951 days since my last visit to STJ
Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 5:13 pm
Sounds like a confession, doesn't it? Well it is the truth. When we left STJ in Oct 2013 we had no intention of staying away so long but life happens.
I was laid off from my job of 29 years in April 2014 so that kind of resets your life playbook.
Got a new job in Jan 2015 but when you start all over you suddenly don't have the time to plan multiple vacations a year. We also had to allow ourselves some time to readjust to a new financial picture. Still not sure we have done that
We knew there would be no big vacations in 2015 so we set our sights on 2016. We arrived on island 5/21/2016.
The villa was Coconuts. The first repeat for us. And we loved it, again. The last time we shared it with friends and I do think it was a lot of house for just the 2 of us but we love the location.
Kevin, forum member, and his wife are great to work with. They were flexible with our change of plans as we eventually decided to stay at Caneel for 2 nights at the end of our trip. We had initially booked the villa for 9 nights. So we ended up at Coconuts from Sat to Sat. I'm sure they had no problem renting the next week and our extra nights didn't break up a week for them. Everyone satisfied.
The 6 months leading up to this trip has been filled with a lot of stressful days as we are both helping care for elderly parents. My mom 92, his dad 87. It was always in the back of my mind that something could prevent this trip from happening. So when I was in the ER with mom on the Wednesday before we left I thought, I just don't know if I am meant to return to this place. But mom is ok and we squeaked outta town Friday night and heading to Philly airport hotel.
This trip was our celebration of our 50/10/50 year. He was 50 in Jan, we are married 10 years in Sept, I am 50 in October. So we splurged. Starting with First Class flights. Worth every penny. Or should I say pennies!!!!!!!!!!!
To tell you what we did every day would bore people to tears. This trip was about rest, relaxation and reconnection. We did what we wanted when we wanted. We needed to rejuvenate.
Not much changes in 951 days. A few new restaurants, none of which we tried come to think of it. We stuck to the old favorites. The weather was, in a word, meh. There was a lot of haze and cloud cover but that didn't bother us. It actually felt a little less humid on this visit, which gets a big thumbs up from me! Not as many perfectly blue sky days as normal but that was ok.
When you are away for a while maybe you appreciate just being there more. I don't know. But I could find little to complain about.
We will return but we really don't know when and this time I am ok with that. With a limit on our time I feel we need to spread our wings and visit other places.
I was laid off from my job of 29 years in April 2014 so that kind of resets your life playbook.
Got a new job in Jan 2015 but when you start all over you suddenly don't have the time to plan multiple vacations a year. We also had to allow ourselves some time to readjust to a new financial picture. Still not sure we have done that

We knew there would be no big vacations in 2015 so we set our sights on 2016. We arrived on island 5/21/2016.
The villa was Coconuts. The first repeat for us. And we loved it, again. The last time we shared it with friends and I do think it was a lot of house for just the 2 of us but we love the location.
Kevin, forum member, and his wife are great to work with. They were flexible with our change of plans as we eventually decided to stay at Caneel for 2 nights at the end of our trip. We had initially booked the villa for 9 nights. So we ended up at Coconuts from Sat to Sat. I'm sure they had no problem renting the next week and our extra nights didn't break up a week for them. Everyone satisfied.
The 6 months leading up to this trip has been filled with a lot of stressful days as we are both helping care for elderly parents. My mom 92, his dad 87. It was always in the back of my mind that something could prevent this trip from happening. So when I was in the ER with mom on the Wednesday before we left I thought, I just don't know if I am meant to return to this place. But mom is ok and we squeaked outta town Friday night and heading to Philly airport hotel.
This trip was our celebration of our 50/10/50 year. He was 50 in Jan, we are married 10 years in Sept, I am 50 in October. So we splurged. Starting with First Class flights. Worth every penny. Or should I say pennies!!!!!!!!!!!
To tell you what we did every day would bore people to tears. This trip was about rest, relaxation and reconnection. We did what we wanted when we wanted. We needed to rejuvenate.
Not much changes in 951 days. A few new restaurants, none of which we tried come to think of it. We stuck to the old favorites. The weather was, in a word, meh. There was a lot of haze and cloud cover but that didn't bother us. It actually felt a little less humid on this visit, which gets a big thumbs up from me! Not as many perfectly blue sky days as normal but that was ok.
When you are away for a while maybe you appreciate just being there more. I don't know. But I could find little to complain about.
We will return but we really don't know when and this time I am ok with that. With a limit on our time I feel we need to spread our wings and visit other places.