I thought you might like some ideas about where to go on your next vacation. To the left is a photo of the place where we stayed on St. John's, "Acqua Blu." From this angle you can't see the swimming pool, or our wing, with its private porch and outdoor shower, which is pictured below. (We also had an indoor concrete Japanese tub, and an agreement that no one was to acknowledge any shower sitings - no apologies, no excuse me's, no nothing, just run the other way.) In front of me is a small bay, too rocky for snorkeling, but nice to look at.

Here we are in front of Trunk Bay, where Joe's new wife and her parent's stayed in a cottage right on the beach and where we went to snorkel and watch a wedding. The sea turtles feed in this bay at about 5. While kayaking the night before the wedding, I saw 3. Curious and excited, I paddled toward them, before getting nervous that one might decide to surface right below the kayak and tip me, so I observed from about6 feet away.



Should you decide to get married on the beach, you can have lots of romantic pictures taken by all your guests and a professional photographer who tells you to dance in the sunset. (I got the feeling she had choreographed this scene more than once.)

Not one of the 6 dresses I bought (and took back) pleased me, so I again took advantage of neighbor Claudine's endless closet to borrow the dress pictured here. At the last minute, I bought my husband the beach wedding uniform for men: linen trousers in stone, white shirt, preferably with tropical detailing.

Note for your future vacation to the Virgin Islands: Sunsets make you look tan. Places like St. John's make you want to take a lot of pictures of yourself in front of scenic views.When we got home, we discovered some pirates had followed us from the Caribbean. Despite all of Nana's hard work during the week, keeping her charges under control, chaos resumed when these characters showed up: