If you've read the previous reports, you've gone with us from Lexington, Kentucky to St. Thomas for 3 nights, then transferred over to St. John for 3 nights. This installment covers our overnight trip to Jost Van Dyke and our final day in the islands.

Day 7: Friday. Woke early to get a taxi to catch the ferry to Jost Van Dyke. InterIsland Ferry goes twice daily on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Our plan was to go over Friday, spend the day on White Bay, Foxy's for dinner and entertainment, then back to STJ on the morning ferry Saturday so we could explore a new beach before our trip ends. Ferry left STJ right on time at 8:30 and it's a quick trip over to West End - Tortola to check in with Customs. The customs area was really busy so they moved our ferry boat to make room for others to disembark their passengers into the customs line. No problem. We got to JVD around 9:45am and took taxi over to Ivan's. We met a really nice couple on the ferry (Susan and Greg from Mass.). They were also staying in a cabin at Ivan's, but were going to stay for 5 nights! Their excitement really got us going, as well. We were pretty apprehensive about the overnight stay. More on that later!

Ivan's was just as we remembered it. Beautiful beaches, fantastic waters. Laid-back atmosphere. Without a doubt, Ivan is successful in building what he promises: Stress Free Bar and Campground.

The Windjammer cruise line (you may know of them - it's the "working cruise" - few passengers and everyone helps on the sailing ship) was moored off the beach and they were using tender boats to bring people on shore. They set up a lunch at Ivan's and give the passengers several hours to enjoy JVD. No sooner did we get settled on the beach that one of the tenders got grounded! They spent the next hour trying their best to get that boat off the beach. Many beachcombers helped (I admit - I didn't help. Not just lazy, but more intent on soaking up my own allotment of rays!)

We spent the next several hours in front of Ivan's. Our favorite drink there is the Bananawacker. It's made with Banana flavored Rum, Painkiller mix (OJ, Pineapple Juice, and Coconut), topped with more Rum, and ground nutmeg. It is soooooo yummy!

After an early lunch of Ivan's Cheeseburgers and fries, we walked over the "bridge" to Soggy Dollar Bar area.

Soggy Dollar is renowned for their Painkillers (essentially the same as the Bananawacker described above, but with dark rum instead of banana flavored rum). Mick is the bartender and is a really nice guy. We spent about 4 hours on this side of White Bay. It was busier than usual (maybe because it was a Friday). Many boats tied up just off the beach. Crowd was in a great mood - everyone laughing and enjoying what they KNOW is one of the most beautiful areas you'll find.

Just for fun - I set up this picture. I was tired of "juice drinks" so I started drinking my favorite island beer "Carib" It's my version of the Corona commercials!

We stayed at Soggy Dollar until late afternoon. The boats were clearing out, and we were anxious to see our cabin for the evening. So - we walked back over the bridge to Ivan's. As a side-story. Just before you get to each side of the bridge, there is a laundry basket full of "courtesy" flip-flops! You have to walk over some pretty sharp rocks and I guess they had enough people cut their feet that they provide used footwear. I thought it was funny.

We got our cabin key and (deep breath, please) went to see our overnight accommodations! I had previously looked Ivan's up on TripAdvisor.com. It is exactly what they promise. A cabin to spend the night in! 4 walls, a roof, 3 windows with screens and a door. That's it! There is a community restroom facility with gender-specific restrooms. They are modern and kept pretty clean. The funny thing is that because fresh water is such a valuable resource, you are encouraged to "If it's yellow, keep it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down!" or "In this land of fun and sun, we don't flush for number one!". Also, because you are obviously at sea level, the flushed material doesn't have much of a gravity drop to push it through, so............ You never flush toilet paper! That's right - wipe it, fold it, and put it in the trash container! Anyway - here's some pics of the cabins. We were in "Big Beach".

My wife was a REAL SPORT. I knew she wasn't happy about the accommodations, but we both really wanted to spend the evening on JVD and the hotels were sold out months in advance. When she saw the tiny lizards crawling around the cabin, and realized that the screens wouldn't keep out all of the bugs - she just ordered another painkiller and suggested we go lie on the beach and watch the sunset! What a gal!!!

After the sun set, we took a quick shower (they have community showers, as well - no hot water - just environment temperature rainwater collected for showers) and caught a taxi for Foxy's. The couple we met earlier was leaving at the same time, and we ended up spending most of the night talking to them. It was nice to meet new folks. While wife and I really enjoy spending time as a couple, we needed some new topics for discussion after 7 days alone. Here's a helpful hint: if you're going to Foxy's for dinner, make reservations. I had no idea you needed them, and the hostess was not at all pleased that we were there. They did find us a seat (really - it was no problem - it just messed up their initial plan). BBQ Buffet is $29 per person. They give you 2 plates. One for salad/cold items and the other for the hot buffet. It was a really good spread and the jerk chicken, grilled Mahi Mahi and BBQ Ribs were my favorite! We went for a walk along the beach after dinner and the other couple knew a taxi driver named Greg. So - they found Greg to take us back to Ivan's. Greg has the best taxi ever! It's an SUV and he's got it all fixed up. On the way back, he put a DVD into his player to show us how he starred in a German documentary of JVD 20 years ago! It was great. If you need a taxi, try to take at least one trip with Greg and have him show you the DVD - you'll enjoy it. I didn't take many pictures that evening, but here's one of the band and Foxy himself (in the red hat).

We slept pretty well in the cabin. We liked that we could hear the ocean just outside of our door. I slept lightly mostly because of the new surroundings. Wife slept lightly mostly because of the lizards.

Day 8 Saturday: Next morning we caught a taxi to the ferry dock. It's typical "island time" with the ferry. Scheduled time to depart is 9:30. Ferry arrived at 10:45am. They had a large passenger list and customs took them forever on Tortola before they could come pick us up. Anyway - we were back on STJ and through customs by 11:30 so we got lunch in Cruz Bay (Woody's) and taxied back to the condo. A quick change of cloths and we were off to explore a new area - Coral Bay and the southeast beaches. Okay - Centerline Road is just no fun at all. I was pretty experienced on the roads by this time, and I still had several times where I got startled by oncoming water trucks or locals driving aggressively. We did finally get to Coral Bay then found the Ram's Head trail. The original plan was to go to Salt Pond, but we quickly decided that we were not in the mood for a 2 mile hike - so we pressed on for Lameshur. I'm glad I ended up with the Jeep. I can't imagine taking the Tauras over the unpaved roads leading to Lameshur. We ended up on Little Lameshur. It was fine. Beach was quiet, water still that St. John Blue that we all love. Snorkeling - not very good.

We spent an hour or so there, and I could tell that wife wasn't thrilled. I reminded her that this was our last beach opportunity and told her to tell me where she REALLY wanted to be and I'd take her there. She loves Cinnamon and so we quickly loaded up and left for that beach. We stopped only one time for a quick picture of the Coral Bay area from the top of the mountain area.

It took me 50 minutes to get from Lameshur to Cinnamon. That's okay - we really enjoyed our final moments of STJ beaches. Showered and went to Morgan's Mango for dinner. Really good meal. I had Citrus Chicken and wife had Mahi Mahi. Next time, I think we'll do 2 courses of appetizers instead of entrees. They had some great sounding appetizers and I know we could have had great variety, been more than full, and spent the same cash.

Day 9 Sunday: Awoke to more sunny, blue skies (and jackhammers on the construction site). Had breakfast then spend the next 90 minutes cleaning up the condo and packing for the trip home (Boo!). Caught the ferry back to STT at 10am and decided to shop at Havensight this time. We've never shopped there before - always in Charlotte Amalie. We liked Havensight a lot! They have similar stores as does downtown, and we could see our jeep for most of the shopping we did. Remember - it was open air jeep and our luggage was in the back so we didn't want to leave it unattended in downtown area. We ended up getting some souvenirs for the kids, a couple of silver rope necklaces and I splurged on a Raymond Weil watch from Palm Jewelers in the AH Riise store. We spent way too much time in line at the Delta check-in (I'm a gold medallion so we went to the "special services" line. We were the 4th couple in line and it took over 40 minutes to get through - meanwhile the "regular" line was moving at light speed!). Easy trip through customs and just enough time to grab a sandwich to take on the plane with us. Trip home was easy and on time and we arrived 9:30 pm to temperatures in the upper 20's.

Thanks for letting me share this with all of you. I don't think we'll be going back for a couple of years due to a Disney Cruise commitment my wife made to our girls (10 and 12) last year. Oh well - I promise to keep my passion for the island lit through this discussion board and all of your future trip reports! Feel free to contact me if you have any specific questions on anything you read here. In the meantime,

Good Luck - Have FUN!