this is last year's report, will write this years today. 🙂

Tue. Feb.18 Left Westport, CT at 3 a.m. to drive to JFK with about 2 feet of snow on the ground. Brian, my boyfriend, was driving my mother’s caravan. I said, just get us there, don’t hit anything and go 5 mph!!!!! There was one lane snowplowed all the way there. We got to long-term parking and it was closed. Ahhhhhhhhhhh. There was a man with a truck there and said go park in the Blue Parking Lot and gave us a pass so we didn’t have to pay more money. The lot wasn’t snowplowed yet, so that was actually good. We didn’t have to wait for a bus. So we parked in the Blue Lot and had to carry out bags thru the snow to JetBlue. We left JFK at 7 a.m. right on schedule. J Thank God! Arrived at San Juan at 12:10 p.m. Left SJU at 2:40 p.m. on American Eagle. Got into St. Thomas got our bags, found a cab, and arrived at Sapphire Beach. Mom was in the lobby waiting of course. She said just what I knew she would. “YOU MADE IT!” Straight to the bar for a beer and sat on a lounge chair on the beach looking at the water and great views. Now I can relax; we are here! It’s 4:30 p.m. so we go to the room a villa next to the marina, great view of St. John. Mom makes steak tips, rice, salad, and cheese bread. In bed by 8 p.m. Brian and I have the big bed upstairs for the first time. The bed was too short, they turned the king sized bed the wrong way, but we were too tired to care. Wed. Feb 19 Awake at 6:45 a.m. with the sun as we always do in the islands. Breakfast at the Seagrape. They got rid of the breakfast buffet, must have lost money. I had an egg sandwich and potatoes. Very Good. (B) (I will grade the restaurants like this throughout this report.) Ok, to the beach in the shade of the trees, and then snorkeling. Very good snorkeling. Then we took a taxi to Red Hook where we have a 40 ft. houseboat “named “Jaguar” by the mangroves. My mom and her old boyfriend built it, it was an old boat that sunk in a hurricane someone raised it and they bought it, it was just they hull, they built a new grid system for the floor and continue to build it up, it is great. It has awning windows, 2 beds, place to eat, shower, bathroom and galley. Lots of space, like one big room on the water. We love it! They had a new invention on the boat, it is a little tennis racket with metal wires where the tennis strings would be and a button on the handle, I think it is called The Zapper! I wish there were more mosquitoes on the boat, you just touch one with it and they are dead, dead, dead, just don’t touch it or you get a little zap. I have to get one of those for home! For dinner, I had to try Caribbean Steak and Seafood. I met Terri, who for some reason I thought was a man, but who is a nice blond lady. J We had conch fritters, and calamari, Mom and Mike (her boyfriend) split a fish dish, which I can’t remember the name of now, they loved it. Brian and I split crab cakes, yum, they gave us our own salad, potato with sour cream, bacon and cheese, and veggies. We were stuffed! I give this place a (B+) We hit The Marina Market for some soda and breakfast stuff and took a taxi back to Sapphire and off to bed. We went to bed about 8 p.m. every night. Thur. Feb 20 Awake early again. Had breakfast, bagels and bacon and coffee, and hit the beach. Saw my little white checked ducks again, they must have multiplied there were about 20 of them. Some people on this board don’t like them, but we do! They are so cute and fun to watch while at the beach. My brother Dave should be pulling up in a taxi right now, Mom is of course waiting in the lobby again. He was supposed to leave on Monday, Feb. 17, but his flight was canceled due to the blizzard! My two nieces didn’t come since they would miss too much school now and they lost 3 days in paradise. Dave comes down to us on our chairs he is happy but TIRED! Flew out of JFK on JetBlue on Wed. night and spent 6 hours at the airport and then American Eagle to St. Thomas at 7 a.m. He takes a nap at the beach. Brian wants to walk down to the other side of the beach. So off we go, ok that was fun, now we are back. (I’ll tell you, I need a vacation now, I do more and walk more in the islands than I do at home). OK, I’m hot so I get a blue float and lay in the water. Brian is snorkeling and pulling me along, too bad the sun went behind a cloud and the waves are splashing me, I’m cold and he is having a ball. Lunchtime we all go to the pool bar. Nachos for appetizer, very big, but not all that tasty. We all had burgers and fries. (B-) Back to the beach did a little fishing at the marina, didn’t catch anything. Red Hook for dinner at Molly Malone’s. Good margaritas on the rocks with salt. J The biggest yummiest onion rings and shrimp cocktail with old bay seasoning for appetizers. We all just picked at ribs, since the drinks are starting to fill us up. (B+) Ok, now the good part. Right in the same American Yacht Harbor shopping park next to Molly Malone’s is Cold Stone Creamery. Homemade ice cream, which we found out, really isn’t but who cares, they get the mix then freeze it then it and comes out all light and fluffy, so I guess in a way it is soft ice cream made hard. I had sweet cream, which is like vanilla, they scoop out the ice cream which is in metal trays in the cooler and ask what you want it mixed with, there are about 30 different things, then they had marble which is the cold stone, with a freezer under it and mix the ice cream with the topping so it is all mixed up, I had brownies. (A+) OH, was it good!!!!! I said to my family we should open one in CT, we would be rich! Try it next time you are down; it’s fun. Back to the grocery store, taxi, Sapphire and Dave is down for the count. We watched Survivor and off to bed. Fri. Feb 21 Breakfast at room again, taxi to the ferry dock to go to St. John. About 100 kids from the middle school are also on the ferry going to Annenburg ruins, which is and old sugarcane plantation. Two little white girls around 9 years old are in front of us. I asked them if they were born here and they said yes. They said their field trip used to be Coral World but that started getting boring. So last year their field trip was the Disney Cruise Ship! How cool is that? Arrive at Cruz Bay and rent an open pick up truck with seats in the back from Delbert Hill. Ran across the street to St. John Spice and met Ruth and Ron. Now for our adventure. Dave is the driver, KEEP LEFT! Mike is in the front, Mom, Brian, and I are in the back. Here comes the rain. Mom puts a towel up so we don’t get rain in our faces, no wind block for the back of the truck. We park at Annenberg get our snorkel stuff and head down the trail to Waterlemon Cay. What a walk. I wanted to rent a boat for the day and pull up to snorkel like last year, but everyone wanted to save the money. I am definitely renting a boat next year! Took us about 25 minutes and the rain started up again. Finally made it to the rocky beach and in the water fast. Great snorkeling, but the rain is cold on my back. Snorkel for about 45 minutes, and start the hike from hell back to the car. Of course about 5 minutes into the walk the sun comes out. Snorkeling is so much better when the sun is shining, oh well, can’t control Mother Nature. We get back to the truck and then we walk up the hill to see the ruins. I’m starving thirsty and tired. There are a bunch of natives having an art festival or something with tables selling stuff. I ask if they food is for sale and they say NO! ahhhhh.. My Mom gets a cup of lime drink for $1. It was sooo good. We walk around a little and a security lady asks if we have eaten, and takes us back to the vendors, they give us cheese bread that I think they bake everyday there; it must be an old recipe that they made back in the day. They give us a white styrofoam container with chicken, rice, veggies, salad, and cookies, the next one has mutton. I ask her what mutton is and she says Goat! Ok, I’ll try goat, it starts raining so we run down the hill for the truck and stuff our faces. Good Goat! It tastes like stew meat very tender. We toured the whole island. My brother wants to buy land in St. Jo
hn someday. We stop at Mongoose Junction and do a little shopping, stop at the Gecko Gazebo for a drink and then return the truck and head to the Beach Bar for dinner. We got Artichoke and Spinach dip, yuk, it was dry, not creamy like dip, then crab dip with crackers, no flavor. Burgers, were a little spicy. (C-) Ferry back, and to bed. Sat. Feb. 22 Breakfast at room, Mom and Brian take our dingy around the point to Red Hook to Jaguar. Dave, Mike, and I sit at the beach till 12 p.m. We rented a car today, and go pick up the gang at the Burrito Deli. We have smothered burritos for lunch, $6. I recommend the chicken. (B+) We hit Cost U Less for Rum to bring home. I also got a calendar, which has a aerial view of American Yacht Harbor, which also shows St. John, and there is Jaguar so I can show people where our boat is. Great Picture. It was taken around 1995 since our other 2 boats are in the picture; they got totaled in Hurricane Marilyn. We went downtown to the little market with all the T-shirts, got 4 for $10. That was the extent of downtown, we aren’t big shoppers. Off to Mountain Top, which was just closing at 4:30 p.m. Had a banana daiquiri, with the straw filled with rum, wow is that strong stuff. The rest of the drink wasn’t all that great. Next stop was Black Beards. The tower was open so up the stairs to the top to see the cruise ships leaving, windy up there, down the spiral staircase which is a little rickety, get to the bottom and then notice the sign “Climb staircase at your own risk”. Have the best bloody Mary. I love the fans at that restaurant. Dinner is at Bonnies by the Sea. Nice place, said Hi to Bonnie. We had grouper stuffed with crab, coconut shrimp, which was great, very fresh coconut tasting, and surf n’ turf. (B+) if you don’t count the dessert!! Key lime pie was florescent green and blah and banana flan was just gross! Back to Sapphire and to bed. Sun. Feb. 23 Still have the car till 1:00 pm. So off to snorkel at Coki Beach where I have been trying to get Dave to go to for the last 2 years. There are so many fish because they feed them, which we did also. Ok a little fun fact here. (We own an antique store in CT, this summer my Mom went to an estate sale and for about $5 got a huge bag of junk jewelry. We picked out all the stuff that looked like pirate treasure and there was a lot of it, broaches with big fake rubies, emeralds, pearls, lions, gold with pearls, African faces, made of metal. I mean this stuff looks real and like you would find it in a treasure chest.) So we each picked 7 pieces and off we were to place them around the snorkeling path, what fun, I would have loved to stay and watch someone find them. We were thinking it would be fun to open a business down there so people could find more than fish. I mean people who found the stuff would think it was real, who would be as crazy as us to put these jewels in the water. Let me know if any of you locals have heard any stories of found treasure. (I’m sure I’ll get at least one person who thinks we are awful for doing that, but too bad it was a blast and how exciting to find treasure even if you find out later it wasn’t real.) Stopped at the Ritz, for a dip in the greatest pool in the world, it’s like you are swimming in the sea, they water is right up to the top and it is great. And we are off, only have 2 hours till the car is due back. In the car and to Secret Harbor, which I had to visit since everyone seems to love this place. Very nice, lots of palm trees, hammocks, chairs and umbrellas, which we were not allowed to use since we weren’t staying there, so we hit the sand. Dave and Brian went snorkeling and of course the one time I don’t go they see 2 turtles. L I knew they would come out of the water and say that! Lunch at the Blue Moon, had to try this place too. Conch fritters for appetizer, yum, they were really good. Brian had a burger that was great, very tasty, with the best French fries ever, so lite and crispy, and try their Thai Cole Slaw, good. Everyone liked this place. (A-) Returned the car. Hit the beach for the Sunday Beach party. A little snorkeling and a little jewel dropping, and a little rum drinking. I got a Painkiller for $7, decided that was too much $$$ so we went to the room brought down a bottle of rum, bought Cranberry, OJ, and Apple juice at the little convenience store, and were all set except for the coconut milk. Back to the room for the huge coconut that fell out of a tree and almost took my brother out on his first day while walking back from the pool bar after lunch. His family tried for days to get one with rocks last year and now one just fell at his feet. Brian takes out his little pocket knife and proceeds to open this sucker at the beach, breaks his knife bland off in the coconut but gets it open, ahhhhhhhhhhh… coconut milk! Too many Rum drinks later, Mom and Mike take the dingy back to the boat, and the rest of us order Senior Pizza to be delivered to the room, (C). off to bed. Mon. Feb. 24 Burrito Deli for breakfast, good breakfast burritos, I got one of my favorites from years ago, a cheddar croissant with chicken salad. Yum. Back on the ferry to St. John. Mom had to stock up some of her shops with prints, she is an artist and has accounts in the islands, so she was telling someone and there were a bunch of people off the cruise ships swarming her. She sold about 7 prints, gave them a good deal on the price, and personally signed them for the people. Not bad, I said she should just travel the ferry and sell them. Dave went off with a real estate lady to tour the island, and Brian and I hit Hawksnest beach. I had never been there before. It was nice calm water and less of a hike to the beach than Cinnamon. We snorkeled but not much to see, had lunch which we got from the deli, and then it started to rain, Brian went for a walk, so I went swimming, a lot warmer in the water than under a towel. Brian came back with a thing in his foot doesn’t know what he stepped on, but maybe an urchin since it was black. Some lady gave us tweezers and we sat in the water on the beach and I tried to get it out with no luck. We went back to the Gecko Gazebo and had Chocolate Bushwackers, and met Mom and Dave. I bought a $46 white straw cowboy hat, I don’t look good in hats but likes this one. Brian got a Gazebo baseball hat, nice blue color. Off to the Beach Bar for Passion fruit Coladas, soo good. For dinner we went to Café Wahoo, our best meal! Fried calamari for appetizer, it had a little Jamaican jerk seasoning, I don’t like anything hot, but it was a nice taste, with curry dipping sauce; we were out of our minds how good it was, try it! We had 2 Surf n’ Turf which for the 4 of us split. Great lobster and nice meat, with wasabi mashed potatoes, again, I was like ahhhhhhhh. I hate wasabi but a little wasn’t too bad, Dave had never had wasabi before, and since he loves horseradish loved it! Nice crisp asparagus, great meal. $37 but if you split it is good. A piece of Elvis Cake for dessert and back home to bed. Tue. Feb. 25 Burritto Deli again, Dave and Mom are back on St. John. Mike and Brian decide to patch up one of our old dingy’s that is on the shore by the mangroves next to our boat, while I take a nap. Wok N’ Roll, Chinese place under the Poor Man’s Bar in Red Hook for lunch. I love their crab rangoon. (B) The boys continue to work on the dingy and I’m bored on the boat, have a couple beers and paint a little over my Mom’s painting on the wall of the boat, fun. Mom and Dave come back around 5 p.m. and it is Molly Malone’s for dinner. Those big onion rings for appetizer. Brian had the conch dish, yuk, tastes like weird clams, and I like clams, but he liked it. I had a quasadilla (sp), you know the Mexican flour thing, very good. Everyone else had ribs. (B) Wed. Feb. 26 Poor Dave has to go home! He got robbed, maybe next year we will go in April less chance of a blizzard. Back over to Jaguar to closer her up for the year. Mom is crazy have to screw all the windows down, put clothes, dishes, bathroom stuff, tools away, up high in case the boat sinks if there is a hurrican
e, we are only in about 3 feet of water, so that is good. Plug up the hole in the shower, Brian dives down to plug up the toilet, we board up the two front plexiglass windows. Brian and Mike paint the bottom of the dingy and bring it over, it floats, a little crack in the side (more work to be done next year) so we put the motor on that one and head to the beach for a final swim. Suitcases to Molly’s for a drink then off to the Texas Grill (which we affectionately call The Barf Buggy) we pick up BBQ chicken, potato salad, and great coleslaw and bring back to the room. Off to bed. Thurs. Feb. 27 No time for breakfast in the cab to airport. Mom and Mike off to Tampa. Brian and I to CT. Back at home by 6 p.m. Trip is over. L Had a great time, maybe someday we will all pack up and move there. Laurie