Sept. 22, 2016---Cowpet Bay and Secret beach:


Another beautiful start to another great day!  I, again, went outside and watched the day begin.

Love the location of this unit.

I assume those are condos on the far hillside.  There's a boat bar on the beach there.  Also loved how calm the water was.  I hope that it clears up once they're done with construction.  I'm assuming the brown water is from the dirt washing down into the bay.  At least it didn't look brown from a distance.

looking towards the pool

This morning we were suppose to go to the "owners update".  Since the guy checking us in had given the kids the 3 bedroom unit for the extra night, too, instead of making them move for their last night, we thought we'd do him a favor and go to the update.  I know they get some kind of credit for getting people to sign up for the "updates".  He said we'd both get the $75 gift card and a Margaritaville towel and be able to stay together.  And since I'm an owner, we only had to do the 60 minute presentation.  We were wavering on canceling out, but went anyway figuring we'd only stay the required hour. 

I will say if you don't like walking, this may not be a good resort.  We didn't mind it, so it wasn't bad, but you either had to call for a ride on the golf cart trolleys to go where you wanted within the resort, or walk.  On our way to the Town Hall for the presentation we passed the Hot tub.  Good size.  Unfortunately the only time I was in it they cut the power so they could show a movie by the pool so there were no bubbles and no lights. 

This is their little shops area.  I wanted to get to the little store, but never made it.  There's also a cafe there where I think we were suppose to get a free breakfast as part of our presentation. 

Turns out they made our decision to leave easy.  They told us we would have to split up or we wouldn't all get the gift.  So we said, "Thanks, but not thanks!" and walked out.  Talk about a salewoman looking shocked! But at least I got pictures of the town hall square.

Since we didn't get the free breakfast, we ended up going to the Margaritaville restaurant and ordering breakfast.  It was good.  That's also when I noticed the prices to eat at the restaurant were actually higher then room service.

While we ate, a rain squal went over.

Even with the rain it was pretty.

After eating, we sat there watching the rain a little while until it cleared up again.  Then we headed to the Cowpet Bay where the Wyndham Elysian is.  We liked snorkeling there before and love the secludedness of the place.  This is where we stayed on our 9 night St. Thomas vacation---2013 St. Thomas vacation.

The water was calm and clear here.

looked as beautiful as I remembered.

they also have a bunch of beach toys for rent.

and a large well shaded beach.  I'm surprised so few people come to this beach.

looking back towards the Elysian from the water.

lizard fish

surgeonfish and a wrasse

file fish, wrasse and a parrotfish

file fish

deeper water around the point

larger fish out in the deep.

lots of coral out along the point

another lizard fish and coral

variety of coral

some juvenile fish

admiring more of the coral out by the point.

some grunts.

blue tang

barrel coral

goatfish

butterflyfish

parrotfish

bally ho

coming back around.  Usually we go farther around, but Angie was having problems with her mask.

variety of fish

group of urchins

Snorkeling wasn't as good as it had been in the past, so we decided to head down the road a mile or 2 to Secret Beach.  We weren't really able to snorkel here in 2013 due to rough, murky water.  So we gave it another try today.

Another beautiful sandy beach.  It's also a lot more crowded then Cowpet.

and another beautiful bay.

We couldn't tell from shore if the dark areas were grass or coral and were happy to find it was coral.

Looking back at the Secret Beach Resort.  BTW----they will make you leave the chairs if you aren't staying here.

much of the underwater bay looked like this.

and this. 

Even saw a couple conch shells.

lots of coral and fish

love the designs on the brain coral

looks like Cornelli lace.

Don't know what this shell was housing, but it wasn't a conch shell.

more coral.

deep water around the point

a flounder swimming around.

Christmas tree worms on a brain coral

school of fish around the point.

large parrotfish

large wrasse.

scrawled filefish

a colorful parrotfish like I haven't seen in Hawaii

another view of him.

From there we went back to the resort and tried to snorkel there.

Got a closer up view of this guy, but the water was very brown and dirty.

We tried to swim out a ways to see if it cleared up.  It didn't, but there were schools of little fish darting around.  I'm surprised how clear the water looked here after Photoshoping the photo.

another view of the fish

our little guard buddy again.

love all the tropical flowers!  I sure miss them now that we're not living in South Florida anymore.

After cleaning up, we headed out to dinner.  This time we jumped in the car and went into REd Hook, but not before I got a picture of the unique fountain in front of Margaritaville.

We love Duffy's Love Shack---the best parking lot bar in the world.  Kitchy, but cool.

We were there at Happy hour and had a couple of the $1.75 Painkillers.  They were really good!

good menu, too.

hot dog anyone?

happy hour drinks

angie modeling the menu

one more.

We sat at the bar

  After happy hour, Angie and I had to get a drink in the cute little ceramic mugs.  She has quite a collection of them now.  I got a Bailey's, Banana, and something else---it was really good and in a mug she wanted.  I think hers was a painkiller.

cheers!

Dinner was really good, too.  I had the blackened mahi fish----excellent.   Angie and Josh even went back there the next night after I left.

Hung out in our unit the rest of the night.  My short, but sweet trip, was almost over!