USVI-On-Line

We are only 8 or 9 days on the ticker and the forums are WAY too quiet for my needed fix. So how about anyone willing from their last trip to the rock to give us a recent best day, best meal, best beach, best day trip, best happy hour, best anything. Ok, I know it's generic, but I need something to get me through the last 8 days!

Oh and can I please ask for pictures, If available?

Saturday afternoon March 30 we hear Steve Simon practicing for Sunday's Jazz Jam while we sip cocktails at the pool. He is somewhere just below us on the hill and for a good part of the afternoon the sound of solo jazz clarinet drifts up the hill.

Sunday night, March 31. There is a jazz jam at the Beach Bar. The place is hopping. We get drinks and try to find a place to sit. Wait! We have beach chairs in the back of our jeep parked at Conrad Suttons'. After a short walk we are sitting on the beach listening to good jazz and drinking painkillers. In comfort we ignore the envy and relax.

Best lunch on a rainy day at Waterfront Bistro. Duck sliders.

Best early morning snorkel. Trunk Bay. Get in before they start charging admission and get out before 10AM.

Surf & Turf at the Tourist Trap. Fish & pulled pork tacos.

Queen trigger fish at the sand margin beyond the reef at Hawksnest Beach.

I forget where the Spanish lobster was.

Rum punch at the bar in the ferry terminal at Red Hook. Coming and going. Someday I will try the goat water soup.

BillVT That is just what I needed! Omg Amazing thank you! I can see and hear and smell all of it. Wonderful! Thank you so much! Need more!

My most recent trip was to Caneel which might not be as useful for your planning so I will jump back to last summer when my group's favorite beach was Francis:



One of our favorite meals was the curry-nut grouper at Shipwreck Landing:



Our favorite days included a sunset sail on Spitfire:



and a boat day with Copeland Charters:



where we had some of the best snorkeling at Lovango Cay:



and Whistling Cay:



We enjoyed early "Happy Hours" at Waterfront Bistro (we were never in town for actual Happy Hour):



and sunsets from Francis Beach, which was walkable from our villa:



Have a great trip!

Best first night....Headed out to dinner and it was pouring..Ran down to High Tide and took cover. Had some great drinks. Rain cleared enough to proceed to Woody's. It was late by this point. Hubby and I had a little corner table with a late night snack, a few drinks, lighting low and great music playing. We were cozy and happy to be in paradise. Ended the night sitting on the dinghy dock looking at the stars and listening to music coming from The Beach Bar...Sighhhhhh~
Best key lime pie...Morgan's Mango
Best lobster..Morgan's Mango
Best lobster roll & laid back sitting in someone's backyard vibe...Tourist Trap
Best consistently good drinks & view of the ocean..High Tide
(Was going to post pics, but the sites are blocked at work..ugh )

That smile says it all. 'Ahhhh!' time sitting on the ferry to Cruz Bay, with STJ in the distance beckoning.
(Photo is of wife Jackie from last May. We're going over to STJ for our Anniversary, and her 60th.)


Jackie on her floatie at Salomon Beach.


Uncle Joe's BBQ.


Wonderful view from villa Spellbound.

Loving the stories and the fantastic photos... What great memories! Liamsaunt that grouper photo is seriously making my stomach growl!! Yum!

Best sunrise from our deck


Best hike (Drunk Bay)


Best new snorkeling experience (Princess Bay mangrove roots)

Just remember, you asked for it...kidding...here are my Top 10 Favorite STJ Moments collected over five trips to the Rock in no particular order because I wouldn't trade any of them for anything:

(Sorry, no pics handy for me to attach at the moment, but hopefully my words paint a vivid enough image in your mind.)

1) Because we spend so much time counting the days til STJ and there are so many details that need to be done just right on travel day, the first moment is that almost indescribable simultaneous feeling of relief, gratification and anticipation I've felt every time I've boarded the ferry from Red Hook to Cruz Bay knowing STJ and another fantastic week in paradise was only 30 minutes away.

2) Gibney Beach, far left side, early in the morning...the water is so flat you'd swear it was a painting of big puffy white clouds spoiling for a fight with an impossibly blue backdrop. I'm lying face up in about 2 feet of surf drinking an ice cold Presidente (yes, the breakfast of champions!) as my beautiful wife lies on her stomach on the beach with her bare feet crisscrossed in the air as the palm leaves dance above her in a gentle breeze. She's partaking in a guilty vice of her own, deeply engrossed in some chick lit novel when she takes just a moment to look up while turning the page and gives me that "you're an idiot, but you're my idiot" smile.

3) Grooving at The Beach Bar to the melodic tones of the very well endowed lead singer of “The Ish” while watching in amazement as a local carpenter temporarily regained consciousness just long enough to give this unsolicited toast to two newlyweds who were sitting across the bar and had just arrived from getting hitched on Hawksnest Beach. “Hey…yous guys just got married...Con-(hiccup)-gratulations! I was married once…best six months of my life. Try to beat that!”

4) Standing on top of Peace Hill early one morning devouring a Deli Groto Sunshine Daydream breakfast sandwich while having a serious debate in my head as to whether we should spend the rest of the day at Trunk, Jumbie or Gibney beach. Decisions, decisions.

5) My wife and I sitting with three other couples, all in our late 20's, eating ribs fresh off the grill on the deck of our villa that was located way high up on the hill overlooking Chocolate Hole. It was one of the last nights of our vacation, a trip that had started out as a cruise out of Miami that was cancelled the morning of departure due to a boiler room explosion. Somehow the eight of us managed to keep our wits just long enough to jump a flight to St. Thomas that night and secure a villa last second. We felt so lucky to be there, so alive and at the same time, confident that we could handle whatever twists life had in store for us. We spent the rest of the evening sitting around telling stories about how each couple met and eventually wound up getting married, each story funnier than the one before it. One of the couples was already pregnant with their first child and all week long it had been a not so subtle reminder of the inevitabilities that awaited us back home - starting families, mortgages, high pressure jobs, etc. But that night we didn't have a care in the world, nothing was impossible and everything was perfect...until I fell asleep in my chair and my wife and friends decorated me with fruit other crap they could put on me without waking me up.

6) Cramping up something fierce and finally seeing that stone staircase after five hours and 15 pounds of water weight lost while hiking the Reef Bay Trail with a bonus jaunt over to Little Lameshur and back. It's okay to be reminded of your own mortality every once in a while.

7) Midway through a spectacular BVI charter boat day with Captain John Brandi, eating swordfish and conch fritters at the bar of the William Thornton, a floating diner parked in a bite off Norman Island when an attractive woman sheepishly looked at the bartender while pointing at some picture in a book and said, "I want to do that." Next thing I know she's topless lying on the bar about two feet away from us while the bartender strategically adds whip cream to her lady parts and fills her belly button up with Kahlua or some liquor so her boyfriend could lick it all off. After the flesh buffet had been plundered, I looked over at my wife with one of those "how 'bout it" glances and she just shook her head and said, "sorry, you're on a diet."

8. Watching my wife roll her eyes as I sit on a rock about the size of a stool on the tip of Ram Head recreating "The Thinker" pose made famous by Rodin, and thinking how nice it is to be able to take a second to appreciate your life up to this point and ponder the possibilities of what may come from this point forward. It's one of those rare moments in which you are able to actually stop and see the universe for what it is without it being able to see or judge you back.

9) Eating lunch outside at the 8-top table under the big tree at Vie's Snack Shack discussing our mutual love interest (STJ) with total strangers who quickly felt like life long friends over a plate of Garlic Chicken and Johnny Cakes.

10) Snorkeling while towing my son all over Francis Bay and having him nearly rip my arm off every time a huge turtle or ray appeared seemingly out of nowhere below us. With each tug, I could actually feel what it's like to be seven years old again.

Did that give you a fix...it sure did for me. Thanks, that was fun. Good thread.

LynnieGirl wrote:*Sigh* Keep 'em coming! I can't wait to make our own wonderful memories in a few short months. @54b, you could "almost" make this Arky love something about Texas...almost

Probably a good thing then that I didn't include the story about the time I led a TEXAS (Longhorns) - FIGHT chant at the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost

Though, that brings up another fun moment I didn't mention above...it was on Jost Van Dyke, not STJ, but still worthy of mention:

So our STJ Trip in 2010 happened while the World Cup was getting started in South Africa and on this trip, my wife and I had also decided we wanted to spend a whole day and night on Jost at Ivan's Campground instead just a day trip. So we lined it up so that we'd be on Jost the same day the US was playing England in the opening round of the World Cup...well Jost Van Dyke is a British Virgin Island and sure enough, wouldn't you know it, right before kick-off, about 8 guys from England came barreling into Foxy's to watch the match...and when they saw me wearing my US soccer jersey, they went nuts. And for the next 3 hours we gave each other crap and bought rounds of beers for each other and just had an awesome time. The match ended in a 1-1 tie, which was basically a win for the US considering England's comparative soccer prowess...so I really got to rub it in. Anyway, we ended up partying the rest of the day with them and staying for Foxy's famous BBQ dinner before going back over the hill to Ivan's. Fun day.

Thanks all for helping me get my fix! Love it 54b. Especially the

She's partaking in a guilty vice of her own, deeply engrossed in some chick lit novel when she takes just a moment to look up while turning the page and gives me that "you're an idiot, but you're my idiot" smile.

A couple of my favorite memories:

(1) Our first visit on a day trip over from STT two days after getting married. It was my husband's birthday and we planned a day at Trunk but when we got there it was closed because of swells - we asked if we could just take a look and that we did and we just sort of didn't leave having the beautiful beach to ourselves for a good long time, taking pictures of our toes, writing hearts in the sand, sipping rum punch. Later got showered and cleaned up (our lovely lady taxi driver noting to my husband "you clean up nice!") and a beautiful and romantic dinner at the Stone Terrace followed by live music before the ferry back to STT. Ahhh that was the best day ever. When we were young[er] and madly in love!

(2) Years later on Hawksnest. It was the anniversary of 9/11 and a group of lovely local ladies were singing America the Beautiful like the most beautiful gospel choir you have ever heard. Brought tears to our eyes. If I remember it was my husband and I and our then 18 mo old daughter and just those lovely ladies on the beach that day.

(3) Getting up early before everyone else, sipping coffee on the deck, taking in the beautiful view, checking work e-mail. Even though working, it just doesn't seem as bad when you are doing it on St. John.

(4) 40th birthday trip to BVI with Capt Cleve. Watching Foxys vacation videos with him, sipping Painkillers at Soggy, making my own drinks at Sydney's Peace and Love and eating Lobster lunch - definitely best birthday ever!

(5) Next one is yet to come - will fill in sometime between April 26 and May 4!

54b wrote:Probably a good thing then that I didn't include the story about the time I led a TEXAS (Longhorns) - FIGHT chant at the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost

Ha! That would have been fine with me ( ); I've Called The Hogs in Jamaica much to the chagrin of some Lsu fans. We lived in Aggieville for about a year (I could write a book about college life there) and spent a year in Euless so we are no strangers to Tejas.

We are just really happy to be joining the STJ club and can't wait to share it with you guys through our eyes and be newbies no more.

Now 54b, that is a fix! love it!