USVI-On-Line

What a wonderful trip report--your son is a very handsome, funny and lucky child to have such a great family! Love the moustache! Thank you for sharing. We first brought our daughter to STJ when she was 6 and had many of the same thoughts as you and sure enough, she took to the island like...well...like a fish to water. Just like Archer, she loved to play in the water and the tree at the Beach Bar. My mother was horrified that we took our child to 'the bars'... .

Our daughter is turning 16 next week and we just returned from another spectacular trip to STJ, and even at this age she is just so happy to be there. No TV, no cell phone, just fun family time. She cried on the ferry to STT. For a parent of a teenager, that's pretty cool! Can't wait to hear about Archer's future adventures!

Loved the review through his eyes! So funny! Sounds like you waited until the perfect time to start sharing with him. The memories will remain and someday he'll be telling his family how he used to go there as a boy.
Thanks for sharing!

Children will surprise you most of the time. We took our then 16-year-old granddaughter a year ago and wondered how it would work out. It worked out great. She is a very mature and intelligent young woman who has a tremendous interest in the sea. We were pleased to see her jump in for the work at the villa. She was happy to pull her own weight. Her maturity showed when, after her scuba training, she was doing a series of dives. She complained of a little ear pain. She knew this was a bad sign and voluntarily sat out that day's dives. We treated the problem and she was ready to dive the next day.

She never complained and was always game for wherever we wanted to go or what we wanted to do.

I am glad to see how well Archer "got it."

JIM

Wonderful, could have kept reading for hours!

Great trip report! Everything is so freshly exciting through the eyes of a child, isn't it?

thanks..enjoyed....

Loved that! Thanks!

St. John is a very different experience with kids! Glad your trip was a success. Looks like you had a fabulous time.
My vacations to St. John with the kids are still like herding cats. You have given me some hope for our future visits!

This is probably one of the most fun trip reports ever! I loved seeing St. John through 7 yr. old eyes!

54B-- Archer is adorable! I'm glad he had such a great time with you adults;) kids always know how to get it right and seven years old is the "perfect" age for STJ.

What a great trip report! So cute! I wish I would've known about St. JOhn when my boys were young!

54b wrote:

StJohnRuth wrote:Fabulous!
Thank you, 54b.

- Ruth

Appreciate ya, Ruth and thanks to you and St. John Spice, we now have one ceremonial boomerang and two cats that are currently MIA.

I can only imagine if we'd said yes to the pirate swords.

Oh you should have said yes!

What a fantastic post! Archer is a precious boy! I am looking forward to the day when 1. We have a child and 2. When we take our child to STJ. Awesome. Just awesome!
THANK YOU for sharing!

Really appreciate all the nice comments and humoring what ostensibly is one long apology to myself for ever hesitating to bring our son in the first place...no, there's no actual need to apologize and I do not feel bad at all, nor should anyone else who decides not to or postpone taking the kids along...but I do think my wife and I felt a little silly for ever hesitating simply because it was a lot of fun.

That said, I can verify that it is true that the group only moves as fast as its slowest member, and there's no question we weren't as carefree or "efficient" as when my wife and I went just the two of us...but in many ways, it was better. I rediscovered and enjoyed the island a lot more...example, the Petroglyphs on the Reef Bay Hike...I probably noticed 3x as many things there this time around as I did the first time I was there and I think it's simply because Archer was there climbing, tracing the carvings, asking odd questions and simply making us appreciate it more.

When it was just my wife and I, it was kind of like, "hey, Honey, Petroglyphs, 2000 years old, check...what's next." Kind of pathetic I know, but sometimes you just get in that mode...and need a kid (or a kid at heart) of any age to break you out.

BTW...I'll see if I can post another TR from the adult perspective. This was also our first time going with another family. And now I know the real benefit to posting a TR with pics...you end up writing a ton less than you would for a report with no pics...images speak volumes.