On 2/27/2000, my wife and I traveled to Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands where we met some old friends from Chicago.

We stayed at the Emerald Beach Best Western, on Lindberg bay near King airport. Our room did not have cooking facilities or a microwave, but did have a refrigerator.

I am the only Celiac in the group. I brought with me a few packages of Quaker instant grits, 6 corn muffins, a dozen GF cookies and my CSA Restaurant card. I also brought along some pouches of muffin mix that I planned to cook in a microwave oven in either my hotel room or in the lobby at Breakfast.

I expected to find GF bread in one of the health food stores in Charlotte Amalie, and a microwave oven in our hotel. Neither happened.

The hotel provides a free continental breakfast, consisting of self-serve juice, coffee, milk and canned fruit. Gluten items for the others included single serving packages of Kellogg's cereals, English muffins and pastries. The regular breakfast menu was also available to order, but I stuck to the complimentary items and supplemented them with my grits and some Quaker Cocoa Blasts which I found at Pueblo.

We spent a lot of time on the beach, and bought groceries at Pueblo for making five of our seven lunches to eat on the beach. Pueblo had everything I needed. I bought Baja White Corn tortilla shells for making my sandwiches, and filled them with Oscar Mayer cold cuts and chunks of store brand cheddar and mountain jack cheese that we sliced ourselves. Planter's nuts and Frito-Lay snacks finished off the meal. That saved us some bucks, but we were mostly concerned out my GF needs and our convenience.

We ate out every evening. I showed my Celiac Restaurant card almost every time, and always received my order with no obvious problems. I had no gluten reaction at all during the entire week.

I found two health food stores, and the phone book listed several more. They both had DeBole's pasta, Hain's and Mother's rice cakes, Ancient Harvest Quinoa, Fearn mixes, bags of puffed rice, and Arrowhead mills rice flour, soy flour and pancake mix. I did not check prices because our suitcases were full and my chief concern was availabilty (expect to pay more). I could not find any frozen prepared bread or rolls. I bought a package of Pamela's Biscotti, but could not find any other GF prepared desserts. If we had been staying at a condo or a room with a kitchenette, I could have gotten by quite nicely with the items available at these health food stores. The health food stores I found are

• Natural Food Grocery & Deli, located southwest of the Pueblo near highways 30 and 33, just west of Charlotte Amalie.
• Health Food & Deli, located just west of the tram right by the big ship docks at Havensight. There is a Wendy's nearby, but we did not go inside.

Specific restaurants and entrees I ordered are:

• Although I didn't special order it, United Airlines standard offering for everyone on our flight there (leaving from Dulles) was an omelet with a link sausage and fresh fruit. I also couldn't special-order a GF meal for the return flight, but the vegeterian meal someone else ordered looked like it would have been safe for me if I threw away the wrapped biscuit. I will probably select vegetarian next time if GF is not offered. The standard meal on this return flight was beef and was almost completely gluten-laced, but that was OK because I brought a tortilla sandwich I made from our remaining lunch items.
• I had a ribeye steak, baked potato and broccoli at the Hard Rock Cafe on the waterfront in Charlotte Amalie.
• I had a delicious grilled tuna, baked potato and sauteed vegetables at Hook Line and Sinker in Frenchtown, but had to drool while the others at my table enjoyed what was described as the best cheesecake and key lime pie they have ever tasted. We went back for lunch later in the week and I had grilled chicken and mashed potatoes while watching a large Iguana meander across the dock. I spoke with owner/chef Ted before our first visit.
• I had New York Strip steak, steamed vegetables and raw fries at The Green House on the waterfront. This is a very lively, loud restaurant with a DJ, and a fun place to go. It gets busy. We went back later in the week and I had a hamburger patty and raw fries while the others had pizza.
• We took the car ferry from Red Hook to Cruz Bay, St. John. After seeing nearly every tree on St. John, we stopped for a few hours at Trunk Bay. This is a neat beach! I ordered a hamburger patty and french fries at the Trunk Bay concession stand there! They said they have two fryers, and only cook potatoes in one of them!
• I ordered grilled chicken, sauteed vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes at Alexander's in Frenchtown (near Hook Line and Sinker).
• Cuzzin's, just off Main in downtown Charlotte Amalie served me a ribeye, mashed potatoes, lettuce & tomato for lunch.
• We had $1 sundaes at McDonald's in Frenchtown twice.
• The Inn at Blackbeard's Castle went out of their way to ensure that my needs were met, sending out the chef to speak with me. Our Chicago friends were impressed by the service. I had a salad with specially-prepared cider dressing and grilled chicken risotti (rice) with specially-prepared tomato sauce. This restaurant has an excelllent view of the harbor and is pricey.
• The Golden Dragon (between Holiday Inn and Hard Rock Cafe, on the waterfront), is one of the best bargains on the island. I spoke with the owner when I ordered Cashew Chicken with white sauce and steamed rice. Although there were tables to seat about 50, we four and one other man were the only ones to eat in the restaurant. The staff was constantly busy taking orders and packing takeout food the entire time we were there. Our check for two including sodas was only $15.25. Portions were so large we had a difficult time containing our laughs. My meal was enough food to serve two people. Unfortunately, half of it went in the garbage because we were returning home the next morning. We should have gone there early in the week.

At nearly every restaurant, I had two or more entree choices which probably would have been OK.