in St. John, VI

December 2010- Iguanas, snorkeling, white sands, clear water & open air taxis.  

6 months preggo & with cold weather on the horizon, we decided on a tropical location for the "Baby Moon." After all, this was the Big Kahuna, the final trip before parenthood. In honor of our soon to be son & the likely chance we were going to name him John after his grandfathers, we figured St. JOHN, USVI was the perfect destination!

We stayed at the Westin Resorts which was perfect because we had our own little kitchen to make meals & chill Brad's alcoholic & my non-alcoholic beverages for Happy Hour. (Oh yeah & if you can remember request Cliff as your cab driver he rocks! And the local Starfish market is the best place to buy all your groceries.) 

The Iguanas were also happy to keep us company whether we were walking to the pool or sitting by it.

During the days we visited all the beaches, Cinnamon Bay, Caneel Bar, Cruz Bay & they were all beautiful. Of course another great way to see the island was underneath the water. We went snorkeling at Loveandgo & Mingo Key. We saw our first Octopus & a HUGE scary Barracuda with TONS of teeth!

Unfortunately there was extremely windy weather the day we chose to go to Trunk Bay & no one was allowed to snorkel, which means we'll just have to go back again one day!

And because we can't resist a few touristy activities we also visited some historic sugar mills like the Annaberg Plantation.

Our new fav mode of transportation...not exactly the safest, but....

Now lets get to the food!

The island is very small, in fact more than half of it is National Park, which is part of the reason we chose it instead of St. Thomas or others, it's the most untouched & has the fewest people. As a result, there are very few places to eat, but we did some research & picked what we think were the best spots!

La Tapa was a sweet sidewalk cafe/restaurant with a contemporary Mediterranean vibe. We noshed on excellent seafood & even had some live music to listen to.

The highlight of our meals was the last night at Asolare, reservations are recommended! It had the most amazing view on the island.

We had the freshest seafood & our waiter literally sang opera at our table, no joke! He wasn't supposed to, it's not that kind of restaurant, but when we asked where he was from (Boston) & he told us he was an Music major, we had no clue he'd offer to demonstrate his singing instead of just telling us about it, hah. This restaurant, although a bit pricey, is a MUST!

This is when I told Brad was actually pregnant & not just fat from all the good food I'd been eating.

I have a sneaking suspicion we'll be back to that sweet little island with it's sweet little town & it's sweet people. Which means, I better get crackin on the next kid!