Thoughts on St. John

Always at the end of our journeys, Dave and I usually sum up what we liked, what we didn't like, and our overall thoughts of both the destination and the vaca as in what we did or didn't do so here are some of those thoughts.
St. John is beautiful and has several nice beaches and some of the best snorkeling right from those beaches. We were happy that we got to see so much in the water especially for some of our first time sightings. The huge tarpon, the eels, squids and octopus were some of our favorites.
We found it strange that STJ doesn't seem to have any type of local cuisine. Even the fact that it is in the Caribbean didn't really lend it to what one thinks of with all that fish and conch and stuff. That's not to say that we didn't eat well and I did find some good conch fritters at High Tide Grill but even at the restaurants they admitted that their fish is not freshly caught. There is no commercial fishing providing fresh fish to the restaurants and there are only a few locals that you can see selling their catch by the pier. Considering all this, we did get to try some great simple Italian, a nice rib eye, amazing Pad Thai and of course our wonderful four course private meal featuring filet and rock lobster tails. So all in all, food still ranked as pretty good.
One of our least favorite things ended up being the driving. Dave did all of the driving but even as a passenger it became a bit weary sometimes. They drive on the left which was never a problem for Dave as he has driven on the left before and I think he was only on the right side of the road twice so, not bad. The problem is that the island, being a volcano, is quite hilly and the roads are built straight up and then hard left up another hill and just then opposite on the way back. It was quite an adventure for the first couple of times but when you just want to get some where, it is less exciting then.
Probably the only other drawback about the island is that it is expensive. We traveled in what it is the off season mostly because of weather(hurricanes) so our villa price and jeep rental was quite a bit less and I'm not sure if I would have liked paying full price for those things. Groceries and restaurants were also expensive. We get that they have to ship most things in but we've been on other islands before and it seems that especially with the restaurants the meals were priced way more than what we've experienced on other islands.
The best thing about this vacation is the instant and constant relaxation that we felt during our stay. Whether hanging out at our villa or on one of the many gorgeous beaches with our most difficult decision being when to have our next beer, we couldn't have had it any easier. I had thought we would do one or two day trips to the British Virgin Islands and I loosely had plans to do so but when one of those didn't pan out I just scrapped the ideas.
In the end we were happy just to stay on island, relax and reflect a bit on the last thirty years of our lives together.
Now here's looking to the next thirty and beyond.......