USVI-On-Line

I woke up first as always, this time around 7 am- late for me- to hear a jeep reving up. I snuck up the front steps to see that battered jeep heading up our steep driveway in a cloud of white smoke, driving a little jerky. Someone had arrived to pick up the jeep, and just like that traces of the night before were gone. Those of you who read what happened last night, we all woke up with lots to say, hearing what each of us had noticed when the woman crashlanded on our driveway. My daughter spent a few minutes with me while we shooed the tropical bird out of the villa(bananaquit?). I made french toast which we ate out on the deck with the beautiful breezes caressing us.

But, no time to dwaddle as this was the day we had booked parasailing- something my oldest had specifically requested to be able to do. This trip was in his honor for graduating from high school and he choose to revisit St. John. We headed down to the Westin and had fun picking out Sapphire Breeze from the hill. It truly is a different point of view to look up at our villa instead of down from it. Kids were excited and we waited on the beach for them. But I am kind of in dismay because the first rider seemed to go up and down in the parasail kind of fast- So I time the other two with my running watch, and each time up and down is 7 minutes. As they come in, I go into the Cruz Bay Watersport office and tell them their trips were pretty short- Lots shorter than the "ten to fifteen minutes" I was told they would do. The manager wasn't there, but when she came back, her response was it wasn't her company who had done the trip. My point was- don't tell us the kids would be up for ten to fifteen minutes if they aren't! Her point was- it wasn't her company so I guess she had just collected the money and couldn't "do" anything about it. I think I was probably a little tired from lack of sleep, but I was also protective of what was supposed to be a "highlight" of my sons. Ultimately, she called the parasailing company- Caribbean parasail from St. Thomas and they claimed that yes, the kids were up at least ten minutes each. So not true! It is impossible to leave the dock and arrive back 35 minutes later and have had each person up ten minutes. Anyway, I took a deep breath and let it go...

Time to relax. An update on my ear- if I held the outside edge out, my ear canal now opened up and I could hear normal. Yes! Today was a day to visit honeymoon beach. The trek was not too far and the beach was PERFECT! Gorgeous view, wide fluffy white sand, and perfect aqua water. I wish we'd gone there earlier. My husband, 15 year old son and daughter went out snorkeling while I sat and had one of those heart to heart talks with my 18 year old. Boy, the water was luminous. I waded in about chest high and we continued talking as we moved around in the water. I could have stayed here forever... Coming back from snorkeling, my husband said the snorkeling was really good over to the east. My son said "Oh, Dad, you weren't supposed to tell her!" I thought that was sweet, since I couldn't snorkel, but I told him that's ok, I had a good time anyway and I'm glad YOU got to have good snorkeling.

We wanted to have lunch again at the Sun Dog Cafe. The food again was great. I had the pig sandwich and my oldest had the Burrito that ate cruz bay. My husband had the caesar salad. My husband said he felt like having some pastry at Morgan's mango- I looked at him blankly for a moment then started laughing.

Last beach visited was Francis, because during our last trip we had seen turtles there. No turtles, but again the snorkelers had a great time. I was left to kind of be by myself and I discovered a pretty cool anemone patch on the rocks just under the water. The little critters would pull back in at the slightest touch and I amused myself greatly. The snorkelers reported seeing a nurse shark and were pleased.

We headed back to our villa, chilled in the pool for a few hours. Tonight was the opening of carnival, so we headed to the dock area. The introduction of everyone was very formal, with the "Honorable this or that" being announced. A cute little kid sang his rap song about how he went to school to get good grades, etc. We sampled a pate which wasn't bad, but headed over to La Tapa for one last dinner. Again, the duck was superb. After, we were back at the villa where people chose to watch a pretty boring video before calling it a night.

LOVE your reports!
We will be at Sapphire Breeze in in just over two weeks and I cant wait. I can not belive the story about the jeep getting turned over in THAT driveway! The women is lucky she was not hurt worse, or that the only thing damaged was her jeep.

starfish,
Excellent report ...hope the kids enjoyed the parasailing regardless of the whole time debacle.
Your unfortunate ear problem reminded me to have my husband get an antibiotic and drops "just in case" for our upcoming Sept. trip; since the last two times he has had the same problem with his ear as you described...so thanks! And thanks also for sharing your St. John time with us....mia

Chris V- If you've seen the driveway before then you know it seems like a miracle she was ok. I hope you are renting a jeep because that would be all that could make it to the villa.

Mia- I am worried now about further beach vacations and if I will always have a problem with my ear. I have had ear canal infections in the past, but NOTHING that bad! On the plane, my ear changed pressure numerous times, but was ok. I still couldn't hear well because of the swelling and fluid for about a week. I went to the doctor the Monday after the weekend we were home and ended up getting another antibiotic because of my incomplete response to the first. I guess the most common ear infection is staph, but its possible I had a superinfection with pseudomonas because the first antibiotic didn't clear it up. Now I am almost finished with the second antibiotic and it is 98% better. I am still a little "stuffy" in my sinuses on that side.

The kids had a great time parasailing. They were a little disappointed that they didn't get "dipped" even though the first group did and they asked to be... Anyway, I tried to express my concern without them knowing because I didn't want it to taint their feelings about their experience. It is best to "let it go" and relax on vacation anyway.

We have 10 in the house so we got the montero and the cherokee. Both with 4 wheel drive.
When my wife flys she put in those little tube things she always has issues with the cabin pressure. They seem to help her a lot.

thanks for the report

Enjoyed your report.
It sounds like fun.

Nice report, hope your son had fun on the parasail. I did it one time and it was a blast. Thanks again.

I agree with your choice of Honeymoon. I love it!!

This is for the great story teller who wrote this WHALE of A TALL TALE!!! I am not talking about your parasailing tale I am talking about your nightmare Jeep TALL TALE! You had enough time to think about what you wanted to write but you did not think of anyone but yourself when you wrote this tale. Posting someone's NAME AND PLACE THEY WORK?!?!?!? Did you ever stop to consider thinking about the woman you wrote this tall tale about, did you forget she may have a father and mother, husband, sister or brother, employer, friends, staff? Do you remember registering to become a member for the forum? I guess not because if you had you would have remembered agreeing to this statement- You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material Sadly no one will be able to read this tall tale and maybe you will think before you write next time and consider how words can affect more then just you!
Yours truely,
St. Pete

Just for the record, I didn't adopt the alias of "St. Pete." I'm sure that Anthony can verify this.

I happen to agree with his ultimate point, but not with the manner in which he chose to express it.

I am an employment lawyer and I know for a fact that employers and prospective employers are fond of doing Google searches on their employees or prospective new hires. I think that all of us on this forum need to be careful about providing negative information about individuals, along with their names. Although we tend to think of our group here on the forum as "family," it's still the internet.

As an aside, if I were to adopt an alias, it wouldn't be St. Pete, it would be King Pete.

WOW!! I've never read an a$$ chewing like this before. I'm sure Starfish did not intend to harm anyone and is a very sweet person. I agree that names should not be for interntet display, but I think she was just telling a story of a very emotional and scarey event in her life and did not mean to harm anyone's reputation.

The "lady" that was behind the wheel, to me, is a much bigger villan than Starfish. She could, and still might, kill herself or someone else. I hope her friends and family give her the help she needs.

But I do see the legal side of this and we should all be careful with our "tall tales".

Cypress girl- thank you for your kind words. Someone else had pointed out the same point in a much kinder tone and several days ago I edited my post and removed the references to who actually did crash in our driveway. However, not sure that matters because now I can't find my post.

I think some people don't want to hear anything negative about St. John. But this did happen and its not a "Tall tale". Again, I could have thought out better how to tell what happened. For those who care, the woman was out of jail the next day so I am not sure if even anything happened to her at all besides one night in jail- even though something much worse could have happened to our villa, family, jeep or to herself. Thanks to all who listened and gave us support.

St.Pete
That was un-called for. why is it always a first time poster that come in here and insults one of our members?
Starfish
it is pretty standard across the internet forums not to post too much personal info. but to be honest with you, I don't see what you posted to be any different than reading a eyewitness account in the local newspaper or seeing it reported on the nightly news. both of which routinely report the name and place of employment of DWI accident drivers. and does anybody here really think that half the Island didn't know about this happening by noon?

Kirk- I was just reporting what happened, however I did delete the woman's first name and reference to where she said she worked last week. So I don't really understand why my post would have been removed totally. I wonder why it is the persons who are "vicitims" are made to feel bad? Thank you also for the kind tone in your post. I couldn't really sleep last night after reading that venomous one.