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I read most of these posts but I chose to contribute on rare occasions. My family and I are preparing for our 12 trip to St Thomas. The trips have come in several different forms. The first three were on cruise ships in the mid 90's. Our daughter was born in 96 and we returned to STT in 98. We were recently looking at pictures of her, less than two years old, eating (wearing) a chocolate fudge sicle on a beach towel at Rockworks, a private villa on the north side. We fell madly in love with Rockworks and the people who took care of us during our first full week at St Thomas.
Over the next few years we always returned to Rockworks. In every photo album we have there are pictures of our daughter enjoying our vacations on the island. Some of our first pictures show most of the roofs not red but blue, blue from the FEMA tarps. The roofs gradually turned back to the all so familiar and beautiful red roofs. In 2000 while staying once again at Rockworks we purchased a timeshare at Bluebeard's castle. (That's a story all in itself) In 2001 we began vacationing at Bluebeards but we always made time to stay in touch with our Friends Jeff and Sherri from Rockworks. On one of many trips back to the island our daughter lost her front baby teeth at Rockworks. It seems like many of the milestones of our daughter growing up happened on STT.
We missed a year in 03 to take our daughter to Disney World. We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort and the first thing our daughter saw in our room was a picture of Charlotte Amaile. She can probably tell you more about STT than she can about our own town in Minnesota.
We have brought guests with us to the island on 4 separate occasions. We believe they have discovered why we love the island so much. In 2005 we decided to go to another island, maybe just for comparison sakes. We rented a villa on St Martin with a couple who had visited STT with us. We enjoyed ourselves but agreed STT remains our preferred island. On two of our trips we have been fortunate enough to have two weeks on the island. We love STT and will be back there in a little more than 4 weeks.
I felt compelled to write this letter after recently reading many posts on this website regarding crime, gangs, murder, National Geographics ratings and so on. We have witnessed and experienced so much improvement in just the few short years we have been traveling to STT. For all of the things that may be wrong when put under a microscope there are ten more things that are so right about STT. We have never felt threatened when on the island. We try to show respect to the people who live on STT, we do not try to pry into their privacy or act as though "we are tourist therefore you work for me". We have attended some of the most beautiful catholic Churches I have ever seen while on STT. My wife has been to Europe but I have not.
To all who are contributing to the improvement of STT please be encouraged and continue to take the small steps that make your island a beautiful paradise.
Rusty
Wow! I feel so blessed! Getting to meet such wonderful people!
Jim and Mary, how nice to see you on Rusty's thread as well!
Mary painted a small picture while here, staying at SC and sent it to me! She went on to then paint the view from SC on her Bedroom wall and can be found on HGTV! She is quite the artist! We are lookin' forward to your arrival as well! Stone Cottage has sure changed a lot since you two were here, I hope you like the changes! We also have some new amenities, so be sure to ck them out!
14 inches of snow, WOW! Did you get unstuck yet?
Jim, Haven't forgotten about the tanks you wanted to know about for diving, will let you know on that!
Rusty,
As you know, I was told you called by the mystery man and you now have my updated phone number! Keep that for your arrival so we can touch base!
Jeff's reply: Money, money, money! (singing..... you DON'T want to hear that)! lol! The big blue boulder is GONE! We started getting the string line layed out for the footings and then....ALL STOP AGAIN! Hopefully we will have gotten something more done before the INPECTOR arrives! :S Don't want to get in trouble with him!
🙂
Here is the view of Inner Brass and Outer Brass Islands from Stone Cottage as painted 14 feet wide on our bedroom wall by my wife Mary. What a great view to wake up to every morning - Jim.
What a beautiful painting. The view from Rockworks is just as beautiful. The bedroom corner of the house is clipped at a 45 degree angle so the foot of the bed is pointing right at Inner and Outer brass. I know Jeff and Sherri added A/C a few years back but we have never turned them on. The house was so carefully planned that you catch breezes all day long. I think there are two windows, 1 in the bathroom and 1 in the kitchen, the rest of the house is covered with 8' and 10' sliding glass doors. The views and breezes are incredible.
If you have never stayed at Rockworks or Stone Cottage you owe it to yourself to look into these houses. I can't wait to see their next creation.
Rusty
Wow, been a while since I've been on and even now I am sneaking on for a moment!
I love that mural Mary did! Your own piece of the rock to wake up to! Mary told me she changed the railing to match that of your house, it looks very nice! Cool how she made the beach look like it is right there as well! Sure would be nice if we were right on the water! Thanks for sharing! Mary is very talented to say the least! (tu) She's got my vote!
Hi Rusty,
Just letting you know that we will be at Coki Beach on Monday the 10th of next month. We leave for STT in the morning. Can't wait to be greeted at the airport by a steel band and chilled rum punch!
Molly
I have never seen a steel band at the airport in 30 years of going down there...and the rum punch is usually room temperature, but just getting off the plane outside on the tarmac is enough for me to feel like I am home on my favorite island on the planet!
I was thinking the same thing Pooh...would be nice though to have the band and the cold punch :o)
Hi Molly,
I'm writing this at 4:02 p.m. central time on the 27th. By now you should have already landed, recovered your luggage, gone through at least one rum punch, picked up your car and maybe you have made it to your condo, depending on when you pick up provisions.
One of our goals this year to throw a snowball before sunrise in MN and have a dip in the sea before sunset in STT. Then reverse that on the way back. We never seem to make it to a beach on our first or last day.
We will see you at Coki on the 10th. I'm jealous that you are there already. Have fun.
Sherri, we plan on seeing you and Jeff on Sunday if getting the rental car and checking in go quickly. Maybe Dorthea will be our first beach.
Rusty
Rusty,
See you on Sunday, March 9th! Wear your bathing suites underneath your clothes and maybe you will meet your goal! LOL! You will have to keep us posted!
Never know when the steel pan players will be playin', hope they are there to greet you all!
See you SOON!!!!!! (tu)
Hi Rusty,
Sorry that we missed you on Monday at Coki. My daughter and I were looking forward to meeting you and your family. As I had said earlier, we are renovating our unit. We went to Home Depot at 10:30 in the morning hoping to load up on our supplies, we didn't get out of there until after 6, had to wait another hour for our delivery guy, who only drops our stuff on the side of the road. It took us another 2 hours to make the trek to our unit to secure everything. Boy, are they right when they talk about how long everything takes when you read the stories on the relocation board. We are back stateside now and will be returning in May for another 3 to 4 weeks, hopefully we'll have a liitle more fun in the sun.
Let me know the next time you travel down and maybe our schedules will work out that the girls can finally meet.
Molly
IAMolly,
Had dinner with Rusty, Kim and Auralia last night (last night here) and I asked them if they had seen you. They were at the beach, but sadly missed you! They will be back next year for sure! (I HOPE)!
Rusty,
Wish we could have seen more of you guys! Hopefully next year things will be going a lot smoother on my end! One week of you being here is surely NOT enough time! Was wonderful having dinner with you at Tickles! Could have chatted even longer!
Hi Sherri,
Keep me posted as well. It's great to network and meet new friends while in STT. I'ts great to go to one of my favorite places on earth, and be able to meet new people with similar interests. We will be heading back in May or June.
Hopefully see you at the beach someday,
Molly
Molly,
ME? BEACH? LOL!
Only time I get to the beach is if I am doing a wedding! Other than that, it is if someone I know is down visiting and I meet them there!
Would be fun to meet you tho! Give me a shout when you come down in May/June!
Sherri,
Sounds great! See you soon.
Molly
Molly, when in May/June are you going to be there? We're there the last week of May (24th-31st). Beach party at Sapphire on the 25th (Sunday).
Sherri...you have to get out more. Try to make the beach party with us!
Hi Connie,
We haven't confirmed our dates yet, but when we do it would be great to meet up at Sapphire. We were there 2 weeks ago, what a great time that we had!
Molly
Connie,
Sounds like a GREAT idea! I haven't been to one of the Sunday Beach Parties in say....about 20 years? LOL! Will shoot for that! (tu)
Rusty,
Where ARE you? :S I suppose I should look to see if you started a new thread! Should also let you get readjusted and back into things at home! Thanx for the letter in my e-mail!
Hello All
We are back and hard at work. Hopefully I will get some time later this week to write up a full trip report. We had a great time, no luggage problems, no car troubles, everything went just fine.
Molly,
Sounds like you guys have quite a project on your hands. Don't work too hard on it, but I'm sure you want to finish it so you can enjoy it.
Sherri,
I'll start a new tread when I do the trip report.
I better get back to work, I'm still buried in paper work that needs my attention.
Rusty
Rusty,
Glad to hear from you and looking forward to hearing about your stay! I realize you must be buried in work, I have some of my own recuperating to do! WHEW! The past 2 and a half weeks sure have been crazy!!!!
please advise. boyfriend and i are going to stt in june for one day from st croix where we will be attending a wedding... we are thinking of getting married in stt next jan 2009. Can you tell us what you might know about Secert Harbour Resort.
thanks
debbie
