St. John Vacation - Day 11

Our last day of vacation started early, 7:30AM.

Our alarm went off and we hopped up and started packing and tidying.

D had washed all the muddy evidence of off-roading off the jeep the evening before, so it was all house stuff.

Laundry, dishes, packing, putting stuff  away etc.

We filled the bananquits sugar water one last time (by now, they had invited ALL their friends!!!... it was a bananaquit PARTY!)

(I know, this is a terrible picture, but I wanted to show how MANY there were.)

We said goodbye to our view and the house and the island and headed off to the car barge.

We got in line and the timing looked GREAT!  We had guessed (and if you guess wrong, you could be waiting a LONG time for the next ferry.)  We were maybe the 5th car in line... the car ferry fits probably about 20-25.  We got on and departed pretty quickly.  We were chugging away from STJ by 8:45.  

We got into Red Hook and Dad (D) expertly maneuvered through traffic to K-Mart where we purchased a new duffle bag to check (we ALMOST didn't make the 50lb. weight on the way here, and we didn't want to go through that again, so we decided to just check 2 bags this time).

The we picked our way through Charlotte Amalie back to The Green Iguana.  

Sue let us check in early (10:15), which was REALLY nice.  We put our bags in our room,

 got swimsuits on, and were heading to Magen's Bay by 10:40 and on the beach by 11:00.  (Again, nothing short of miraculous left-hand driving by Dad!!!)

Magen's (pronounced like the girl's name Megan) was a big bay, crowded with cruise ship day-trippers.  But we could walk down far enough to get away from it all.

The day was nice enough but we sure missed our beach chairs :o(

We swam and read and napped.

We ate lunch at the snack bar the swam, read, and napped some more.

All in all a perfect last day.

We met a young couple from Iowa on the beach and were able to give them some tips and encouraged them to make a day trip to STJ for the day.

We had to go find gas and TRIED to go shopping for a few souvenirs but parking proved to be a nightmare, so we gave up and went back to the hotel and showered and got ready for dinner.

We went to Cuzzin's (local, Caribbean fare) with another couple who was just BEGINNING their vacation and staying the night at Green Iguana.

Our flight is super early in the morning (be at the airport checking in at 6:00AM).

We will be at LAX by 3:45 if everything goes smoothly.

Then we jump back in to high speed life with Lando's CIF game up near Magic Mountain on Saturday night and Miss M's round of 32 League Cup game Sunday.

After having a nice long break, this actually sounds like a fun way to spend the weekend... we are looking forward to it!

Love you!!!!!!!!!

St. John Vacation - Day 10

As I mentioned, we started the day with a flat tire (poor D).

We eventually got to leave the house and head to our daily Starfish Market trip 

where we bought our daily sandwich.  By the time we left it was raining and the skies were blanketed in thick, black clouds... not a very promising looking day for our last full day on St. John... BOO!

With the rain coming down fairly vigorously, we decided that our plans of basking in the glorious sun on a favorite beach was not in the cards right then.

So we took off down a new direction (more exploring) and decided 

to hike to Waterlemon Bay where Waterlemon Cay is (WaterLEMON, not melon and Cay is always pronounced "Key").

The hike was over a mile each way.

It was raining so we stripped down to just swimsuits... we didn't bring towels or chairs or anything... just snorkel gear and a couple bottles of water.

We hiked through the dripping greenery along the coast on a narrow trail at beach level.  It was actually a little chilly and VERY wet.

We met some people leaving and they said the snorkeling was good and worth it, so we were heartened.

We got in the water as soon as we got to the little sandy and rocky inlet.

Almost immediately, we saw a sea turtle munching on the sea grass.

We could get VERY close and watch him munch.  He seemed unperturbed by our presence.  Seeing him was GREAT!  He was the first sea turtle of the trip.

We also got to see a lot of great fish, as usual... but the other highlight was the sting ray.  Cool!

When we were done, we hiked back.

The rain had stopped by this point although it was still very gray and dark.

We went to Maho bay (with our good friends, the chickens) and spent the rest of the day there reading, napping, eating, filming, etc.

The sun peeked out in spurts - but it was never the glorious day we had hoped for.

(Although we DID we see two rays frolicking in the really shallow water of our bay right before we left.)

When the noseeums started biting, it was time to leave.

We popped by Starfish again on the way home and bought stuff for dinner (sometimes it is just too much work to go back out).

D has a meeting in town tonight.

I'll probably make dinner.

Tomorrow we pack up and leave here and head over to STT for the day.