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Iowaguy's Trip Report (Part IV--Final)
Iowaguy's Trip Report (Part IV--Final)
Need to finish up the TR so that mentally I can move on with my "Post St. John '08 Life."
Nine out of the twenty on our trip were between the ages of 18 and 22. As a result, this was not your classic "early to bed, early to rise" St. John trip. Actually, for me it was a "late to bed, early to rise" trip since I wake up about the same time regardless of when I go to bed. Anyway, they are all great kids, but, much like their parents they are pretty social--and we all enjoyed our fair share of Red Stripe.
My youngest daughter brought along The Brothers Karamazov to read, which must have added at least 8 pounds to her luggage, but with all the activity of the trip that book didn't get especially well used (I was relieved to see last night, however, she is almost finished). We also had a couple of younger high schoolers with us, so on most nights after dinner several parents went back home with them---Janie and I generally volunteered for the later shift since our kids are all older (and, to be honest, we like to go out anyway).
We made a big production of St. Patrick's Day (Janie is Irish after all), and we brought along our silly green paraphernalia and had an all-group BBQ at Indigo on March 17, followed by some fun at Woody's and Quiet Mon. Ran into some unnamed female Forum members at Woody's from Houston, Texas and F.V., Connecticut (you know who you are).
We also made a visit to The Front Yard where we saw Rick G. and Christine, who were watching a 'ska band called The Supervillains. Looked like fun, but we felt a little ridiculous in our green outfits and returned to Woody's where we felt very much at home.
I would not have predicted before the trip that I would spend 3 late nights at Larry's Landing and enjoy it, but I did. One of our first nights we walked out of the Beach Bar and were drawn across the street to Larry's by the incredible sounds we were hearing from this band that was playing----"Spiritual Rez" from Boston. They are a reggae/funk band with a really great horn section.
Anyway, unlikely as it seems, we became quasi-groupies for the next few days and followed them to The Beach Bar the next night, then to Larry's Landing again the following night for their St. John farewell show. Larry's is fun because it feels like you are at a party in someone's back yard---very funky makeshift Caribbean.It is a "pour your own" bar, which means that if you order a gin and tonic, they will hand you an entire bottle of gin and an entire bottle of tonic and you make it yourself. No excuses for sissy drinks.
We celebrated our daughter's friend Ellen's 21st birthday at The Beach Bar the first night the girls arrived, which was cause for quite a few toasts, and a first dipping of the toes into the warm water of the Caribbean.
Another night we watched Reverend Raven, a solid blues band, at the Beach Bar.
Yet another night we were at the Beach Bar to watch Tom Mason and Pru Clearwater (also here for the Blues Festival) and we ran into JC and Ron, as we did several times during the trip.
I was pleased that the girls brought up to me that they enjoyed seeing some of the same St. John characters when we were out and about---I know thats something I enjoy about Cruz Bay-------Mayberry, USVI.
On Sunday 3/16 we went to the Forum gathering at The Beach Bar. Quite a bit has already been written about this event and Deb (Mrs. Captainjay) was kind enough to already post some pictures. In addition to being a fun gathering of tourists like myself, its so nice that the real St. John folks like Pia, Les, Ruth, Capt. Jay, Deb and Kirk show up for these events---its especially interesting for us visitors to get the perspective from all of you making a full time life on the island.
A few final notes. Wow---it was really crowded on the island this year---did anyone else think that? It was the week between Palm Sunday and Easter, so it was a prime Spring Break week. We went to Skinny Legs and it was at least a 30-45 minute wait. Hole in the wall no more.
Since I was traveling with a large group of college girls, some not my own, and I knew we would be out at night, I was concerned about safety. Perhaps I just have rose-colored glasses on but I felt very safe. Janie did too, and she's more cautious about these things than I am. This will vary from person to person, of course, but thats how I felt.
Janie and one of the other moms went to church on Palm Sunday at Nazareth Lutheran downtown. She said she really enjoyed the service, and felt very welcome.
Personally, I spent the morning snorkeling at Ditleff Point---something harder to do in Des Moines---but felt a little guilty later if that gives Janie any comfort.
I do have two tiny complaints. With a group this big, I was constantly picking up or dropping off someone at the ferry dock. And it was really crowded. The only time I honestly felt nervous on St. John was when I performed this ferry pick-up or drop-off procedure---seems like I always had a policewoman or taxi driver yelling at me for doing it incorrectly. If you're a Seinfeld fan, it was a little like standing in the soup line with the Soup Nazi. I'm quite slow at picking up the correct method I guess. Anyway, its a very un-user-friendly process, to put it mildly. Second, we had a LOT of trash, and I was always the one to haul it to the dumpster. For an island that prides itself on natural beauty, how hard would it be to unload those dumpsters a little more often?
A short St. Thomas plug. We spent our last night at the Marriott Frenchman's Reef, which was predictably pretty nice, in a big U.S. type resort kind of way. Our good friends wanted something more economical, yet on the beach. They were very pleased with the Island Beachcomber, where they spent two nights, and they sent me these nice pictures of Lindbergh Bay and the beach bar at the Island Beachcomber:
Thats it. Yes---it was a big group, a little hard to herd out the door to dinner, but we did have fun. We've already had one "reunion" of our group at home and I think we've all bought some Red Stripe at the store--but it doesn't taste the same. Our one ritual pretty much every evening in St. John was a sunset celebration, usually at Indigo. The sun wasn't quite far enough north to get a clear view, but I do miss that sight anyway.
Nine out of the twenty on our trip were between the ages of 18 and 22. As a result, this was not your classic "early to bed, early to rise" St. John trip. Actually, for me it was a "late to bed, early to rise" trip since I wake up about the same time regardless of when I go to bed. Anyway, they are all great kids, but, much like their parents they are pretty social--and we all enjoyed our fair share of Red Stripe.
My youngest daughter brought along The Brothers Karamazov to read, which must have added at least 8 pounds to her luggage, but with all the activity of the trip that book didn't get especially well used (I was relieved to see last night, however, she is almost finished). We also had a couple of younger high schoolers with us, so on most nights after dinner several parents went back home with them---Janie and I generally volunteered for the later shift since our kids are all older (and, to be honest, we like to go out anyway).
We made a big production of St. Patrick's Day (Janie is Irish after all), and we brought along our silly green paraphernalia and had an all-group BBQ at Indigo on March 17, followed by some fun at Woody's and Quiet Mon. Ran into some unnamed female Forum members at Woody's from Houston, Texas and F.V., Connecticut (you know who you are).
We also made a visit to The Front Yard where we saw Rick G. and Christine, who were watching a 'ska band called The Supervillains. Looked like fun, but we felt a little ridiculous in our green outfits and returned to Woody's where we felt very much at home.
I would not have predicted before the trip that I would spend 3 late nights at Larry's Landing and enjoy it, but I did. One of our first nights we walked out of the Beach Bar and were drawn across the street to Larry's by the incredible sounds we were hearing from this band that was playing----"Spiritual Rez" from Boston. They are a reggae/funk band with a really great horn section.
Anyway, unlikely as it seems, we became quasi-groupies for the next few days and followed them to The Beach Bar the next night, then to Larry's Landing again the following night for their St. John farewell show. Larry's is fun because it feels like you are at a party in someone's back yard---very funky makeshift Caribbean.It is a "pour your own" bar, which means that if you order a gin and tonic, they will hand you an entire bottle of gin and an entire bottle of tonic and you make it yourself. No excuses for sissy drinks.
We celebrated our daughter's friend Ellen's 21st birthday at The Beach Bar the first night the girls arrived, which was cause for quite a few toasts, and a first dipping of the toes into the warm water of the Caribbean.
Another night we watched Reverend Raven, a solid blues band, at the Beach Bar.
Yet another night we were at the Beach Bar to watch Tom Mason and Pru Clearwater (also here for the Blues Festival) and we ran into JC and Ron, as we did several times during the trip.
I was pleased that the girls brought up to me that they enjoyed seeing some of the same St. John characters when we were out and about---I know thats something I enjoy about Cruz Bay-------Mayberry, USVI.
On Sunday 3/16 we went to the Forum gathering at The Beach Bar. Quite a bit has already been written about this event and Deb (Mrs. Captainjay) was kind enough to already post some pictures. In addition to being a fun gathering of tourists like myself, its so nice that the real St. John folks like Pia, Les, Ruth, Capt. Jay, Deb and Kirk show up for these events---its especially interesting for us visitors to get the perspective from all of you making a full time life on the island.
A few final notes. Wow---it was really crowded on the island this year---did anyone else think that? It was the week between Palm Sunday and Easter, so it was a prime Spring Break week. We went to Skinny Legs and it was at least a 30-45 minute wait. Hole in the wall no more.
Since I was traveling with a large group of college girls, some not my own, and I knew we would be out at night, I was concerned about safety. Perhaps I just have rose-colored glasses on but I felt very safe. Janie did too, and she's more cautious about these things than I am. This will vary from person to person, of course, but thats how I felt.
Janie and one of the other moms went to church on Palm Sunday at Nazareth Lutheran downtown. She said she really enjoyed the service, and felt very welcome.
Personally, I spent the morning snorkeling at Ditleff Point---something harder to do in Des Moines---but felt a little guilty later if that gives Janie any comfort.
I do have two tiny complaints. With a group this big, I was constantly picking up or dropping off someone at the ferry dock. And it was really crowded. The only time I honestly felt nervous on St. John was when I performed this ferry pick-up or drop-off procedure---seems like I always had a policewoman or taxi driver yelling at me for doing it incorrectly. If you're a Seinfeld fan, it was a little like standing in the soup line with the Soup Nazi. I'm quite slow at picking up the correct method I guess. Anyway, its a very un-user-friendly process, to put it mildly. Second, we had a LOT of trash, and I was always the one to haul it to the dumpster. For an island that prides itself on natural beauty, how hard would it be to unload those dumpsters a little more often?
A short St. Thomas plug. We spent our last night at the Marriott Frenchman's Reef, which was predictably pretty nice, in a big U.S. type resort kind of way. Our good friends wanted something more economical, yet on the beach. They were very pleased with the Island Beachcomber, where they spent two nights, and they sent me these nice pictures of Lindbergh Bay and the beach bar at the Island Beachcomber:
Thats it. Yes---it was a big group, a little hard to herd out the door to dinner, but we did have fun. We've already had one "reunion" of our group at home and I think we've all bought some Red Stripe at the store--but it doesn't taste the same. Our one ritual pretty much every evening in St. John was a sunset celebration, usually at Indigo. The sun wasn't quite far enough north to get a clear view, but I do miss that sight anyway.
---Jim
One other comment on traveling with a group this large. It worked for us, in part because we didn't try to do everything together all the time. Janie kept telling me not to overplan. The groups at each house mostly did their own thing during the day and then we all got together for drinks about 6 or so each evening, then did something planned for dinner (all eat together, adults eat together,kids eat somewhere else, etc.). I planned dinner because, well, dinner is important to me, and you can't have 20 (or even 10) people figure out dinner on the spur of the moment, let alone find a table in Cruz Bay. Probably would have worked well to cook more at home, but no one wanted to so we didn't. We did coordinate the Ocean Runner boat trip together during the day as well as the Sail Safari trip. And, as you can see from the photos, a lot of us just sort of ended up at Woody's or the Beach Bar later in the evening. Cell phones help, and mostly they worked for us (AT&T worked best). Also, since we stayed at houses fairly close together, there was some natural walking back and forth that went on, sometimes among the kids after I went to bed. I didn't ask too many questions.
---Jim
DSM
Very cool review, Jim.
It was great to meet you in the airports on the way home (we were the three couples in SJU, DFW, & DSM that were headed back to Iowa, too!).
Red Stripe from around here does NOT tast the same, does it...
It was great to meet you in the airports on the way home (we were the three couples in SJU, DFW, & DSM that were headed back to Iowa, too!).
Red Stripe from around here does NOT tast the same, does it...
Great report!! Your pics were great and looks like everyone had a great time (just look at all the smiles!) 
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Thank you for taking the time to write your reports - they are great! I was there in late Feb/early March and it was crowded. I can't wait to return in 18 days and I'm hoping the crowds will have thinned a bit but I'm not too optimistic. May/June are now wedding season on the island so I think it will be hopping.
NancyB
Thanks all.
ccasebolt/Nancy B---It WAS crowded but wouldn't deter me from going back again at the same time. In fact I'm working on booking my FF tickets to STT now for next Spring Break. We always found a parking spot---thanks mostly to St. John Car Rental and their back lot.
ccasebolt---Anxious to read the rest of your report. You really hit the perfect weather during your sailing week. The week we were there was OK, but not perfect like the prior week.
Marybeth----I thought of you several times during our trip and tried to take more pictures. Still didn't take nearly enough. Can't believe I didn't take a single "food porn" shot. The problem is, dinner comes after cocktail hour and I tend to relax and forget about everything sometime before dinner.
Partly because of the north swells, I didn't get nearly as many pictures of those beautiful north shore beaches as I would have liked---we'll have to rely on Captainkirk for that.
tcltcl---Had no idea you read these boards----fun to meet you in the airport---several times. If you plan a whole week in St. John next time, don't think you'll regret it.
ccasebolt/Nancy B---It WAS crowded but wouldn't deter me from going back again at the same time. In fact I'm working on booking my FF tickets to STT now for next Spring Break. We always found a parking spot---thanks mostly to St. John Car Rental and their back lot.
ccasebolt---Anxious to read the rest of your report. You really hit the perfect weather during your sailing week. The week we were there was OK, but not perfect like the prior week.
Marybeth----I thought of you several times during our trip and tried to take more pictures. Still didn't take nearly enough. Can't believe I didn't take a single "food porn" shot. The problem is, dinner comes after cocktail hour and I tend to relax and forget about everything sometime before dinner.
Partly because of the north swells, I didn't get nearly as many pictures of those beautiful north shore beaches as I would have liked---we'll have to rely on Captainkirk for that.
tcltcl---Had no idea you read these boards----fun to meet you in the airport---several times. If you plan a whole week in St. John next time, don't think you'll regret it.
---Jim
