Trip report (you all lied)

Day 1:

Just back from a short surprise trip to St Thomas and you all lied to me. You told me it was going to rain everyday for a quick shower. Well we had no rain except for at night when we were sleeping. You told me to pack ½ the clothing and twice the cash. I should packed ¼ of the clothing and 3 times the cash!! So you all lied!! Just kidding….sort of.

Ok in all seriousness…We had a great time. We left Friday Morning from Philadelphia. We flew out on USAir direct to St Thomas. We were lucky to score an up grade to first class for 200pp. It made the flight so much better. We arrived in St Thomas and grabbed a taxi to our hotel. Morning Star at Frenchman’s reef. It did rain well actually it poured until we got to our hotel. We checked and went to check out our Beachfront room. It was well appointed with a king size bed icemaker fridge and all the other amenities you would expect. We were on the first floor steps away from the beach. Absolutely beautiful. We headed up to the main pool. On the way we checked out the waterfall and all the iguanas. Pretty cool. We dove right into the main pool and swam up to the bar and had a few……well a few more then a few…..and played in the pool until we went to dinner. We went down to Coco Joes and grabbed some sandwiches.. A little expensive but nothing outrageous considering we are on an island and most things need to be imported. My only problem here were the cats. There were cats waiting by your feet for that long lost dropped fry. Being a pet lover it didn’t bother me but can see how it could bother others. After dinner we went to the morning star beach. It is a nice beach but a little more rough then the beaches I am use to in the Caribbean. We swam and “played” in the ocean, walked the beach, “played” under a tree until we went to the room for more “play” We slept with the screen doors closed and fell asleep listing in to the waves crashing. We also were treated to a nice thunderstorm. I was in heaven

Day 2:

We woke up and went to the main building for a nice buffet. It was around 35pp. I had several eggs benedict and my personal favorite lox and bagels. From there we grabbed a cab to Megan’s bay. We got there early. It was around 8”30 am. Saved a couple of bucks getting on the beach. There was only one ship in so the beach wasn’t to crowded as it has been on my past trips to the bay. We rented snorkel equipment and walked to the far side of the beach. The snorkeling wasn’t that great all though I did see several sting rays. We “played” a little more over here too!! It was neat to see several boats tied to together and seeing the families hanging out together on the beach, water and their beautiful boats. I turned to my lovely wife and said ”I wish I was a boat person”.. We had several drinks here. I always get the Painkiller and she gets the bushwhacker. For lunch we had Gyro’s and fries. Went back in the water. I think we were in the water more then out. It was hot! Around 4ish we headed back to the resort. Went back to the room for…well….what else….a little more play. We then went up to the main pool of the resort and sat at the in water pool bar and discovered the drink Voo Doo. Very Very Strong!! They were good. Made with 4-5 different rums and O.J. We then headed back to Coco Joes for a light dinner. I stuck with the burgers and we forget what the wife had. We then walked the beach and went back to the room. A beautiful day with no rain. It did rain that night which was nice to listen to with the waves of the ocean as we fell asleep in the tropics.

Day3:

We got up and went to the Morning Star store and got bagels and fruit for Breakfast. We grabbed a cab to Red hook around 7:30. We got to Red Hook and had to wait about 20 minutes for the ferry. It was funny to see the locals waiting in the shaded waiting area and all the tourist huddled under a tree. We felt more comfortable with the locals so we waited with them. When the Ferry was ready to be boarded we waited in line. When we were asked to show our I.D I realized that I had left it back at the hotel. The security girl winked and waved us on. So much for homeland security being at a level orange or red! It was a beautiful ride over to St. John. Calm blue water with little island scattered about. We arrived In St. John in about 15 minutes. Grabbed a cab to Trunk Bay. Wow!! Is St. John pretty. It was nice to see that this island has not been scared to bad with development. So glad it is national park lands (most of it anyway) We arrived at Trunk bay after a 15- 20 minute cab ride making one stop. The beach is beautiful with fine powder like sand. We rented snorkel equipment and chairs and staked out our slice of heaven on the beach. We snorkeled out to the snorkel trail and saw many types of fish. I had a pocket full of trail nuts that I forgot about from breakfast. I was swimming along not realizing I was leaving a trail of trail nuts along the Snorkel trail. I felt all this movement around my wais and feet. I thought a snorkeled was swimming over/behind me. I turned around and there were tons of fish eating the trail nut mix and trying to get in my pocket. I quickly emptied out my pockets and took a few pictures. For lunch we ate at the snack bar located a few steps away from beach. Be on the look out for the very aggressive seagulls. They will swoop down and grab your food out of your hands. We saw this happen more then once. Unfortunately we witnessed a man smack a seagull with his towel. The seagull fell to the ground and died. We covered our lunch and ate under a tree along the beach. We enjoyed a few cold beers here too. By 2 it was so hot. We had enough of the beach and snorkeling so we took a cab back to the dock where we waited for the ferry. Again no problems not having ID. Funny thing though a couple on the ferry remarked how they forgot their ID but were not permitted to board and had to go back to their hotel to get their ID’s I think it may had to do with their attitudes. We spent the rest of the day at the pool and Morning Star beach.. We got ready for dinner and ate at Havana Blue at Morning Star. It was great!! Beautiful sunset and great food. The blueberry martinis were awesome. They rimmed the glass with gram crackers that my wife loved!! I had the crab lump appetizer. It was good but not great. For dinner I had surf and turf. It was great. The wife had the calamari appetizer and coconut shrimp. Again awesome. We shared a chocolate desert that was good. After dinner we walked the beach. It was nice but sad because we new we would be going home the next day. We were excited though to go home to see our kids who are 5 and 10.

Day 4:

We packed our bags. We then took a cab downtown to shop and have breakfast. We ate at Bumpa’s over looking the harbor. Good breakfast. We shopped and dropped more cash!! Took the cab back to the hotel and checked out. We still had the bottle of champagne that the hotel left in our room so we sat in the open air lobby at Morning Star drinking mimosas and feeding the iguanas that run freely. We then went to the airport where we were treated to personal search of our selves and luggage. No problem there glad to see some security!! We were home in bed with our kids that night!!

Short summary.

We had a great time. I have owned my own business since before I was married. Anyone who has started their own business can tell you that it can take years before you see any money or free time. So when we got married over 10 years ago we did not have much time or money to take time to be with one another for a nice honey moon. Now that my business is more self efficient we have more time to do trips like this. We have been taking cruises for the past few years but we really enjoyed staying on the island.

Whenever we passed anyone or spoke with any help, cab drivers or whomever we always started out saying good morning and or how are you or something of the like. Because of this tip we were always treated very nice by anyone we had to deal with. We had some of the best Cab Drivers we have ever encountered. Again I think because of the way we treated them.

Funny thing again…since this was our first time away with out kids in a long long time we were all over each other and everyone thought w we were newly weds. On the plane down the steward on the plane said “newly weds?” and we said no 10+ years. We heard him tell the stewardesses no they have together for 10 years. We did feel like newlyweds and enjoyed every minute of it!! And as you can see in the pictures we did have fun. If you want to look at the pictures feel free just realize most pics are of us rather then anything else!! Thanks so much for all the tips and reading this long reivew!! http://community.webshots.com/user/cruise_182