Hello All! We( me and my 8 yr old daughter E) arrived in STT to a rainy day, but no complaints, because I heard on the plane that a lot of acreage on STX had burned due to dryness on islands. So YOU ARE WELCOME RESIDENTS. I will try to bring some rain the next time, too. ƒº It was Weds afternoon. Met up with my friend O, who picked us up at the airport, which is so awesome because it¡¦s small and easy to spot people there. This was my 3rd trip, and drop off and pick up has always been a breeze. We went to Frenchtown to grab something to eat. We grabbed a Reuben at Frenchtown Deli in Frenchtown Mall. This deli is great, and they have books for borrowing all along the wall. I borrowed one, since I left mine in the car back home! My friend is going to return it for me. We took our sandwiches back to her boyfriend¡¦s apt where we were staying, and just hung out in the hot tub that night. Oh yea, we did take a grocery shopping trip to Cost U Less, which is a warehouse-type store. Pricey, but everything is there. We went to bed pretty early, and so ended day one.

Day 2.

O had to work Thursday, so E and I woke and enjoyed the view from the apartment. It is situated above downtown, a little to the left. We could see a corner of Water Island, where she used to live, and the new marina to the left. Pretty blue lights there! O picked us up and we went to Magen¡¦s for a beach day. E and I set up a little away from the bar/snack bar due to lots of crowding. Waitress still came all the way to us to bring drinks! Yay! It was rainy off and on most of the day, but the type that sends you INTO the water as opposed to OUT of it. Nice cool rain. Beach completely cleared by about 430. They start putting up tables and chairs about this time, too. Went to snack bar and got a slice of pizza. GREASY (which is code for yummy) There was a man from RI in line before me, who was complaining of the rudeness of the locals, and I could see where he was coming from. The lady putting up the tables was rude to him because he was in her way. She was behind him, and the poor guy had no idea she was there. She about bit his head off to move. Wasn¡¦t a pretty sight. I didn¡¦t really encounter a lot of rudeness towards me, per se, but O said she gets it all the time. Ohwell. Just remember your manners while there. Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good evening/night. (I sound like Jim Carrey in The Truman Show.) We cooked out Thursday night, and hit the sack.

Day 3 Friday
Woke up and headed to Charlotte Amalie to do some shopping. E and I went to Island Latte to have an early lunch and a GREAT frozen mocha latte. I had a greek sandwich . E had ham. Pretty good. We shopped the blue tents and random stores, and decided to head to Red Hook on a safari. 2 dollars per person. In Red Hook, we shopped. Went to Life is Good and bought E some Croc flip flops she has been wanting. (I¡¦m a sucker!) We went to Molly Malone¡¦s for a beer for me and a soda for her and took her picture with an iguana lounging. Huge highlight for her. I had told her that they were just out and about and she was really looking forward to seeing one. We hopped on a safari and went back downtown. We had originally wanted to go to Havensight where O works, but after we ended up at UVI, I figured getting out at Charlotte Amalie was about all the Dollar Man we could take. The driver said, ¡§No. No, I take you, just give me 5 minutes,¡¨ but after he had already not taken us down there, I was just done. He didn¡¦t charge us for the sightseeing tour, though! Hey, No worries. Island time. O picked us up and we headed to Frenchtown for some appetizers at Bella Blu. We had the olive bowl, some garlic bread for E and the tomato and mozzarella salad. All in all, it was good food and not too expensive. We went to Indigo and made reservations for 8:45, went home, chilled out and went back. WOW! That place was amazing. Great food and a beautiful background. They have tables set up around the pool. No view of STT, but beautiful. We started with the mussels in alfredo, and the tuna spring rolls. SOOO GOOD!!
I had surf and turf with steak, scallops and shrimp. O had the lobster special, and her boyfriend had a seafood pasta. E had chicken fingers and fries. And we had a couple of margaritas.

Day 4 Sat
We decided to head to Trunk Bay. Took the 1 O'Clock ferry from Red Hook to St. John. E really loved the ferry. We went to Mongoose Junction to get lunch to eat on the beach. Sandwiches and a great smoothie. We arrived at Trunk at 2:30. It wasn¡¦t very busy. This was E¡¦s first time snorkeling, and once she found a mask (O brought her gear) that fit, she was off! We snorkeled the underwater trail and she had a blast. Just seeing her clapping her hands underwater in delight made the whole trip. I had to hug her. We stayed at Trunk until 5, and took the safari back to Cruz Bay. We hung out on the deck of Quiet Mon and had a couple of drinks, at which point E, who mind you is 8! Said ¡§ I TOLD you I was going to fall asleep on the bar!¡¨ she put her head down and rested. O grabbed a beer bottle and put it in front of her, and snapped a pic. I know, I know! Don¡¦t judge, it was FUNNY! We caught the ferry back, went to Molly Malone¡¦s for some conch fritters (which weren¡¦t cooked all the way inside, so disappointed, because I love those things.) Also got some boiled shrimp to take home.
And so ended Saturday.

Day 5. Sunday.

Are you guys ready to be done? We went to my FAVORITE place in the VI. WATER ISLAND!! We took the ferry over from Crown Bay. Went to Honeymoon, and just chilled. I love this place. E went snorkeling. This beach is not great for snorkeling, but it¡¦s just fun to look. We came really close to a sting ray. I was raised in the panhandle of Florida, tons of sting rays all around, but that Steve Irwin business messed me up! I was scared. All I could think was that that sting ray was thinking ¡§ That ray that killed that dude gave us all a bad name, so now I¡¦m free to show my bad side!¡¨ E was really excited to find star fish. I loved jumping off the platform, too. It wasn¡¦t there last time we were there. They are also building a new dock. Headed back to Crown Bay via dinghy. O thought she dropped the key to the dinghy owners house at the dock, and so we went snorkeling for 30 minutes to look for it. It was later found in the boat. Which led to one of the best parts of my trip, which was THANKS to you guys! I would have never heard of a Painkiller She owed me a drink, and I collected in the form of the Painkiller. WOWZERS. The best drink I have ever had. After the drink, we headed home to grill out and hit the sack.

Day 6. Mon
Headed home via spiritair. Easy flights. Very tired.

I will post all my pics online as soon as I can. O has them on her camera.

If you made it this far, I owe YOU a Painkiller, and if you book my next trip down, I will buy you one. Deal? Deal.

Thanks,
T