EDITED - PIX!!! Trip Report - Day 1 (August 4, 2012)

[ColumbiaSCTraveler]

**EDITED WITH PICTURES!!!!!**

Better late than never, ay?

This year's trip was August 4 - 16. 4th trip in 4 years. We have always gone in August because of my job. LOVE going in the off season. Less people, and sometimes - if we're lucky - empty beaches!!!

Anyway, here goes.

Usually, our annual STJ trips coincide with my birthday (August 3). This year's trip, however, began the day after my birthday. It's okay, though! We celebrated plenty!

I had a 2:45am wake up call. We live outside of Columbia, SC, and we were flying out of Charleston, SC (a 2 hour drive), thus the 2:45am wake up call for our 6:55am flight.

D (my husband) missed the surface lot parking entrance YET AGAIN this year. Meaning, circling the airport one more time. Sigh. Hopefully next year he'll get it right.

Check in / TSA stuff took FOREVER!!!!! Not sure if they weren't awake or what. We flew AA (not sure we ever want to fly AA again, but that's neither here nor there). The check-in / TSA folks were so slow that these poor Army guys (7 total) missed their flight to TX. I felt so sorry for them.

Luckily, our flight left on time. We were in MIA at 9:15am. Because we woke up so early, it felt like lunch time to us, so we enjoyed (please detect a note of sarcasm) a meal at Wendy's. Our flight left MIA at 10:10am, and it was uneventful, thank goodness. D had the window seat, and the CUTEST family with a darling baby sat in front of us. The baby flirted with D the last half of the trip. Precious baby girl! Looking forward to bringing our child to STJ one day! (No - no child yet. We've only been married a little over 3 years, so we're still being selfish and enjoying our alone time! )





We arrived in STT at 12:45. I enjoyed the THREE rum samples: banana, mango, and the smooth coffee / Kahlua tasting one. YUM!!!!!

What is it with the bathrooms at baggage claim? The line for the women's restroom is always out of control. By the time I got through the line and back to baggage claim, D already had our luggage and was ready to roll! (BTW - I always look at that sign that says there are other restrooms located elsewhere in the airport other than the baggage claim area, but I never jump on that since I figure by the time I get there and back, I would have made it to the front of the line. Is this true? Any airport restroom advice?!? Ha.)

Got in a taxi with quite a few folks. Two couples got off at Sapphire Beach in STT. (If they only knew what they were missing by staying in STT....) The rest of us went to Red Hook.

We made the 2pm ferry! Woot woot! I think we were so giddy that we forgot we needed to buy luggage tags ($2.50/bag) at the ferry ticket line, so D had to go back for those. DOH!! This is only our 4th time. You'd think we'd remember. Oh well. No worries, mon.

That first glance at STJ from Red Hook....


The ferry ride over was ROUGH. I grew up in boats, so I'm used to waves and rough seas, but it was even a bit much for me! My poor husband....oh well. We knew the destination would totally be worth it!



Cruz Bay arrival....



2:25ish, we're at the dock!!!! BACK AGAIN!!!! I can't even describe how it feels once you get on that dock. It's awesome enough when you step off the plane in STT, but man! Setting your feet on the dock just feels like coming home to an awesome friend every year.

While D waited for our luggage, I hung around on the dock so my family and friends at home could hopefully see me on the webcam. Then I ran up to St. John Spice to get my fave - Kiss of the Jumbie. Once I had that, D had the luggage, so off we rolled to St. John Car Rental. LOVE THESE PEOPLE! We use them yearly, and will continue to do so. They remember us, and are just the sweetest folks. They even shared some genips with us this year. YUM!!!! This years jeep = Mango Tango. ORANGE! Loved that, even though our arch rival is Clemson (orange)....GO COCKS!

I digress.

We head over to St. John Ice to load up 8 gallons of water. We ended up refilling these a time or two during our 12 night stay. 75 cents a refill per gallon. Can't beat that with a stick. (I just asked D how much the 8 gallons cost initially, but of course, he can't remember. Sorry. Take our word for it, though - it's worth it to buy and refill from here, even despite the [always insane] parking situation at The Lumberyard.)

We remembered that we completely forgot to pack our bug spray (%&*@!!!!), so we stopped at the Marketplace (Chelsea's) and picked up a few cans for a whopping $9.95/can. OUCH. I also picked up some newspapers (Tradewinds, Avis, etc.) and some chips and a calling card from Starfish.

Then we were off to Sail View!

Mike and Eileen are FANTASTIC folks. They are SUCH wonderful hosts, and their place is AMAZING!!!! It is such a treat to be their guests! Eileen prepared some yummy snacks for us (cheese, crackers, grapes), and we enjoyed our very first dark and stormies EVER. AMAZING! Speaking of amazing....ummmm.....her homemade chocolate chip cookies are TO. DIE. FOR!! Lucky for non-Sail View guests, they are now sold at Skinny Legs. We lost count of how many we ate! DELISH! It was GREAT catching up with Mike and Elieen. Again, amazing, wonderful folks. Can't say enough great things about them!!!!!



So it was about 4pm. We had the best of intentions of going to Skinny's.

Didn't happen.

We showered, D napped, I read, and we crashed at 8:30pm.

And thus ends our first (partial) day on island!

[stjchica]

Yes someone please help with pics! I miss them!
Sounds like a great arrival day..can't wait to hear/see the rest...

[cindygad]

Loving your report! We stayed at Sailview the first two times on St John. I loved her little coffee cakes. We got so excited when we were at Josephine s and she had some for sale there. Cookies at Skinny's yum we will have to make sure we stop and get some in Jan.

Well I am not expert at posting pictures but will tell you what I do. I transfer pictures to photo bucket. Re-size and the copy by IMG the last choice of the 5 on photo bucket and then paste on the reply here. Hope this helps.

Thanks for taking the time to post trip report. It has been so quite on here and I was excited to see your report. We are like you early to rise and in bed by 10 most nights.

[PA Girl]

Better late than never, ay?

D had the window seat, and the CUTEST family with a darling baby sat in front of us. The baby flirted with D the last half of the trip. Precious baby girl! Looking forward to bringing our child to STJ one day! (No - no child yet. We've only been married a little over 3 years, so we're still being selfish and enjoying our alone time! )

I know all about being "selfish"! We honeymooned on STJ in 1995, did a bunch of return trips and then took our then 4.5 mo old in 2006 and every year since. We feel like we had the best of both worlds, years just us and now a trio.

[lprof]

Yes! Thanks for persevering! And for sharing your fun times!

[DonnaM]

Glad you figured it out! I am the least tech savvy person on the planet so i couldnt help. I read through the first few days yesterday but will read the new and improved version.
I took the other route to "just us" trips. Had kids young and now they are both in college. Our own little dream house in STJ will be finished in a couple weeks and we should have another 40 something years to enjoy it! No matter how you do it- it's all good!

[Geddy3]

Thanks for the trip report and pictures. On your question about airport restroom advice, my wife reports it's a very short walk over to the other restrooms by check in and there is never a line.

[mnfun2bme]

Ahhhhhh...... Sounds peaceful already! Thanks for sharing!