What an amazing unforgettable vacation/wedding/honeymoon.

We arrived in St. Thomas on Friday afternoon, spent the next two days decompressing from our hectic lives. We stayed at the Sapphire Beach Resort in a beach front suite. No complaints whatsoever in regards to the resort. We mainly hung out at the hotel, snorkeled at their beach (nothing great but definately fun to do). We did venture into Red Hook and had a few pain killers at Duffy's.

Sunday we took the Red Hook ferry over to St. John. Stopped at Woody's on our way to the rental car agency, had to have another pain killer to start the day.

Got our rental car from Courtesy, they are great people. The jeep we got was a 4x4 wrangler soft top and let me tell you I'm glad we had 4 wheel drive. Courtesy is fantastic, you can park in their lot any time you are in Cruz Bay so that you don't have to hunt for a parking space, they even pushed the seats forward while we were gone because it started to rain. I highly recommend them!

So off we go venturing the island waiting until our 4pm check in time at the villa. Driving on the left hand side of the road takes a bit to get used to but the greatest thing is your on ISLAND TIME and nobody races around.

We are to be married on Tuesday the 14th so we are scouting for the perfect beach....We hit every possible beach on the North side and ended up choosing Cinnamon because of the ease of parking for the photographer, videographer, minister and us. I really wanted Jumbie but there is only 4 parking slots and if you are the last one there you SOL! All the beaches are absolutely gorgeous but there was just something about Cinnamon we fell in love with.

Now the trip to the Villa, we are to meet the villa rep at 4pm and the bottom of the road. As promised she was on time and off we go. It's about a mile UP the mountain side on a dirt road that is full of huge rocks, has switchbacks and only has room for one vehicle so if someone is coming down and your going up GOOD LUCK! As we are traveling up I'm thinking what did we get ourselves into, you can not go up this road without a 4x4 and you definately need a vehicle with some ground clearance!

The Villa: Oh MY GOD Oh MY GOD!!!!! that's all I said for the first 5 minutes.......it was ABSOLUTE heaven. This villa was amazing, the pictures don't do it justice at all on their web site, but then again how do you capture a slice of heaven on a camera! There are two pods completely isolated from the rest of the world. Nobody can see you and you can't see anyone unless you have a telescope and are looking over to the East end of St. John. Total seclusion and it goes without saying I have NO tan lines. This villa was top notch, the owners/decorators and care takers did not miss a beat. Our own pool, hot tub, an outdoor shower that overlooked the bay, 2 full sized bathrooms, and everything you could possibly need in a kitchen right down to the blender (and that got put to the test with me for the next 7 days).

We never really wanted to leave our slice of heaven at the villa but we love to take adventures so every day after watching the sun rise and enjoying coffe on the sun patio we'd pack up the jeep and head out.

Our favorites were:
Snorkeling at Waterlemon Cay. What a beautiful spot, here we saw stingrays, turtles, starfish, a baby shark, and tons of gorgeous tropical fish. It's a bit of a walk about 30 minutes but well worth it.
Snorkeling at Salomon, Salt Pond were a close second. Salt Pond was fantastic for the ease of getting in and out of the water, not super rocky and a very slight drop off.
I can't honeslty say we were not dissapointed with any snorkeling except Trunk. We only went to Trunk to say we were there and check out the underwater trail. It was way too crowded even at 9am. and the snorkeling wasn't that great.

Food:
If you are in Cruz Bay head over to the Star Market, it's got everything you could possibly want and although pricey well worth having those staples back at the villa. Dolphin Market is o.k. but with Star right around the corner I'd skip Dolphin and head to Star. Dolphin is smaller, less choices and I thought a bit higher than Star. Star has a great wine section too!
Island Blues: Great for lunch, you have to try their Pacific Rim Salad with Chicken. Awesome for happy hour they make a mean pain killer.
Shipwreck Landing: My absolute favorite in our part of the island. EXCELLENT dinner's, we ate there 3 or 4 times and never had a bad meal or a single complaint. The bartenders are fantastic, the drinks and plentiful, they make a fantastic Martini and it's HUGE! They had great music at night. The locals there were like long lost friends.
Skinny Legs: Great Burgers, great bartenders, EXCELLENT bushwacker's and pain killers. It's a must if you're out in Coral Bay just to see the layout and the locals.
My ONLY complaint in regards to restaurants was Aqua Bistro next to Lily's Market in Coral Bay. The bartender had the personality of rock, the drinks were terrible, and no way in hell can you make any changes or substitutions to their menu. The locals that hung out there seemed disinterested in the tourists and to get an answer out of them was painful. So needless to say we never went back.

We didn't spend much time in Cruz Bay because we aren't into all the shops and boutiques. Don't get me wrong...I love to shop but I can do that anytime at home. We spent our days snorkeling, hiking, and just taking in the beautiful island.

Our wedding day was fantastic. Not a cloud in the sky, slight ocean breeze, empty beach and just the most amazing views you can ever imagine. Our minister STUART SCOTT is by far the most amazing person one could ever hope to run across. He did so much for us and made our trip to USVI the most perfect vacation ever. Our photographer Tony Scimeca was perfect. He shot 216 photographs of us and I didn't even know he was there half the time. He met us the following Friday and delivered on CD 216 of the most amazing pictures I've ever seen (and not just because it was us), the quality far surpassed my expectations. And then there was Todd Hecht's company that did our video, Todd was unable to be there but he sent an associate named BRANDY and she was the sweetest thing ever. She calmed my pre-wedding jitters and made our day. The video is amazing, the quality is top notch and now I have a video of our day that I can share with family and friends and watch over and over. Brandy's footage was out of this world and when we left Todd had delivered a 15 minute video to our hotel in St. Thomas complete with background music and of course or Donkey's that greeted us on the beach. I can honestly say finding Stuart, Todd, and Tony was a blessing from above and I'd highly recommend them to anyone!

The saddest part of our trip was going home. We actually left a few tear drops behind as we packed up the villa and headed to Cruz Bay to meet the ferry.

Our last two days were spent on St. Thomas at the Best Western Beachfront Resort (a 3 minute walk to the airport). We opted to stay there so we'd have some time to decompress before going home and so we'd be close to the airport. Although no complaints regarding this hotel I wouldn't stay there again and I'm glad it was only for 2 nights. Next trip we'll stay on St. John for the entire time and risk missing the plane because of the ferry.

St. John and St. Thomas are like night and day. I fell in love with St. John because of the layed back attitude and the beauty of it. If you want to shop and have all sorts of night life options and you want all the tourist stuff then you'll love St. Thomas. If you want to relax and go with the flow and just hang out on beaches, snorkel, hike and have NO WORRIES then St. John is the place to be.

We are definatley going back to ST. JOHN

Jill and Gene