I'm new to forum "talk" so bear with me, My daughter C. and 2 grandkids ages 3 1/2 & 7 arrived on a thurs. and our husbands on Sun & Mon, my husband, better known as undrtkr, and I had been there 3 times and couldn't wait to show the kids around. C & I picked up mini van at the airport and found driving on the left no problem, the roads are fun to drive on, we have a classic Corvette and look for roads like those! Found Frenchmans Reef easily, had never stayed there before and won't again! We chose it for the Kids club, which doesn't exist. What did exist was bugs in room and in the bed! Our rooms were in the tower and faced the harbor, beautiful view at night. The restaurants were pricey and not much of a selection. My 7 year old grandson was really excited to find an iguana at the pool side restaurant until a male server picked it up by its' tail and whacked it against a railing! I told O he just stunned it. What was that all about? They advertise iguana feedings in the afternoon! We checked the prices in the lobby store and a med bag of chips was 6.95! Our room had a small fridge and a seperate ice maker, the ice maker is because they don't have COLD water. One morning we woke to NO water, we had stocked up on bottled water so could brush our teeth,and saved the rest for the beach. We trekked once to Morning Stars beach, 1st of all it is a long walk and not much of a beach.

We much preferred the Wyndham, larger rooms and bathrooms. While down there we looked at Sapphire Beach, we liked the beach but thought the rooms needed updated and the restaurant looked a little seedy. On the way to the airport to come home we stopped at the Best Western on Emerald Beach(?) for lunch and looked at a room there, we were really impressed, it was much better than the Marriott. All the rooms face the water and the beach & pool are right outside the door! The sound of the surf should drown out the airplanes and, they don't fly at night. We talked to several people staying there and they were real happy. The lunch was just OK but the Bushwackers and Pain killers were outstanding!

Everytime we are there we discover something else, this was our 1st summer trip and the weather was better than here (here is 2 1//2 hours W of Chicago,on the Misissippi River where we get all the hot and humid weather up from the Gulf) We are Happy to be empty nesters, yet still young enough to be active and not ready to wear black socks with sandals and panty hose with shorts!!

We have found the shop keepers are much friendlier when they know we are staying on the island and not on a cruise ship, yet the cruise ship people seem to be catered to, why is that?

We also were very disappointed on our 2nd trip to Megans Beach to find the Megans Point time share people set up in the large pavillion with music blaring for hours. It was so loud it drowned out the bar music, and I'm happy to report no one took the bait!

While there I celebrated 1 year smoke free, so the undrtkr treated me to a beautiful African opal, Tanzanite and diamond ring, a combination I had long admired. We have now bought jewelry twice at Omni Jewelers and had good luck so far, the owner Paul is a fellow Rotarian and we had a long conversation with him about island life and the local funeral homes. I know its weird, but the undrtkr was excited to find a cemetary on StJ and our grandkids also pointed one out!

We have always felt safe on the islands, C and I were out at night in the car before the guys got there and no problems. We went past the "nightclub" where the unfortunate murder took place, I'm sorry to report that these kids were there for one reason and it wasn't the atmosphere! We have seen some Americans behaving badly, no wonder we're getting the reputation of UGLY American. If you would look at the warnings other countries post for their citizens traveling to the US you would be afraid to go home!

I'm making this too long but I will be happy to answer any questions.