Ask anyone of the nearly three-dozen people gathered around tables at Cinnamon Bay Campground’s T’ree Lizards Restaurant their last name and you’ll get the same response.
"Snorkel," they’ll say, some reluctant to give their real last names.
These folks, plus others, have gathered at the campground for multiple weeks during January, some for up to decades. None knew each other until they began camping at Cinnamon Bay, but now all call each other family. No one quite remembers when they began calling themselves the Snorkel family, but all enjoy the company of their ad hoc "relatives."
"It’s like coming home," Jimmy Chen said.
In fact, two couples learned after camping together for several years that they shared the same last name, Hutchinson, and had a cousin in common.
They and all the Snorkel family members share a love of St. John, its natural beauty and the Cinnamon Bay campground staff they’ve come to know and love over the years.
Chen and his wife, Claire, have camped at Cinnamon Bay for 18 years. They head south from their home in Geneseo, N.Y., with all their tents, tarps, stoves and whatever else it takes to make one of the campground’s bare sites home.
Their fellow Snorkel family members hail from Michigan, Vermont, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Hawaii. They keep in touch during the year via a Snorkel family-only website organized by Bud Shuler of Berrien Springs, Mich.
"We come down here because we love St. John, and we enjoy the company," Shuler said.
They’re generous with their camping expertise.
"The first year we came we had no idea. They gave good suggestions," Sue Brunhammer of Lewis, Del., said.
Ranging in age from their 20s to upwards of 70, just about all of the campers opt for bare sites rather than one of the campground’s tents or cottages. The logistics are challenging. When the airlines reduced baggage weight allowances from 70 to 50 pounds per suitcase, the Snorkel family members pared down their stuff to a couple of duffle bags and a cooler on wheels.
"One bowl and one spork each," Ed Kieschnick of Knoxville, Tenn., said, referring to the handy spoon-and-fork-combo utensil.
Of course, no one can bring enough clothes for an extended camping stay, so they deal with dirty laundry in various ways. Some haul it off to Cruz Bay public laundries while others hand wash every day.
And they there are those cool, often cold showers, at the communal campground facilities.
"You’ve got to get your head in first," Claire Chen advised.
When it comes to having fun, the members of the Snorkel family are pros. They spend their days at Cinnamon’s beaches, hiking the hills, playing cards and other games, and hanging out with other snorkel family members.
"These people keep me coming back." Jean Monique of Atlanta said.
