little cypressgirls trip report

[cypressgirl]

My mom woke me up at 1 in the afternoon to tell me that her message board friends were anticipating a trip report. This may sound similar to what she had to say, but I will share the experience from my point of view.

As you all know I have never had a vacation over spring break because I have always played softball. My idea to go to St. John was last minute, but luckily we found relatively cheap airline tickets. I invited my friend Jace because she too played softball and had never been on a cool vacation. I love taking people who have never been to the island, they seem to appreciate it a lot more. Our travel day went smooth and we arrived to St Thomas just in time to catch one of the last ferries. As soon as we got to St John we went straight to our condo where the liquor place had our stash waiting . We headed to town and had a nice dinner at Woodys. I somehow got into a conversation with an older couple behind me. They had obviously been drinking for several hours before they found Woodys. He was giving me a hard time about God knows what (he was very intoxicated) and I was just going along with it. Our food came which ended the conversation, and the next thing I know the old guy behind me had just bought us a round of drinks. We caught a cab back to the condo where we mixed a few drinks, sat on the balcony, and watched the stars over St. Thomas. This is probably my favorite part of the vacation, because we do not see too many stars in Houston. We called it an early night ( early for us college kids at least) and went to bed around 1. This was my fourth trip to the islands and my second time to bring a friend. Usually we go with the whole family (both my parents and sister) and stay in a nice villa. This trip was intended to be the cheapest trip yet, but this condo was amazing. My mom had her own room and we had our own good size loft with two twin beds. The next morning my mom started the process of waking us up around 8:30 (we didn't get out of the house til awhile later). We packed a bag for the beach with a few refreshments and went to warfside to get our fins. We headed to Cinnamon ( my favorite beach) where Jace and I swam what felt like miles to a little island to snorkle. It was Jaces first time to snorkle we we stopped every 4 or 5 strokes so that she could empy the water our of her tube. Once we made it to the reef we saw tons of fish, and it was nice to be there with someone like Jace who had never seen clear water. Some guy came out to us on a surf board and told us that my mom was standing on the beach with a mimosa having a caniption fit. We laughed and headed back to the beach. We gave her a hard time for being so worried about us and then went to shipwreck to eat lunch. After that we went to Maho and laid around the beach before heading back to town to get some food for dinner. We all showered, watched the sunset ( and oprah), and ate dinner. My mom couldnt hang with he big dogs so she went to bed around 8:30. Jace and I sat on the balcony and enjoyed a few beers under the island stars for a few hours before we went to bed. The next morning we slept in a little later and walked around some of the shops before we went to Caneel Bay. We had a nice lunch and walked down to Honeymoon. Jace and I prepared to snorkle as we listened to my mom tell us our boundaires. We were told not to swim around the reef butttt being the adventurous kids we are we figured we would get a sneak peak of Solomon. Before we knew it the current almost had us up on the nude beach ( by the way no one was nude). We swam for what felt like miles against the current to get back to Honeymoon and my mom. We ate and got ready for our one eventful night. Earlier that day we saw a crazy local ranting and raving about who knows what, breaking bottles, and hitting the park benches. An hour later when we were walking back to the car we saw him again and who was it that started speed walking away? You guessed it, it was my mom. She left Jace and I behind with the crazy man as she seeked her own safety. The crazy man got distracted when he saw a car coming and we walked away. I feel like I need to include this detail because when I asked if Jace and I could come back with my mom when she goes on her girl trip she said no because she would be worried leaving us by ourself in town. I found this ironic because she had just run from the crazy man and left us. Anyways as we walked to the bars in warfside we saw the man again and he professed his love to Jace. We ate dinner had a few drinks and ended up at Mongoose where people were singing karaoke. At around 9 Jace started to feel sick. I found some back door to a restaurant where i shoved her in the bathroom and let her puke for a good ten minutes. As I waited outside the bathroom i realized this restaurant was extremly nice and as soon as she started to open the door I grabbed her arm and we ran out. My mom and the guy she was talking to said that Jace was the only girl they had ever known to throw up and continue drinking. We went back to Warfside and hung out at the beach bar. There was a band playing something like Chillaxin? Anyways we were up in the front talkign to the trumpet player and he asked us if we were from Texas. Shocked we said " yess how do you know", and he replied "because you are fabulous". We hit it off with this band pretty well and talked to them in between and during every song. Towards the end of the night Jace and my mom were feeling the booze and the lead singer of the band announced to the crowd "This young lady from Texas is going to come around and collect donations". As i started to walk around the bar the guy next to my mom put a 5 dollar bill in my shirt. The look on her face was priceless. Anyways i continued to collect money and as I got to the end of the bar a girl asked me where i was from in Texas i told her Cypress and she said she was from there too. It turned out she went to the same highschool as me and i graduated with her brother. Soon after we headed home. How Jace made it up the stairs to our loft beats the hell out of me. As soon as i got into bed I heard my mom say " Oh sh** I forgot to close our tab". We jumped in the car and closed it and came back and fell asleep. The next morning we woke up early packed all our stuff and headed down to the dock to meet Stu for our last day. Jace swore off alcohol all morning and her stomache felt uneasy as we hit the waves in the boat, but soon enough she came around and we popped open another beer. We had a great day on the water stopping at Sandy Spit and Jost. Stu, his sister Bailey, and Eric were a lot of fun and we joked with them for hours. We went back to St John where Jace and I got yelled at by some mean old man for our boat being too close to shore and that we could have cut his rope. We returned our fins and had to swim back out to the boat. We headed back over to St Thomas where we said bye to Stu and his gang. We ate dinner and got a cab back to the other side of the island. We stayed at the Best Western which is the nicest hotel I have ever stayed at. We were all too tired to enjoy it and we were asleep by 8. The next morning we arrived at the airport at 6:15 am and said bye to the island. We were all sad to go, but we had an amazing time. I can't wait to go back again on another girl trip. This was my favorite trip to St John and it is nice having a mom that allows us to let loose on vacation. It was great to get away from the stress of college and I wouldn't want to spend my spring break anywhere other than St John.

[b-as-u-r]

Michelle, thanks for taking the time to post a trip report. It was nice to hear the perspective of the trip from the teenage daughter's point of view. It sounds like the trip was memorable for both you and your Mom (and your friend). May it be your first of many more girl trips to come. I took my teenage daughter to STJ at the beginning of March, also a girl's trip, and am hoping it was our first of many more to come. STJ is a special place to be shared by and with special people. Good luck with the rest of the school year! Ali~

[cat]

Thanks for the report! Your view was not so different but it sounds like you had fun! That is what really matters. Your mom sounds like she really enjoyed being with you guys! That is a good thing! Here's to many more girl trips in the future!

[DELETED]

DELETED

[kirk]

Great report. I think your mom glossed over one or two things.

[obsessedmuch]

Nice follow up to Mom's report. Sounds like you all will have more girls trips to come!

[liamsaunt]

Thanks for sharing your perspective. It sounds like you had fun.

[pswlrw]

Michelle,

Thanks for the trip report. I was cracking up when I read about your mom running from the "character" and leaving the two of you.

[waterguy]

Great report LC hope you have many more trips with your mom

[California Girl]

Thanks for your trip report! It's so great to have such good relationships with your mom and friend! I bet your friend had no idea what awaited her when you said "You wanna go to St. John?"

[sea-nile]

Michelle,
Thanks for your version of the trip report. I really enjoyed it as I will be traveling with your Mom in November.

[cypressgirl]

You guys are very sweet to show an interest in her report. She just headed back to school, but I'm sure she'll be checking the board. She's really into "what the men pack" thread.

[cat]

I think that thread is too funny! Like Nothintolose i will have a hard time not looking when we go this summer. Does he or doesn't he?

[VaGirl]

Michelle, thanks for taking the time to post before heading back to school. Sounds like you and Jace had a great time, even with a Mom around! We can be fun, ya know, glad your Mom proved that. I, too, look forward to the November "older gals" trip.