I'm a litle late with this, but here goes...

The characters on the trip are Me (50), my wife Amy (40-something), our 18 year old daughter Kristen (known as KK) and her 19 year old friend, also named Kristen (known as KP).

Trip Dates: 3/25 - 4/1/2007

Day 1, Sunday, March 25th - Travel day. This was a mostly uneventful day. We arrived at O'Hare much too early and hung around the Red Carpet Club until flight time. We boarded on time and then sat on the plane because TSA was slow in screening the baggage. We arrived at STT 30 minutes late and getting our bags took forever. We caught the 4:00 Red Hook ferry, found our car at C&C Car Rental and made it to the villa by 5:30. We did some shopping, cooked at the villa and crashed early.

Day 2, Monday, March 26th - This is our first full day on the island. Amy and the girls wanted to sleep in so we didn't plan anything until noon or so. I woke early (as always and had coffee with the Bananaquits. Amy joined my after a short while and we decided to walk down to Hart Bay Beach to look around. Once everyone was up we piled into the mini-Family Truckster (aka the rented Liberty) and headed to Trunk. We spent the afternoon there under mostly cloudy skies then went back to the villa to clean up. The girls wanted to do some shopping so we headed to Mongoose Junction and agreed to meet at 7:00 for dinner. Amy and I shopped for a little while and ended up at the Tap Room talking to Cheech and enjoying VI Pale Ale. Dinner was at Paradiso and then back to the villa to relax on the deck.

Day 3, Tuesday, March 27th - Tuesday was our day sail with Captain Phil. We met him outside of JJs at 9:45 and we were soon sailing out of Cruz Bay harbor towards Great St. James island. We were no more than 10 minutes into the trip and it started to rain. It rained fairly steadily for most of the day. Since we were going to be spending a lot of time in the water we really didn't cafe. Our first snorkeling stop was a cove on the opposite side of Great St. James (on the Little St. James side). The water was warm and clear and we saw a lot of different fish, including a school of 8 barracudas. Captain Phil showed us an Octopus' home, but the Octopus had apparently moved on. The wind was really blowing and there was a pretty strong current so we headed back to the boat for lunch. Lunch was homemade chicken salad sandwiches, cole slaw and honeydew melon. After lunch we went around Great St. James to Christmas Cove and Fish Cay. Snorkeling in this area was fantastic. Captain Phil led us through the "Canyon", a shallow crevice in the rocks, and around the Cay. We saw lots of fish, including a White-spotted Eagle Ray and a huge Mutton Snapper and an Octopus. After the trip we cleaned up and went to Wharfside village and then picked up Uncle joe's for dinner. Yum-O!

Day 4, Wednesday, March 28th - Wednesday was the day that Amy and the girls went parasailing and I went for a boat ride. We booked the parasailing with "the guy under the stairs" at Mongoose Junction. The boat came over from St. Thomas and met us at the National Park dock at 1PM. KK and KP went first and went up together. It was a beautiful day and they had a blast just floating around and looking out over the islands. When they came down the boat captain dunked them up to their shoulders before the parachute pulled them back up again. Amy went next. Parasailing was the number one thing on her list of things to do on the trip so I'm glad that we were able to work it in. She also had a great time and was dunked pretty good at the end. After parasailing we went to Maho for the afternoon. When we got there we met a mother and son who were gushing about the turtle that they had seen. They showed me where the turtle was and I took off with the camera. After swimming around for about an hour i was heading back in towards the beach and i almost swam right into the turtle. She was laying along the bottom munching on the grass. She had two remoras on her back. i took a bunch of pictures and swam with her for about ten minutes. After Maho we cleaned up and had an early dinner at the villa (someone had forgotten the cooler with the sandwiches in it earlier 🙂 ). Then we went back into town and looked around at some of the shops at Wharfside, had a couple of drinks at the Beach Bar and a couple more at Woody's before meeting the girls to go back to the villa.

Day 5, Thursday, March 29th - After much debate leading up to the trip we decided to charter a power boat for a day and visit Jost. We decided on Captain Truman at VI Flyaway Charters (www.viflyawaycharters.com) and made arrangements to meet him at the National Park dock at 8:30AM. This meant an early morning for the girls, but they dealt with it Smile. Our first stop was Great harbor on Jost to get through customs before the rush. Capt. Truman took our passports and customs forms and took care of that part while we wandered around Great Harbor. We found Christine's bakery down the road from the dock and had a piece of lemon cake and a donut for breakfast, them we walked up and down the beach looking at the various bars and restaurants. We spent some time at Foxy's store, but the main part of Foxy's wasn't open yet. I did have a chance to meet Foxy and talk with him for a few minutes. He is spending a lot of time lobster fishing and apparently has been doing quite well with that. After about an hour we took off and headed for Sandy Spit. Capt. Truman pulled in close to shore and we all swan to the beach and walked around the island and just enjoyed the sun and the quiet. We left Sandy Spit at about 11:00 and headed to Faxy's Taboo. We docked and went into Taboo and met Foxy's daughter (I don't remember her name), ordered lunch and then headed off to the Bubbly Pool. It took about 15 minutes to walk there and we spent about an hour in the waves. We had arranged with Capt. Truman that he would watch for us on the way back and have the cooks at Taboo start working on our food. It worked perfectly. We arrived at Taboo just as our lunch was being placed on the table. We had a great lunch and sat an enjoyed the view for a while. From there we went back towards STJ and New Found Bay on the east end. We cruised the bay for a while looking for turtles and saw a few. Then we moved to the reef just outside of the bay and snorkeled for about an hour. Out plan was to head back to Jost and White Bay to finish the day there but as we were leaving New Found Bay we hit a torrential rain storm. Capt. Truman tried to find a way around it but we couldn't find the end of the rain. We eventually gave up on White bay and went slowly in the downpour back to Cruz Bay, where the sun was shining brightly Rolling Eyes. We were completely soaked so we went back to the villa to clean up and then we went into town to look around at the shops (again) and had a great dinner at Margarita Phil's.

Day 6, Friday, March 30th - Friday morning started out drizzly and overcast. The girls wanted to sleep in so Amy and I went into town to visit St. John Spice and a few other shops. We parked at Slimman's and went to see Ruth first. As i walked into the shop I saw Ruth behind the counter and she said "I know you!". We chatted for a while as Amy and I looked around the shop. We picked out some stuff to take home as well as a selection of hot sauces that Ron would ship to me. We had a chance to meet Ron and Regina, who was working behind the counter with Ruth. After ST. John SPice we hit a few other stores where Amy picked up things that had been flagged earlier in the trip. We went back to the villa to get the girls and headed out towards Skinny Legs. We had a great lunch at Skinny's and looked around at the shops in the area and then drove out to Shipwreck Landing, Jolly Dog and a few other shops out that way. Then we went back past Skinny Legs and drove out to Vie's. It was still drizzling on and off so we didn't go down to her beach, but I had to stop for some conch fritters. We got back to the villa at about 5:00 and made arrangements to meet Nyestreet from this forum and Mrs. Nyestreet at Morgan's Mango for dinner at 7:00. They are a very nice couple and we had a great time hanging out with them. The girls were on their own for dinner and they ended up having a burger at the Beach Bar. They were jonesing for fresh fries and they had asked someone in one of the Wharfside shops where they could get fries and the answer was the Beach Bar. We met back at the car after dinner and went back to the villa.

Day 7, Saturday, March 31st - Saturday was our last full day on St. John. It really didn't feel like a whole week had gone by! There were still so many things that we wanted to do! We looked at our list (which was stuck on the villa refrigerator) and decided to head to Annaburg ruins and then hike out to Waterlemon. Since Moonsong faces south/southwest, we had no idea how windy it really was, but when we arrived at Annaburg we were hit by north winds that were blowing at 20-30 mph (confirmed by the Weather Channel later)! It almost felt like we were back in Chicago. From the lookout at Annaburg we could see the waves out by the Cay and decided that we would look for an alternate place to spend the afternoon. We walked around the ruins for a while and then went back to the car to look at the map. Based on the wind direction we decided to go to Francis. It was close, and Mary Point would protect it from the wind. We found one of the last places to park along the road at Francis and walked down the beach. We stopped at a picnic table to eat our lunch and then spread out our blanket on the beach. The girls wanted to do some serious limin' so Amy and I went in snorkeling. We snorkeled and just enjoyed the beach for the rest of the afternoon before going back to the villa to clean up. After cleaning up we went into town so the girls could pick up a couple of last minute souvenirs and then we had dinner at Cafe Roma. Then we went back to the villa to pack. 🙁

All of the pictures we took are online at...

Complete STJ Photo Album

Thanks for all of the advice you gave us. We had a great and memorable trip!