Most missed guilty pleasure....

Personally...snowboarding the Rocky Mountains in winter, customer service, Target, fresh water streams, beer on tap.

Noah

no tap beer... i had no idea!

I guess on STT they have tap beer...on StX it's only the Brew Pub that brews their beer on site. It's disgusting, I couldn't even stomach one beer. Kegs are too heavy to ship down....so...bottled beer it is!

Noah

I miss ethnic foods. We have no Indian food, no Thai, no good Chinese or Japanese. No good Mexican.

I miss bookstores. No B. Dalton or Borders or Barnes&Noble. Thank goodness for Amazon but it's not the same.

24 hour Walmart supercenter..don't really miss the long hot showers because by the end of the night I am so hot and sticky a cold shower feels good!

good point about the showers.... i may be able to make it after all!

I started out listing things like chain restaurants, like Olive Garden, Taco Bell, blah, blah. There are even a few advertised on TV that I've never heard of, then I thought of shopping, where you can find whatever you want, 24 hours a day, on to upscale supermarkets, with misters, Starbucks, olive bars (yes, that's what I said), florists, pharmacies, to die for delis and bakeries, all in house. Decided none of that was important enough to mention. (Maybe inexpensive fresh produce!)

It's all different for each person. Depends on your age and interests. You can get whatever you need here for day to day living. If you can't find it in a local store, you can always order it, but the best choice is probably to try a local alternative. We don't have The Gap, but we have Kmart. We don't have Old Navy, but we have Kmart, We don't have real malls, but we have TuTu and Sunny Isle, anchored by .....Kmart! This is obviously a little tongue 'n cheek, but if you are thinking of making a permanent move, you need to be willing to adapt to what we have.

Seriously, .....medical facilities/specialists, affordable (hahaha) health insurance. You can't get a dentist appointment on STX for 6 months unless you are related to the dentist,.

Krispy Kreme, Stavro's pizza...no, wait...that's not important!

well i haven't been to a Kmart in years... and i think i'll wait till i get there (don't want to ruin the fun).
So what you're saying is i should find a dentist with a unmarried son in his mid-20's... 😉

A really good library.

Barnes and Nobel
Family
My doctor and dentist

Let me try a few possible longings.... but from someone who hasn't even moved there yet!:
- 4 seasons (but mild... north carolina-ish)
- skiing, sledding, ice skating
- 24 hour/day air conditioning
- bike trails
- visits by family (already mentioned)
- hospitals (already mentioned)
- Home Depot (on STX... I know... soon come)
- monuments, museums, zoos... big city things
- 800 (it seems) channels of digital TV
- true high speed internet
- circuit city, frys, best buy
- lack of scorpions, centipedes and tarantulas
- long summer days (staying light until 9:00 PM)
- hot tubs on a cool night

But, you know... for everything in the list above... I can think of a negative that goes along with it. And, for every negative in every area that I've lived, I can find an accompanying positive...

Kristy, enjoy your adventure... tell us how long you manage to avoid the Kmart! And, BTW, I've heard that you haven't lived until you try the fish and coconuts.

guilty pleasure? Burger King and a really good high end department store to walk through

I miss Samuel Smith Oatmeal stout, in season fresh veggies and fruit especially corn and blueberries, Maine lobster and clams, and lilacs. Oh and a good coffee shop that's open in the afternoon.

Taylor Ham/Pork roll, Motorcycle, and a Cashier at K Mart that has a smile on their face!

The easiest way for me to describe the guilty pleasures I miss here, after decades of VI living, is to list the things I want when I take vacation to the States in no particular order of priority :
Visit family
Donuts, clams on the half shell, cold water seafood
using 4th or 5th! gear in my car
museums, concerts, galleries
big city shopping
big, clean, well stocked supermarkets
a variety of restaurants
full service medical facilities
Autumn colors
professional sports events

I have to say I am really glad to get back home to the VI afterwards though after 4-8 weeks of traveling and have never missed the guilty pleasures enough to consider a move back to the 'Big Island'

Oh man...so many things to mention. And I would love to take the high road and say all that ..."but as long as I have my sunsets and a view of the water," line that so many use. But that just wouldn't be me.

What I miss...

- Being able to get whatever I might want 24 hours a day. I keep a weird schedule here with my job and sometimes I get a wild idea at 2 in the morning. But alas an idea it must remain.

- More people with accents like my own. I don't mean that to be rude, but I often find myself just smiling and nodding at a local who asks me a question, cause I have no idea what they just said. And when I ask them to repeat it, it's spoken in the EXACT same inflection and words as the last time I didn't get it. Urrgh.

- Target! Best Buy! A nice grocery store! Chinese Buffets! Flaming Amy's (this is specific to Wilmington, NC)! Friends that are available and want to do something. Finding something new to do every once and a while! Apartments and homes that make you feel as though you're actually indoors! Rent prices that actually make sense for what you're getting. Jobs that have health insurance. I have had three gigs here and no insurance yet. Ridiculous.

- Being able to make a change when you believe something should be changed. I knew it was going to be like this coming here, because I lived on another island that was the same way before STT, but that makes it no less disappointing.

- Being within driving distance to family and friends. I have a ton of cousins that are growing older everyday and it's a shame to know I am missing that.

- Decent roads that are wide enough to accommodate vehicles and the various joggers/bikers without one or more parties being worried all the time. And shortcuts. Sometimes I get so tired of driving on the same old roads, but there's no alternative.

- The ability to drive to a big town when the small town lifestyle is getting on your nerves.

- A large enough parking lot wherever I go.

- Everything being cheaper, no matter what it is.

- Being outside and not sweating.

That's all I can think of (I know what you're thinking, 'that's all, you listed it all.')

Sorry, just went back to the states last week for vacation and I know a lot of people go there and reaffirm why they came here, but my trip just left me with a, "I miss this," feeling.

I miss Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, I highly doubt i'm the only one that wants to do a u-turn when you see that red light flashing, lol.
I also miss Barnes and Noble, and Golden Corral, ( I use to live in Atlanta, lol)

I lived in Atlanta for a little over two years. Wouldn't mind a Piedmont Park here How about you cruzkandy?

Hockey. The NHL left ESPN2 for Versus. We get Versus on our cable, but all the hockey games are blacked out.

Oh Piedmont Park, how could I forget, lol. A nice place just to hang out in the spring and summer. Picnics, a nice walking/jogging path... etc. I also miss Centennial Olympic Park, I love the fountain of rings, running through it makes you feel like a kid again, lol. Oh and the live music, just bring a blanket and sit and enjoy.

Hockey. The NHL left ESPN2 for Versus. We get Versus on our cable, but all the hockey games are blacked out.

that must suck. since working in a sports bar i have come to realize just how loyal hockey fans are... so i can appreciate your situation.

Things I miss, Family!!!, reasonable prices & a good movie theater. The rest I really don't miss that much, but I look forward to when I go home, like shopping and food. But when I lived stateside going to the mall was torture and while the customer service is generally much better stateside the general public is not usually as friendly or nice as they are here. Try walking around the mall stateside and saying good morning to people and see how many actually answer you or just give you a funny look and hurry by. I have a hard time turning if off when I go back to visit family.

Hockey. The NHL left ESPN2 for Versus. We get Versus on our cable, but all the hockey games are blacked out.

Sign up for NHL Center Ice. You can get it on satellite and now over the internet.

Kristy, jefgar,

I was going to bring up hockey, but I figured there weren't that many of us hockey fans. Damn ESPN... they won't even hardly talk about hockey. Our daughter (yes, our daughter) plays ice hockey at the college level. We've fallen in love with it in the last 8 years. Especially since our home team is the Washington Caps with OV, Semin, the Green Machine, Boudreaus and more. I coached inline hockey when my daughter was younger... should we start a league on the island!?!?!? Hey, if a Virginia girl can make it onto a college level team, you never know what these USVI kids could do... granted, ice hockey might be a harder sell in USVI.