USVI-On-Line

Back at work after a wonderful vacation. Traveling were my mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, wife, our son (2.5 years old), and myself.

Day One- We had driven to Charlotte the previous night for our 8:15 flight to Atlanta. Things went smoothly and after what seemed to be a very "quick" two and a half hour layover we were on our way to St. Thomas. Landed around 4 and my brother-in-law and myself went to pick up the car from Discount while the others waited on luggage. We drove to Red Hook and just missed the 5:30 car ferry. Caught the 6 and were met at the ferry dock by our villa rep with Destination St. John. She led us to Cocotier in Virgin Grande Estates our home for the week. The villa was very nice with a separate kitchen/living room and 4 bedrooms. We also had a pool and hot tub. We ordered Uncle Joe's takeout for dinner, which also was very good.


Day Two- We decided to give Honeymoon a try and park at Caneel. This was mine and my wife's favorite beach on our previous two trips. After a short walk over we spent about 5 hours hanging our on the beach. My siter began feeling a little sick after we ate lunch, but thankfully she started feeling better after an hour or two. We headed back to Cocotier and hung out by the pool while the little guy napped. We headed to The Fish Trap for dinner. It was a good meal but my dad is the type that if he pays $30 for a meal he had better need to loosen his belt after he eats. Needless to say he was a little disappointed when he only got 5 scallops. The food was good just wish there had been more of it. I guess that is what you normally get at a fine dining place. Headed back to watch the College World Series.

Day Three- I had scheduled massages for my mom and wife for Mother's Day gifts and for my sister as a birthday present with Paradise Massage. My dad, the little one, and myself headed to Hawksnest while the ladies were spoiled. We stayed for a couple of hours and then headed back to the house for lunch and just hung out by the pool for the rest of the the afternoon. Dinner was at Cafe Roma. Everyone loved it and my mom, sister, and dad said it was the best pasta dishes they had ever eaten. We walked up to Our Market for milkshakes and then back to the villa.

Day Four- The highlight of our trip as we went our with Shane and Andi Valentine on Born to Rhumb. We cruised along the north shore and then to Jost to check in. We visited Foxy's and then headed to Sandy Spit. My sister and brother- in-law snorkeled for a little while and the rest of us hung our on the beach. For lunch we headed over to Foxy's Taboo. The food was very good and we really enjoyed the atmosphere. After lunch we headed to Sandy Cay and just relaxed on the beach for an hour or so. Then it was on to White Bay. We were very thankful for the care that Shane and Andi gave to my dad and our little guy. My dad cannot swim and they made sure he had a life jacket and that he was able to "swim" in to all of our stops. Of course he was a real trooper for giving it a try as they said most people that could not swim just sat on the boat all day and missed our on so much stuff. Andi was great with our son and I believe she would have kept him if we would have let her. She has a young daughter also and we joked about making wedding arrangements for them already. My wife was amazed becasue when we were at White Bay and getting ready to head back to St. John our little guy fell aslepp on Andi's shoulder which is very unusual for him. Normally it is all about mommy or daddy at nap time. I would highly recommend Shane and Andi for a day trip. By the end of the day we felt like they were a part of the family. We decided to have dinner at the villa after a day on the water. We got steaks and fries from Starfish and they were very good. Actually we got all of our groceries from Starfish.

More to come later. I would be more than happy to answer any questions on the villa, restaurants, our day trip, or anything else.

Great TR- sounds like you guys had fun- can't wait to her the rest! I have heard great things about Cocotier- looks like a really nice villa. Gotta try the BBQ next trip....

Kids are great fun on STJ. Although I have to admit when I scanned the first few lines, my brain somehow thought you said your son was 25 years old. Imagine my confusion when you started talking about nap time

Enjoying your TR, keep em coming!

Cocotier was very nice. The driveway was pretty steep, the front dragged every time we went in and out. I would definitely recommend 4-wheel drive.

We had a blast having our son with us. He traveled and behaved perfectly the entire time. We were truly blessed. His only probably was that there was nowhere at the villa for him to "Play ball". He kept saying play ball in the grass and I kept saying there is no grass. We finally realized that we could take his bat and ball to the beach so he could play there some. We even had imaginery baseball games going on out in the water and he used a "sheshell" for his bat. Times that I will never forget.

Awesome!! Thanks for the great start to a wonderful TR and for sharing your vaca with us!

More please

Day Three- I had scheduled massages for my mom and wife for Mother's Day gifts and for my sister as a birthday present with Paradise Massage.

Did the ladies love this? I am putting this on my to do list when we schedule our next trip and did not know anyone to use so wondered if your family enjoyed your gift. This may be posted all the time but I am a newbie so am writing suggestions down. Sounds like a fantastic idea to me!!!

I believe that the ladies enjoyed there massages. I know that my mom said she didn't feel like moving the rest of the day and she barely did. The ladies from Paradise Massage came in moved the furniture in our living room and set up the massage tables. I thought it would be an excellent way for the ladies to begin their vacation and it would keep me from having to go to the mall and look for gifts.

Glad you had a great trip. Your week sounded so much like ours, especially since we stayed at Cocotier the week before you, June 11 - 18. It is a very nice villa. We had a safari truck for the week and with all 8 of us in it, the driveway was a bit difficult. We bottomed out quite a few times until we decided to empty everybody out at the bottom of the driveway and then my husband drove up and parked.

We also went out with Shane and Andi on Wednesday, June 15, and had an awesome day. Everybody agreed that it was the best day of the week. Andi posts pictures of each trip on Facebook. Did you see yours? Our group was known as "Cathy's Booze Cruise". One of the guys in the group left his "Navy" visor on White Bay and mentioned it to Shane. The next night we were walking through Cruz Bay and there was Shane with the visor! He had been back to White Bay that day and saw it in the sand and brought it back and was going to call me to return it, but fortunately we ran into him. So thoughtful of Shane.

We liked the food in the welcome basket so much that we stopped there to try their sandwiches. For anyone who hasn't been there, Sam and Jack's is on the 3rd floor of the Starfish complex, and they make awesome sandwiches! I brought lunchmeat and cheese with me, but we got sandwiches from Sam and Jack's as often as we could because they were so good. Wish I had one right now!

We did see our pictures on Facebook when we got back home Sunday night. Our's was titled "Rylan's Wild Ride" I believe. Rylan is our son and he had a very fun day. I really hope Shane and Andi do well with Born to Rhumb, they are the type of people that you spend a day with and seem like you have known them for many years. Very personable and sincerely seem to want you to have the best day of your vacation out on the water with them.