15/06/2023
Visiting St John, USVI? Our guidebook offers you a experience full of excitement and places to visit. It takes visitors on a special tour of the island with lots of information about the culture and history behind this special place that we love.
A little bit about us, our “Love Affair” with St. John and the start of our unique guidebook…
Randy’s first visit to the Virgin Islands was in 1966 as a naval officer aboard the amphibious transport ship USS Wakiakum
County (LST 1162). It was an unforgettable experience, which marked the beginning of a life-long love affair with these islands. After military service and graduate school, Randy returned to the islands and assumed a teaching position at the All-Saints Episcopal School on St. Thomas, where he taught a class in Caribbean history. Teaching this class helped spark his own lasting interest in the history, culture, and people of the Virgin Islands. During the 1970s, Randy returned to the states and worked at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where he spent many hours of his free time thumbing through the library’s extensive collection of books about the history of the Virgin Islands. This led to writing a series of guidebooks, beginning with the publication of the first edition of St. John On Foot and By Car in 1974. It was during this time that Randy and Becky met, and shortly after, they eloped to the Virgin Islands where they were married at the Frederick Lutheran Church on St. Thomas. After honeymooning on St. John and touring the islands, they returned to Washington D.C. to pursue their careers. Two children later, they were back in the islands, and Randy worked at the Caneel Bay Plantation Resort for several years. Today the authors currently live between their St John home on Fish Bay, and in Connecticut, where their three children and three grandchildren reside. We hope our readers find this latest edition informative and useful and that perhaps, in some small way, it helps make a wonderful visit to St. John even more enjoyable.
