St. Thomas & St. John USVI (May 28-June 7, 2021) - Part 1

St. Thomas USVI - Part 1 

First, the back story:  

My BIG five O birthday is coming up this fall.  I got to chose where to go an a "big" trip this year.  I had originally planned on going to Finland sometime in August (can't go over my real birthday in September because of kids school).   But, since we are still in the middle of a global pandemic and we were not sure if Europe would be open to tourist we decided that we would try a different location and go to Finland in a few years.  We decided on the USVI.  I've been to St. Thomas on a cruise and always wanted to go back.  We decided USVI would be the perfect trip since it doesn't even require a passport.  We settled on May/June so that we could miss hurricane season.  4 negative covid tests later.....we were on our way.

Day 1 - Friday, May 28   -  Travel day 

We had an early flight from DEN at 7 am which meant that we were at the airport by 5 am. No one slept much the night before so we had super tired kids (and parents).  3 hour flight to Atlanta then a brief layover and a 3 hour flight from Atlanta to St. Thomas.   We arrived in St. Thomas at 5:20 pm to overcast skies and wind.  We had pre booked a rental car but when we arrived at the airport the rental car agency was closed for the day.  So, we ended up having to take a taxi across the island to our resort called Margaritaville (Wyndham property).  The roads in St. Thomas are steep and curvy and they drive on the opposite side of the road.  It was a very interesting (slightly scary) taxi ride.  We saw lots of properties that still had hurricane damage (from 2017 ).  Lots of trash and unkempt buildings.  Definitely different from our trips to Hawaii.   Elin said to me "I don't like it here".  I told her to give it a day.   Then..... we pull into our resort with a tree lined driveway and lush landscaping.....

and she perks right up and says "well, maybe this is ok".    

We checked in, dropped our bags in the room and headed to Shoreline for dinner.  Our room for the next week looked like this.  We had an upper level condo near the hilltop pool.   

After dinner we had a quick swim in the hilltop pool then straight to bed.  Everyone was beyond tired.

Day 2 - Saturday, May 29 - Pool, beach, pool and Red Hook

Before I start on what we did for the day....the rental car....we called the rental car agency when we got up and they tried to tell us that we didn't pick up the car, so they rented it to someone else.  Actually they were not open for us to rent the car even though they knew we were getting in at 5:20 pm.  So, how can we rent it if they are closed?  The lady was going to "look into it and call us back" . Ya, right...that never happened.  We came to find out that it is very common in St. Thomas for rental agency to give cars away. Reservations guarantee nothing.  We had decided after the taxi ride over that maybe not having a car was actually better. Taxis could take us anywhere we wanted to go.  In the end, it actually saved us money (about $400) and it forced us to relax.  But, because we didn't have a car, we didn't end up seeing as much of the island as we would have liked.

The girls woke up on the first day of our vacation READY to go. We let them decided what to do first.  They chose the main pool by the beach.

We saw an iguana

and had our first Pina Coladas (called Princess Marigold at the resort).

then spent a few hours relaxing and swimming. 

We went to the beach in front of the resort to collect shells

and had lunch in our swimsuits at the resort restaurant called Landsharks.  We had a cheeseburger in paradise.

This was the view for lunch.  Just amazing.

After a little relaxation time in our room and quick snorkel practice in the hilltop pool, we headed to Coki Beach which was a 5 minute walk from the resort.  We had fun playing in the water and snorkeling.  This was the girls first time snorkeling and they did great.  

As we were walking back to our resort we came across a caribbean dancing show that had just started at the main pool. So the kids jumped in the pool and watched the show.

They even had a moko jumbie!  This show was the highlight of the day for the girls.

We had a quick shower then headed back out for dinner in Red Hook (pizza) and grocery shopping. We like to keep breakfast foods, snacks and some lunch foods in our condo.

Not a bad first day of vacation.  They both decided that they DO like it there.

Day 3 - Sunday, May 30 - Pool time.....all day.......

First thing in the morning we decided to start the day at the hilltop pool.

The girls really wanted to have pina coladas at the swim up bar....so we did.

and right after we took these pictures a HUGE rainstorm came rolling in fast and we got drenched.  Well, as drenched as you can get when you are already wet and swimming in the pool.  They kept singing "if you like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain".  They thought it was sooooo funny.  The storm blew over in 5 minutes.

At lunchtime we went back to the condo and had sandwiches then the girls and I went to look at the resort gift shop (not much to see).

In the late afternoon we went back to the main pool for more swimming.  

We ordered take out from Landsharks and had dinner by the pool.   

And just because we had NOT had enough pool time, before going to bed we went back to the hilltop pool for a little bit.  I figured that we had 6 + hours of pool time that day.  Phew!  Girls called it the best vacation day ever.  James and I enjoyed relaxing.

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