St. John, United States Virgin Islands 1/3

Traveling the World with Christie Cruise and Travel Masters
Alison Christie

St. John, United States Virgin Islands

The Gang and I left behind the snow storm and headed to warm sunshine and beautiful white beaches, just in the nick of time. We were scheduled to leave out of Charleston, WV Yeager Airport on Thursday, March 5th. The forecast was for 6-12 inches for that Thursday and I was almost certain the flight out of Charleston would be cancelled (especially since our flight was at 7am). On Wednesday, we called American Airlines to change our ticket so that we could pick up the 2nd leg of our flight in Charlotte, NC. So long story short, we rented a car, drove to Charlotte and made it to paradise - St. John - on time, on schedule. And yes, our flight was cancelled out of Charleston, so we made a good call. The Gang was one short time. For any first time readers, The Gang is myself, my older son Alex, younger son Austin, and their best friend Greg Stump.

St. John is one of 3 United States Virgin Islands along with St. Thomas, and St. Croix. We flew into St. Thomas and took a ferry to The Westin Resort on St. John. Once we arrived at the airport in St. Thomas, we checked into the Westin at the airport where they took our bags for us and delivered them to our room a short while later. All we had to do was enjoy the short ferry ride and the welcome tropical rum drink as we departed the ferry at the Westin. I took my own advice on wearing layers while transitioning from cold to hot climate, shed my thin shirt and cardigan for the tank top underneath and enjoyed our ride.

Luscious greenery and blooming flowers everywhere, The Westin didn't disappoint. Our room had a great view of the pool area and a little bit of a the bay. Standard size room, nothing too extravagant but we did have our own coffee maker and Starbucks coffee, something some of the nicer and more expensive hotels don't provide. Go figure...I also loved that you could take as many towels as you wanted from the pool attendant, no questions asked. I like to put one behind my head as a pillow. We could also claim a beach umbrella and chairs with no additional charge and take our pool towels with us. Thanks, Westin, you stepped it up a bit in my eyes.

Since our trip was only a week, we needed to peruse all of the material on things to do while in the Virgin Islands and we narrowed it down to our "short" list. We wanted to take a big boat to Virgin Gorda to The Baths. We wanted to go snorkeling several different times. We wanted some beach action, a little Frisbee fun and we wanted to explore the island of St. John. We also wanted to enjoy the town of Cruz Bay and eat some delicious seafood. As we ticked off the list of things to do on our list, every day seemed even more fun than the last.

Our first day was spent on the beach at The Westin. We slathered on sunscreen and me in my hat and enjoyed relaxing, reading and thinking about the snow back home with a smile on our face. That we were here and not there. I'm sorry, that was bitchy. The following day, we took the boat excursion to Virgin Gorda and its renowned Baths (the Batholiths being a rare geological phenomenon where the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates converged over time to create these large exposed granite boulders). We strolled through, swam through and slipped through most of these huge rocks on our trek from one end to the other. Alex and Greg also took and adventurous route, climbing over the granite boulders rather than through them and arrived at the end just shortly after me, elaborating to me how cool it was to be on top of the rocks. But, who would be the "pack mule" and carry the bag and all our flip flops? Me, of course. But that's what Moms do. Lunch was at a restaurant called "Top of the Baths", named so because it was, well...at the top of the Baths. We had to pre-order our lunch on the boat that took us to Virgin Gorda, which had basic fare such as hamburgers, grilled chicken and different salads. This did save us quite a bit of time so that we could get back on the boat and head to Norman Island, where we were going to snorkel. This part of the island had 3 caves that one could swim in while snorkeling. Alex and Greg swam in one of the caves about 70 feet until the cave and water became pitch dark. That didn't sound all that fun to me, snorkeling in the pitch black and cold ocean water, so I opted to do the smaller cave and hang out on the coral reefs looking for sea turtles and another glimpse of the squid that I saw just after getting in the water. This excursion was well worth the cost of $200.00 per person, plus the tip for the Captain and First mate. Tip #1 (for the women): My scarf came in very handy this trip, tripling as a bath suit cover up, a wrap for my neck and chest to protect if from the sun on the boat ride, and then at the restaurant, as a cool and stylish headband, after we hair from swimming at the Baths. The secret is finding the perfect size, lightweight scarf that can handle the important mission of sun protection, modesty, and saving myself from a really bad hair day. If you have to choose between packing another pair of shoes with the added stress of potentially having your bag overweight, always, always, always, opt for the scarf. It has saved me many a times.