Hi Everyone,

We got back last night from 10 days on St. John and my head is still spinning. We had a wonderful vacation and as always are so sad for it to end. We found ourselves throughout the week saying "oh, we've got to post that on the boards" about various things. I even brought a notebook along to take some notes.

A quick background before I start - Traveling this time was me (Lisa-38), my husband (Dan-43) and my step-daughter (Abigail-13). This was our 6th trip to St. John, but our first with Abi, so it was a totally new and wonderful experience seeing the island through her eyes for the first time. She totally "gets" St. John and wants to live there. We have been told in no uncertain terms that we are never allowed to go back without her!

Ok, here we go:

Weds. 6/14 - Drive from CT to JFK, stay over at the Ramada and use their "Park and Fly" plan. Highly recommend this to fellow Connecticut residents. Works out cheaper than flying out of Bradley, even with the hotel stay.

Thurs. 6/15 - Up at 4:30, hit the shuttle to JFK, fly out on American direct to St. Thomas (another thing I highly recommend! Not having the hop from San Juan to St. Thomas was wonderful.) Land at STT at noon-ish. Met Fred from Dynamic Tours. This was the first time we've done this and I highly recommend this service. 40$pp round trip. http://dynamictoursvi.com/reservations.html Fred introduced us to "Smitty" another driver who took over from there. Took a LONG time for the bags to come through, but we were trying to practice Island Time and that was a good test of patience! Smitty grabbed our bags and off we went to Red Hook. We missed the 1pm ferry by 5 minutes because of the bags taking so long. No worries. Dan sat with the bags while Abi and I ran down to Senior Pizza for a few slices. We got on the 2pm ferry with fully bellies. Arrived at the Cruz Bay ferry dock at 2:20, met the caretaker for the villa, got the key, got the jeep (St. John Car Rental, here I go "highly recommending" again) and headed up to Sundancer. www.sundancer.com (our third stay there). Went back into town, loaded up with groceries at Starfish, back to villa, unpack, quick swim, back into town for dinner at Morgan's Mango. Every trip we spend our first night at Morgan's. It's become tradition. Sat at the bar, had a Bushwacker and Abi had a fruit smoothy. Acoustic guitar/singer on Thursday's at Morgan's. Very enjoyable.

Friday, 6/16 - Another tradition is first full day on island we drive. We drive everywhere and see everything. We stopped at Maho Bay (my favorite) for about an hour so Abi could finally see a St. John beach first hand. Went for a swim. She was hooked at that moment. Back in the Jeep. Always do our first lunch at Shipwreck Landing in Coral Bay, because that is about our favorite place in the world. Best Conch Fritters and Bushwackers on island. Dave our bartender make Abi some special smoothies that were great. Food and ambience at Shipwreck is so wonderful. Everyone that works there is super and it's so laid back. Drove down East End, then back up North Shore Road and went to Francis Bay (Dan's favorite). Abi and I were floating in the water and her eyes welled up with happy tears and she said "I AM SO HAPPY HERE". That made my whole trip and we were only on our first full day. Back to villa, swim, change, Cafe Roma for dinner. Wonderful as always.

Saturday, 6/17 - Hiked down to Honeymoon Beach. This is a fun thing to do. Bring the bare essentials, water is a must. Snorkeled for a while. Saw a lot of fish. Saw my first barracuda. He was about 2 feet long. Scared me at first, but then I realized I was bigger than him. Hiked back up. Drove up to Maho Campground to eat at the restaurant there, but it was already closed. Ended at Skinny Legs for one of their world famous burgers. Back to villa. Swimming. Did steaks on the grill that night and watched a movie. Nice relaxing night after a hot sweaty hike during the day. Also, we noticed that Dan's back got FRIED from snorkeling, despite having sun block 50 on. We think he sweat it all out on the hike down to Honeymoon and didn't reapply. Irish skin bubbles when exposed unprotected to the Caribbean Sun!

Sunday, 6/18 - Father's Day. Went to JJ's for a delicious breakfast. Did some shopping at Cruz Bay, then headed back to the villa. With Dan's sunburn we figured it would be wise to spend a day off the beach. Hung at the villa, swam, I made a spaghetti dinner, we watched the Sox and the US Open, Dan had a wonderful Father's Day. I would also like to point out that 6/18 was Paul McCartney's 64th birthday and I brought down my "Sgt. Pepper" CD so I could play "When I'm 64" in his honor (because I'm a giant dork!).

Monday, 6/19 - Chilly Billy's for a good breakfast. Hawksnest beach from there. Could NOT believe how many people were on the beach. We counted over 70. I've NEVER seen that many people on one St. John beach. Anyway, at the end of the beach a couple was getting married. Dressed up but barefoot. It was pretty cool. Only them, a photographer and an officiator. At 4:45 that night we met my friend Nina over in Coral Bay who runs a charter, Serena Sea. http://stjohnlinks.com/Charters/Serena_Sea/Index.htm We did three hours out in Hurricane Hole and Coral Harbor. Supposed to be a sunset tour, but with all the rain they've been having, we didn't see one sunset in our whole trip due to clouds. After the charter we headed up to Pastory Gardens for dinner and to play Mini-Golf. That was a lot of fun.

Tuesday 6/20 - Rain, rain, rain. The day was a total wash out. CRAZY wind. We thought we'd lose power. I was talking to locals who charter and they all canceled that day, which is a rarity. Hung at the villa all day and watched a bunch of movies. Went to Polli's for dinner. This was our first time there and it was FANTASTIC. One of the best chicken chimichanga's I've ever had. Dan had the pulled pork (as recommended by Diana on this board - and yes Diana, the margaritas were wonderful too!). Really enjoyed Polli's for a casual night.

Weds. 6/21 - Headed out to Leinster and snorkeled Waterlemon Cay. In our six trips to SJ, this our first time doing Waterlemon and let me tell you, all the hype is legit. This was the best snorkel we've ever done. Wow! It's breathtaking. If anyone that was there around the same time as us snorkeled there, did anyone notice the huge ray carcass toward shore? It was HUGE. It was probably 6 feet wide from wing to wing, and that was only skeletal remains. Further out there were so many starfish of various sizes and colors we stopped counting. We saw five turtles, 2 regular rays, 1 eagle spotted ray, a barracuda, fish of every kind. My favorites were the Stoplight Parrotfish. You'll see them all over the island, but at Waterlemon they were HUGE! They have these big goofy "smiles" with teeth that scrape at the coral. When they swim at you they are hilarious. If you're careful of the reefs, you can float up to the beach at Waterlemon. Sit there and take it all in. Watch the pelicans dive, look at the baby seagulls. It's just amazing. THIS IS A MUST DO! From there back to Shipwreck for lunch. Then we visited my friend Nina's new house in Lower Carolina. Did FishTrap for dinner that night. Last April we had the BEST meals on island at FishTrap. Then in November we had the worst. We tried it again and it was good, not GREAT, but good.

Thursday, 6/22 - Donkey Diner for a wonderful breakfast. Then down to Salt Pond Bay. If you get there early enough you can get a good spot with a picnic table under the trees. This is always a must do beach for us. If you do Salt Pond Bay, remember lots of water and sunscreen. This is a very hot part of the island. We did the hike through the Salt Pond which didn't stink (literally SMELL) this time. I think all the rain diluted the pond and there was no stench from there. Hiked over to Drunk Bay. If you've never done this, it's pretty cool. It's made up of entirely rocks, there is no sand beach. It's the bay were all the flotsam from the water lands ashore. There's good beach combing there. People take all the washed up coral, rope, coconuts and plastics and create art with it. There are coral and rock "people" all over the bay. It's pretty cool. Back to Salt Pond Bay for an amazing snorkel. We went pretty far around the point. Saw some phenomenal healthy reefs, a barracuda that was at least four feet long (yikes!), a few turtles, baby octopus (octopi?), and a slew of all kinds of fish. Went to Panini Beach for dinner because it was finally sunny at that time of day and we wanted Abi to enjoy her first sunset. At about 15 mins. til sunset time, the sun was buried in clouds! Go figure.

Friday 6/23 - Last full day. Trunk Bay. Some decent snorkeling there. Such a pretty beach. Ended up back a Shipwreck for one last lunch and Bushwacker. Abi then got her hair braided by Philomen next to Margarita Phils. She looks adorable. Went to Lime Inn for dinner. Visited with fellow Red Sox fan, RJ, who works at Lime Inn and is about the nicest guy you'll ever meet. We seek him out whenever we're down there. This was our best dinner on island. Did one last walk around Cruz Bay at night. Realized that having Abi with us, we didn't step foot in either Quiet Mon or Woody's which are usually must do's for us. I was happy to give up happy hour, though, to be there with Abi. She really enjoyed every second.

Saturday 6/24 we flew home and the depression immediately set in!

Here are some final thoughts, tips, notes, suggestions, whatever:

If you are going down soon, I can't stress enough how bad the mosquitos are right now. We had an unusual amount of rain this trip. It's the wettest we've ever seen the island. The locals said this is out of the ordinary to have this much rain in June. It rained everyday we were there for at least a little while, and not just the typical 10 minute shower. There were strong winds, small craft advisories, etc. So please know that the bugs are out of control right now. Bring bug spray everywhere you go... into town, the beach, restaurants. I also beg you to bring an afterbite pen or a little bottle of Cortaid spray. We went through both.
Speaking of weather, other than the rain, there is haziness right now. Not only did they get the ash from Monserat, but they're also getting Saraha Dust. This cuts visibility.

FYI, the paving on Annaberg road is completed. They still had the traffic light going for the first part of the trip, but by Friday, the paving was done and the light was off.

There is a great deal of construction on island right now. There is heavy equipment all over. Be careful driving, because there are cement trucks, cranes, bulldozers, etc. trying to make it around those corners of death!

Ditliff Point is depressing! We did NOT get to do the trail as planned. They are doing construction during the day, there are threatening signs about trespassing everywhere, and when the construction is done for the day, they chain off the road. SO SAD! There is a road running through the point now that looks like a giant scar running through it. It's especially sad for us because we stay in Fish Bay and look down over Ditliff. It will never be the same again.
One thing I did differently this time was wear a float belt while snorkeling. I'm a pretty strong swimmer, so I wasn't worried in that respect, but it allowed me to float right above shallow reefs without the worries of kicking around and hitting anything. It helped me snorkel out farther than I normally would have as well.

Utilized a number of the coupons from this link: http://www.couponstjohn.com/ (thank you TeresaRae for posting the link on the boards). It saved us a chunk of change souvenir shopping.

That's all I can think of. If anyone has more specific questions about what we ordered, or where we went, feel free to ask. All in all, it was a wonderful 10 days and I already can't wait to go back.

Lisa in CT

p.s. Rich in St. Louis, sorry we never got to meet. Hope you and the family had a great time. Looking forward to hearing about it.