Our St. John vacation is over, but of course … the great memories linger! We had a great time in the US Virgin Islands!

We were away from an Internet connection for most of the week, so we never got around to blogging about the trip as it was happenning. But, don’t worry … we took notes!

We’ve “backfilled” our weblog with daily updates and pictures from the previous week. We’ve also added tags and compiled an official slideshow from our pictures. As the post-vacation euphoria gives way to another plain, rainy week in February in San Jose, we’ll try to keep the fun flowing until we return to the previously-scheduled wintertime.

The official Photo Set and Slide Show is now available, with only 250 pictures, and abit of commentary on most of them. Enjoy!

To see all 462 pictures from our trip, visit our “USVI” Tag on Flickr.

You might also find some opinions and complimentary stories on the Nashville Martins website.

This is a story right out of a bad sitcom.

For two days, Jocelyn and I struggled to find the right place for her to get her hair braided in an island cornrow with beads. The most convenient place would have been a hair station at Westin, if we hadn’t had to return three times to make different appointments. … Island time is truly a different kind of chronology.

On our third attempt, as we arrived right on schedule, Jadine (the women braiding the hair) seemed oblivious to our presence, or at least didn’t care that she was not going to be ready on time. We waited for about 20 minutes, though, and had a nice conversation with a young girl and her mother, who were also getting braids. They were friendly, even if the hair artist was not. Finally, we gave up and tried once again to make an appointment, securing 1:00 pm the next day.

As we were leaving, Jadine asked to record our room number to hold the appointment. It hadn’t really occurred to me that we needed to be guests, but I instantly made up a room to avoid further disappointment.

“We’re in Room 2121.” … “Oh!” the friendly young lady her mother exclaimed. “We’re right next door to you in 2120!”

Awkward! What were the odds?

On Wednesday, we returned the “date night” babysitting favor for Jenni & Ange, and watched Kiana all day while her parents went for a hike on their own. We had a nice time watching pelicans and playing at Maho Bay during the morning, and then we took everyone home for naps in the afternoon.

Karen, Timmy, and Jocelyn went to the Westin for a little swim, while I supervised the nappers. Kiana woke up first, so the “Super-Ks” had a little quality time together. We were playing a card game on the couch when Kiana reched over to grab a tourist guide book of the island.

“This is a Yosemite book,” she said. It really was a guide book about St. John and the Virgin Islands National Park, but I’m sure it looked just like the one her family uses when they go to Yosemite National Park, too.

The “Date Night Swap” has become quite a tradition between the California Martins and the Martin-Kellers, whether we’re on a luxurious vacation, or just trying to find some couple time in San Jose.

On St. John, Karen and I went out to dinner on Tuesday night at The Stone Terrace, a very nice restaurant with a fantastic view of Cruz Bay and the main harbor. We both had a lime/coconut rum cocktail (very nice) and then enjoyed a fresh seafood dinner. We also spent some time wondering around Cruz Bay, scouting for souvenirs and lounging on the beach hammocks at Gallows Point.

It’s hard to express the energy and cuteness of those words spoken by Felicia, but this may be the phrase that comes to define the entire trip. She’d wake-up every morning and express her priority for the day:

“Beach … Fun!”

On the second day, she woke-up at 6:00 am and repeated the phrase over and over, until we’d come get her out of bed. We didn’t get a lot of sleep the rest of week, either.

She also expanded her vocabulary a lot on the trip, adding lots of names (including “Ja-Ja” for her sister, although she still prefers to use “Sissy”).