12/2 (Sat) - The day we arrived!!! We flew direct from Boston to St. Thomas. It was great. When we got off the plane in St. Thomas it was so nice to feel the warm wind blow against our face. Right away we were anxious to get our bags and find a taxi to Red Hook. The taxi to Red Hook was not bad. It took about 25 minutes. Then we had to stand in line to catch the ferry. Once we were on the ferry it took about 20 minutes. We arrived in St. John and now were getting pretty excited. We got our Suzuki Sidekick from Courtesy Car rental and we were off to our Villa! We met Marcy at Cloud Nine. This villa is beautiful. I have to say we saw pictures, read forums and opinions but once we got there it was more than we expected. I guess we have been burned in the past by renting “great” cottages and only to get there and there’s a construction site next door or some other ungodly site. But not with Cloud Nine. . . it was location location location just as we had read. Marcy gave us a tour of it and once she left (and let me tell you, she was wonderful), we could not believe our eyes that this was going to be our view for the next 8 days!!!! We were starving so off we ran to Panini Beach where we were seated on the deck overlooking the Cruz Bay with the sun setting. . . it was wonderful!!! the food there was excellent. . . here is their website http://www.paninibeach.com/ . Once fed, we were off to Starfish Market to do some expensive shopping. . . . we brought some meats and essentials with us under the advisement of other trip reports and have decided we will probably bring more next time as the food is really expensive. . . . then we went to Mixology for our alcohol! The prices there were great. Then back to the Villa to enjoy our first night overlooking St. Thomas in the hot tub! This is our 10th anniversary and we were leaving two kids (Matt 5 and Nicole 7) behind with the grandparents and we can already tell that although we will miss them, something tells me that it won’t stop us from falling in love with St. John and not wanting to leave.

12/3 (Sun) Breakfast on the deck of Cloud Nine. Then we were off. We walked around downtown Cruz Bay. Checked out the visitors center. Then we spotted Mongoose Junction (which is not to be missed). We shopped around a bit and found a great deli which we noted for tomorrow. We decided to go right to one of the top ten rated beaches in the world. . . Trunk Bay. It was beautiful but as you’ll see reading on, all the beaches on St. John are beautiful. Once we enjoyed our stay at Trunk Bay we decided to drive further along the North Shore beaches and we ended up at the Annaberg Sugar Ruins. Which was very interesting. Then we went back to Cloud Nine to relax by the pool and sip some rum drinks, cooked a nice dinner and just relaxed.

12/4 (Mon) We got up early and decided that today we were going snorkeling. So we headed down to Mongoose Junction to the best deli (we have decided) on St. John. Its called Deli Grotto and they serve breakfast and lunch. It was a great place to stock your cooler for the day with waters, chips and fantastic sandwiches. . . . the Pink Cadillac was my favorite. Then we headed over to Hurricane Alley to rent some snorkel gear for the day. . . we decided renting by the day was better for us because we were planning on doing some day trips here and there. Once we were packed and ready to go we headed to Jumbie Bay (next to Trunk Bay). We saw the stairs on the side of the road that lead down to this great little beach. It was virtually empty. Unfortunately it has been some years since I have snorkeled and not being fully comfortable in the water, the water on this day was just too rough. A nice gentlemen told us that we should try Francis Bay as it is protected by the mountains from the wind. So off we went. . . well, let me just say, Francis Bay was our favorite (yes, not Trunk Bay but Francis Bay). Why do you ask? it wasn’t windy, I liked having mountains on all three sides of me, it was long (the longest I believe), the snorkeling was great and it just made for a great day. We hung out there most of the day. It was amazing snorkeling and while we were snorkeling the pelicans from up above were diving down right beside us into the pools of silver fish which were so thick you couldn’t see the bottom. . it was amazing. After lounging for a while we went back to Cloud Nine for our afternoon cocktail and swim. Showered and headed out to Mongoose Junction for a dinner at Margaritas. At first we weren’t sure about it, but boy did it surprise us. The food was excellent and so were the margaritas. . . . it was a full moon so after dinner we headed to Hawksnest Beach and walked the beach while the moon shined full above us. . . . no flashlight needed!!! Then back to Cloud Nine it was!

12/5 (Tue) - Today we booked a day sail (through Connections, who do not charge a fee for their service) to the British Virgin Islands. We wanted to go to Josh Van Dyke and the Baths but we couldn’t find a trip to do both. . . Connections recommended to us to do the Baths/Norman Island trip because you get more “bang” for your buck so that is what we did. It was a great day. The Baths are beautiful and intriguing. We met some really nice people on the trip and by the time we got to Norman Island (with a few rum and cokes later) we were the best friends with them. We ended up becoming friendly with two other couples who were traveling together. They invited us out the next night. We were thinking about meeting up with them but were keeping our options open. Tuesday night we were exhausted!!!! We went back to Cloud Nine and grilled up some gourmet burgers which we had brought down with us. . . wonderful! Another night in the hot tub looking at the moon and tonight we were surprised to see two Cruise Ships pulling out of St. Thomas. . . . how wonderful.

12/6 (Wed) - Today we woke up, had breakfast on the deck of Cloud Nine and decided that today we were going to check out the east end of the island (Coral Bay). A little more quiet and rural than the west end (Cruz Bay). We headed first to Salt Pond Bay. It was a little bit of a hike and the beach was ok. . I have to admit we didn’t have our snorkeling gear so maybe if we did we would have stayed longer. Word of advice, always bring your snorkeling gear! So after that we headed to Lameshur Bay. It was pretty funny because we bumped into our friends from the previous day from the Baths trip so we hung out with them. It was nice there. Although there were these sticky prickly round leaves that were terrible if you stepped on one. I got a couple caught up in my sarong (which was unpleasant to sit on!). But at Lameshur there were ruins to explore which are always interesting. Finally we decided there was too much to see on the island and off we headed after writing in the sand fairwell to our friends who were off snorkeling at this point. After we left Lameshur we drove as far east on the island as we could go (which was quite a long drive). We worked up an appetite and ended up having one of the best lunches on St. John at Shipwreck Landing. I got the blackened chicken sandwich which had this excellent dill cream sauce on the side and the most delicious French fries, my hubby had conch fritters, which were absolutely delicious (especially with his creamy side dip)! We highly recommend Shipwreck Landing. Not to mention while sitting enjoying our Carib Beer, who do you think drove by? our new friends. . . . Ken, Sandy, Kathy and Dick! So they beeped and we waved!!! That night our new friends had invited us to Cocoanut Studios where Elaine Estern was having a gallery showing. She has beautiful works of art. She paints watercolors and we just had to purchase a watercolor tile from her. . . it happily arrived just before Christmas! Then we headed to the Fish Trap Restaurant for dinner with our new friends. . . it was quite a lovely evening. After stuffing ourselves me and hubby headed out to a martini bar right around the corner where there was a three piece band. Then home to Cloud Nine!! aaaahhhh. . . . .

12/7 (Thurs) - Today we got up early and went down to Noah’s Little Arks and rented a dinghy. We received our orientation on boating and wear to go and wear not to go and off we went! They recommended that we go to the farthest point which was Waterlemon Cay/ Leinster Bay. Well, we ended up running into a really scary experience. As I have mentioned there was a full moon. Apparently during full moon a strong current runs between Leinster Bay and Waterlemon Cay. When we moored our dinghy we started snorkeling toward the point of Leinster Bay and didn’t realize we were in a current until we stopped and looked back at our boat. We were amazed at how far we were from the boat in such a short period of time. I am not the strongest swimmer and once I saw this I started to panic. My husband told me we have to start swimming back to the boat. Then when he looked below the water he saw that all the plants were literally bent over because of the current and as hard as we swam we were not moving. So we decided to swim to the side towards the rocky shore (where there were sea urchins!!). We ended up having to swim the “long way” back to the boat in fear of getting caught in the current again. By the time we reached the boat we were utterly exhausted. I told him NO MORE snorkeling from the boat again for me. . . . only the beach/shallow water!!! We left Waterlemon Cay and headed for Francis Bay again and ate lunch there, then toured all the North Shore beaches while stopping at Cinnamon Bay (where we almost lost our dinghy back into the ocean because of the waves!). Then onto Trunk Bay again to do the underwater snorkeling trail. Then we stopped at Caneel Bay and went to Caneel Resort and lied down on their chairs and treated ourselves to some relaxing time in the sun!!! Once we had worn out our rental time with the dinghy we headed back to Cloud Nine, spruced ourselves up and headed back out to Morgan’s Mango where we had a delicious dinner while being seated overlooking the street below! Once again we had another very fine dining experience on St. John. We have been pleasantly surprised by the excellent dining experiences we have had on St. John time after time. When done we retired to Cloud Nine once again and enjoyed the hot tub!

12/8 (Fri) - We decided to make this last day a relaxing day. We wanted to visit some beaches that we never really had a chance to visit. First we really wanted to snorkel Leister Bay (where the current stopped us!). So we hiked there on foot. It was well worth it. It was the best snorkeling the whole trip. We saw two turtles and we actually touched them!! Then after swimming after one turtle we stopped to catch our breath and were amazed when we looked down and saw a garden of star fish. . . these weren’t just any starfish they were beautiful huge starfish!!! We also saw some stingrays (which after all the news reports this year I stayed well away from!). After Leister Bay we left and went to Cinnamon Bay for some relaxing time! But we don’t relax for too long before we start wondering what is around the corner!!! So off we headed to Hawksnest Beach. When we arrived we were startled by a loud noise in the woods and all of a sudden two HUGE iguanas ran out onto the footpath and scared the heck out of me. . but boy were they a site!!! we ended up getting some great pictures of them as well! After this fine day and stopping at some road side shops we headed back for our special last meal at Cloud Nine where we had some filet mignons and all the fixings to go with them while we watched the sunset over St. Thomas. . . .

12/9 (Sat) This was our last day. It was all about packing up and leaving paradise. . . what a sad day. To top it off when we phoned the kids last night, they barely even spoke to us. . . they were having so much fun at grandma and grandpas that they handed the phone right back after a quick hello! so needless to say leaving paradise was even harder than we anticipated!!!! Good bye St. John, until next time and I have to say there will be a next time!!!!