Let me say this adventure to St John with my family was a trip I will forever have fond memories of....We are a family of 5...husband(Mr. Happy Man)47 yrs old...me( Neurotic Mama)42 yrs old...Son1(Thrill Boy)13yrs old...son2(Running Mouth)13yrs old...daughter( Whining River)9yrs old

We have been to St John 3 times now and so this time we stayed on the Coral Bay side...very quiet and beautiful...the roads are as whiney as every one has says but we rented a regular car and and had no problem getting anywhere we wanted to go....so you do not have to rent a 4 wheel drive....we also took our Avis car (which allows you to bring your car to /St John) on the ferry from St Thomas to St John...this saved us allot of $ and was very covenant ....I got a mid-size car for $183 including all taxes from hotwire.com for a week....We listened to this board and brought ALL our own food including frozen meats.....this too saved us a huge amount of money....we called the airline(Delta) to see how we had to package it...4.4 lbs of dry ice and a zipped cooler bag....bingo....checked it in no problem...still frozen solid 12 hours of travel...by the end of every day of snorkeling we where so tired we grilled our dinner and went to bed by 9pm every night! We had no desire to leave our house we rented to after we showered from this difficult day of play:>)...every day we packed a cold cuts for lunch...lots of drinks and snacks and where off to the beaches...keep in mind several beaches have no restaurants or way to even get water....so you have no choice but to bring your own lunch...I will go day by day of our adventures....sorry if this is long!

Day 1

We where so excited to be at St John we where up and dressed by 8am....all 5 of us packed up the car with snorkel gear...chairs.... rafts...and off we went to Salt Water Pond...we had read this was a very good snorkel beach and was 5 minutes from our house...it did however take us over 45 minutes to get there because we got lost!!!! I found out quickly things are not marked clearly in St John and Happy Man just kept driving in circles smiling!!! I on the other hand wanted to stop the car and look at a map...in the back seat whining river was already asking if we where there yet....the boys kept talking non stop and there mission as a 13 yrs old boys was to see a naked girl...To save you all time finding Salt Water Pond...it is on the left hand side of the road coming from Coral Bay....there is a dirt parking area made for about 10 cars...it also is the beginning of Rams Head Trail....walk on the middle path with the chain rope across it...they say in the travel book it is a 5 minute walk and a easy trail....wrong....it took about 10-15minutes and was a bit rocky and back up was a steady incline...as for the bugs.....Oh My!!!!! They will feast on you if you do not have deet bug spray...I asked the locals what was up with all the bugs and they told me because they have had rain showers every night they are on over drive breeding right now! The other 2 times I was on St John it was not like this....When we got to the beach it was pretty but rocky...all of us jumped in the water right away to get away from the flies....we saw lots of sea life here...giant 5 foot sting rays...lots of fish and everyone but me saw the sea turtles...my mission in St John was to swim with these cute creatures...when I asked my children the best part of there day it was of course seeing the turtles I did not see!! All week long this was a running joke the turtles where hiding from me! The clarity of the water was good but not great....in my opinion it was worth going here to see the variety of sea creature not in other place we went....One quick note for all the other neurotic moms ....my son running mouth and thrill boy where so excited seeing the sea life they swam around a long time...at one point one of the boys where floating on his back...when I asked why Running Mouth was so tired he didn't feel like talking....he wanted to rest in the middle of the ocean far from where he could touch and the beach....lucky for us a boat was nearby and I swam with him to it and they let him on to rest...then they gave him a kayak ride back to the beach....I was a bit shaken....I had brought life belts I had bought from Boaters World and Happy Man said I was being neurotic wanting them to wear them in calm waters...after this happened the rest of the trip we all wore them so when we got tired snorkeling we could just relax and float...

Day 2

Another beautiful ...glorious sunny day in St John....we where again out of the house by 9am heading for Hawknest Beach....it took about 25 minutes from Corral Bay...parking was easy and there was no walk involved...parked and there was the beach....this beach is very nice ...calm water with soft white sand...not too much shade so bring an umbrella if shade is needed....they have picnic tables and descent snorkeling to the right of the beach facing the water....the clarity of the water was excellent....we decided to snorkel around the rocks to the right and then rest on Gibney Beach...the water here around the rocks is not very deep...most of it you can touch so for beginning snorkelers this is perfect...As for Gibney Beach it is one of my personal favorites....it is a small cozy cove like beach that kind of hugs you....very relaxing...when we got to Gibney Beach Thrill Boy was missing ...of course Neurotic Mom went into began to panic until all the sudden I see coconuts falling from the trees above us...mind you it was not just one coconut....they where dropping like rain...1....2...5....10....15.... then I hear from the high trees " Hi Mom...I found the coconuts you wanted".......and there is Thrill Boy 20 ft up happy as can be....I calmly told him to come down and he had found enough of them.....this is when the true adventure began....Thrill Boy now made it his mission in life to get into these coconuts...his twin Running Mouth quick joined in chatting all the time about his many ideas on how to break these open....Whining River quickly complained she wanted a coconut to open too and Thrill boy teased her a bit before sharing one....Thus began the children throwing the coconuts against the rocks to crack the shells...before we knew it other children had come to Gibney Beach to join the fun...now at this point there where 10 kids running like wild throwing these coconuts against the rocks....I began singing the theme to Survivor and all the adults where laughing and very happy we where entertaining there children... a man came up in a dingy at this time asking me what all these children where doing....he said from the ocean coming in it looked like a bunch of hungry savages on a deserted island....he was wondering if he should stop here or not... a side note....Thrill Boy did succeed at getting the coconut open and happily shared it with everyone on the beach...it tasted great! We then swam back to Hawknest ....ate lunch at the picnic tables....and relaxed the rest of the day....

I will write Part 11 later today...