of the prettiest overlooks on the island, with the lights of Charlotte Amalie twinkling below. Tuesday, May 8: Morning excursion to town, where we walked the narrow flag-lined streets and browsed through the many stores offering bargains galore. China, silver, jewelry, watches, liquor, cigarettes - all at 30-40% off ... colorful arcades and architecture make it somewhat quaint. Perused the old synagogue … With nearly 2 million cruise-ship passengers per year, Charlotte Amalie is one of the most visited ports in the Caribbean. In season it sees as many as eight ships a day, which turns much of it into a bustling outdoor mall. The bargains are still to be found - on diamonds, watches and gold jewelry galore - but we soon tire of navigating the fanny-packed horde. We admire the well-preserved Danish architecture and the charming stone-and-brick alleyways before walking uphill to scope a handful of spots we'd seen in my parents' old photo album. The Frederik Lutheran Church remains stately and regal - as it has been since 1793 - and not far away are the famed 99 Steps (actually, there are 103) that lead to Government Hill. My mother's old Minolta barely did it all justice, but when Joy and I finally reach the St. Thomas Synagogue, we quickly realize why it warranted mention in my father's journal: Fine white sand still blankets the synagogue's floor, a device for muffling the prayers of the faithful that's a legacy of the Spanish Inquisition, when prayer meant persecution. To this day my parents talk with reverence about how it was so unlike anything they'd ever seen in a place of worship.  After all of the sightseeing, we duck into Cuzzin's, a hole-in-the-wall cafe just one block from the main shopping strip. Housed in what was once an 18th-century red-brick stable, the restaurant specializes in authentic island cuisine, and we're thrilled to find it full of boisterous tables of locals. After a small plate of conch fritters, Joy and I split the curried shrimp entrée served with heaping portions of fried plantains and rice and peas. Still hankering for duty-free deals we skipped in town, we make a beeline for Yacht Haven Grande, a new shopping complex between Charlotte Amalie and the Havensight cruise pier. With high-end stores such as Gucci, Ferragamo and Louis Vuitton, it's where Fifth Avenue meets the Caribbean - an open-air plaza where my mother gladly would've shopped, given its discount prices. "I could spend the whole day here," says Joy from the fitting room of her favorite designer store. "Everything is 60 percent off!" Two cashmere dresses and a pair of fancy pumps later, Joy convinces me her purchases are all part of our quest. Keep ReadingCheck out the St. Thomas EssentialsLearn more about St. Thomas