I should have gotten this out before now...sorry.this was a 17 day Feb trip
Flying out of O'Hare..rather than do a park and fly, and face the 2 1/2 drive, we flew out of Moline the day before. We got our luggage and rented a luggage cart, walked under-ground to the Hilton and pushed the cart into our room, we like to get that 1 st flight out in the am so this worked very well for us, and we didn't have to get up so early and go out in the cold! And we had our luggage cart!

We stayed in a studio condo, the Watergate condos at Bolongo Bay, where we have stayed before, the location is perfect for us, the pool and beach are right out side our door and there are 3 great restaurants we can walk to. I have never seen any jelly fish or sea urchins there. It was Super bowl Sun when we arrived so we walked down to Iggies where they had a tail gate party going on, Big screen TV on the beach and my 1 st Bushwacker of the trip! We were too tired to watch all the game but they had a good turn out. Iggies looked great, new furniture and fresh paint and happy to see our favorite server , Erin, was still there. We also met up with a lot of their long time employees, Vaneeta is the best!

The whole island looked very clean, no trash laying around, and the foliage had been cut back so we could see more of the beautiful homes and views!

THE BEST thing was a wedding vow renewal, on Valentines Day, at Trunk Bay. I found about it before we left and it was beautiful! We took the ferry to St John where taxis were waiting for us, free shuttle! On the drive to Trunk I saw a sign warning of a stop light ahead!! What ??!! Happy to say it was a temporary construction light. While we walked down to the beach there was a very nice gentleman playing the flute, when we got to the beach there was a steel drum player and a very beautiful singer....there were a lot of people and we were the only ones that the photographer missed, so we're not on the web site. www.vivows.com We had just celebrated our 40 th anniversary so this was very special to us.The barefoot Methodist minister, Ann Marie Porter did a great job. As we were leaving, we all received a certificate of vow re-newal and all the ladies were given a long stemmed rose!! All for free!! I had made reservations at the Fish Trap restaurant and the meal was excellent! We had never eaten there before because of the bad reviews on "the other forum". What a great day, I highly recommend you plan your trip around this date!!

Our favorite meals were at Mims, the Lobster Grill, Hook Line and Sinker and the Green House and always Iggies, their Caribbean night was so much fun, lots of families from Frenchmans Reef, it was really a first class time and everyone enjoyed Vanettas' congo line! On St John our all time place to go for lobster is the Lime Tree, and I love the Pink Papaya which has the same owner! and will also go back to the Fish Trap!

Some other good things; Absolut Vodka has a special bottle , Absolut Tropics, flavored with mango, orange, lychee, pineapple and melon! We brought home our limit! put some in your morning juice to start your day off right!
We went to Tickles for their live entertainment, we never got a seat but the music was fun and the food looked good.

Someone told us about a lunch place, downtown CA that has 3 things on their menu, Lobster rolls, Shrimp rolls and hot dogs. The place is called Linda Beans' as in LL Bean, we never made it there and I'm not sure if she is still open?

Like everyone else, we came home and started planning our next trip. We are booked for 4 weeks, Feb - March staying at Sapphire Beach. We couldn't get the size of condo we wanted at the Watergate. We have stayed at Sapphire Beach before and the condo looks new, so we are excited about the length of stay, and our daughter and grandkids can join us for their Spring break. We will miss the great residents at the Watergate where we have made friends and also the 3 restaurants we could walk to.

If you just see the part of St Thomas, from the airport to the ferry, or a day trip from a cruise ship, you are missing a lot!!! Their is so much hidden beauty and beautiful beaches! Magens Beach remains our favorite!! and we want to be sure and go to the "other side" of the island to see the wild parrots! we will never see it all, we just start "limin" at wheels down!