Do you have any fun weekend plans?

I just made a reservation for this Saturday night at La Plancha del Mar on St John to watch “Coming to America.” One of the things that we don’t have on St John is a movie theater and I miss seeing movies on a big screen. Eric and I are movie junkies; we watch at least 5 movies a week. So, we where really excited to hear that La Plancha del Mar offers a dinner and movie on Saturday nights.

I’m also hoping to get to the beach if the hurricane that’s out there doesn’t hit us. St John is in its ‘off season’ now and the beaches are empty. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The Hidden Reef Eco-Tours is a must do while on St John. We went on a guided kayaking and snorkeling adventure on the East End of St John out of Haul Over Bay. My favorite part of the adventure was kayaking as our guide, Jen, talked about the flora along the shoreline. It really made me see the island in a new way.

I’m not a huge fan of snorkeling but this tour was by far the best snorkeling I’ve seen on St John. A lady in our group actually said the snorkeling that we did that day with Hidden Reef Eco-Tours was better then what she had seen when she snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef. Here a few photographs of what we saw while snorkeling.

We had such a great time sailing and watching the sunset on Sail Pepper. I highly recommend this experience to anyone vacationing on St John, we’re looking forward to doing it again.

Captain Fred was kind enough to drop us off on our beach, thank you!!!

Visit Sail Pepper online at sailpepper.com.

More sunset photos of St John HERE.

Francis Bay Walking Trail

I love walking; it helps clear my head and relaxes me. When I was young my mother and I would always go for a long walk and talk about life on the old railroad bed in front of our house. These days my walks have been along the Francis Bay Trail.

The Francis Bay Trail on St John is a fabulous little walk that only takes about 15 minutes and is less than half a mile. My favorite section of the walk is the boardwalk that starts at Francis Bay Beach Parking lot and is right in front of the salt pond. The National Park put the boardwalk in to make the slat pond wheel chair accessible. The salt pond is an amazing little spot for bird watching. The National Park is offering a guided tour  by a Park Ranger this Friday. The event is called “Discover Bird Watching” and will be looking at the different species of birds found in the dry tropical forest, salt pond, and along the ocean shoreline. Please call the National Park Office for details at 340 776 6201.

The Francis Bay Trail also has some great ruins that are easy to access, click HERE to see photos of the Francis Bay Ruins.

St John truly has a lot to offer for anyone interested in exploring the outdoors or relaxing submerged in nature's beauty. My favorite guide for doing this is a book called “St John: Feet, Fins and Four Wheel Drive” by Pam Gaffin. The book is written in a way that anyone that visits St John will find it useful (like the title suggests.) I have been referring to this book for the last 4 years and find it not only helpful but enjoyable to read. You can pick up a copy of it at the Virgin Island National Park Building in Cruz Bay, on Amazon, or by contacting the publisher on Ms. Gaffin’s site.

I recently discovered that Pam Gaffin has a website, click HERE, and offers custom tours of St. John. How amazing is that? The next time I have visitors on St John I’m going to contact Ms. Gaffin and get a tour of my little island by the expert.