Breathtaking St. John from the Seabourn Sojourn

I had never been to St. John, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Truthfully, I knew little about this island off  St. Thomas, which isn’t even big enough to have its own commercial airport. That made me even more intrigued to check it out and I was lucky enough to have a tour guide for the day to help me do that.

Mom and I enjoyed another breakfast on our large balcony on the Seabourn Sojourn before I loaded up on sunblock for this warm day. I was told the tender and the island weren’t very accessible and she decided to use the opportunity to enjoy the ship.

St. John is too small for Seabourn to dock at so we needed to take a tender. At the dock was the Virgin Islands National Park Visitors Center. I was told the draw of this island was the national park, though I could immediately see that it also had some beautiful beaches to go with it.

The tourism board had arranged for a knowledgeable driver, Kenneth, to meet me at the pier. When we entered Virgin Islands National Park, I was a little taken to see a donkey rather than a deer on the road, but I reminded myself this is a national park in the Caribbean, not on mainland U.S.

While the beaches on St. John are public, they are protected and the laws are very strict about what you can bring on the beaches to make sure they are kept clean. We actually stopped to inform some tourists of this and they were very agreeable.

I saw some chairs in the sand and almost asked to spend the rest of the day there, but I knew I only had a few hours to spend on the island and I wanted to see more.

I felt like every beach I saw outdid the last in its beauty. In the end, Trunk Bay, with its underwater snorkeling trail, was my favorite.

Before finishing the tour, we went up on a hill to see a view of all of the U.S. Virgin Islands and then the British Virgin Islands. It was quite spectacular.

I stopped at the Wharfside Village before I went back to the ship to pick up some spices to bring home.

I met Mom for lunch back at the ship. We decided to go up to the Patio Grill and eat outside. We sampled a bit of everything from the buffet, which had Greek as its featured food of the day. We sampled the Chicken Gyros and Greek Salad while taking in the view of St. John.

After lunch, I relaxed on the deck with a decadent Mudslide as we sailed away. Seabourn had a guitarist playing in the background.

I took Mom to the salon to have her hair done and at the salon. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to spend more time in the spa in the Serenity Room. I actually fell asleep for about an hour while relaxing on the warm, pulsating chair.

It was formal night on the ship so we got dressed up and headed to a VIP cocktail party with the Captain in Sojourn’s Grand Salon. We listened to Sophie sing for a while and then headed upstairs for dinner.

We sat with a wide selection of new friends, from Costa Rica and California, and even someone who was from my hometown of Champaign.

We had a special Chef’s Dinner Menu in The Restaurant for this night. Course one was a Carpaccio of Yellow fin Tuna with an herb salad and quail eggs in a Kalamata olive tapenade. It was quite popular and I was happy with my mozzarella and tomato salad.

Next, Mom loved her creamy Lobster Bisque while I was more than satisfied with a great Roasted Tomato Bisque.

After a strawberry sorbet topped with champagne, they brought in a delicious Pecorino Ravioli for both of us.

Mom enjoyed the Baked Cod as her main course, while I went for the Slow Roasted Beef Tenderloin. It was too rare for me, but the waiter was more than happy to take it back and cook it to my liking.

Dessert was a Blueberry Clafoutis Chamomile Crumble and it was quite good.

After dinner, we went to the Grand Salon to watch illusionist Jonathan Neal. He was quite good and I was glad I went down.

I was getting quite used to the Seabourn turndown service, with the drapes to our balcony pulled closed and a tray on the bed with chocolates and the program for the next day.  I was going to miss it, but there was still more to come and Catalina Island in the Dominican Republic was next.