Home Safely

Thanks Ann for pointing out that I haven't posted since vacation.  It DID kinda look like we maybe decided to never come back.  

So I owe a few posts. 

We flew home safely from STT via Puerto Rico.  

Puerto Rico to LAX was 8 hours.  That was a little long for our backs, but we made it.

Good to be back!

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 - Days 1,2,3

We sat on the plane at the gate in Miami for 3 hours before take-off and didn't get into STT (St. Thomas) until 2AM... good thing we had a room for the night on STT!  

We got into the humidity of the early morning sweating, got to our tiny, air conditioned room at the Green Iguana, and promptly passed out.  

We woke up at 9AM and called out rental car company.  We checked out of the Green Iguana (the managers are originally from san diego, they are retired and move all around the world, living and working for a year or so in each place... pretty cool!).  

We rented our car, grocery shopped at the local Cost U Less (like costco) and headed over the the car ferry.  

We were pretty impressed with ourselves.  

Our house manager (Eric) met us as we exited the ferry and guided us through a curvy maze of roads to our house - Tre Scalini.

The view is just as delicious as the photos... ahhhhh!

You can hear crickets and birds and frogs chirping all night l

ong... it feels like we are in a tree house!

No air conditioning, but the weather is very mild at this time of year, so we're OK.

Weird: the bedroom (and bathroom) is only accesses by leaving the main body of the house (a "great room") and going out on the deck and then going into the bedroom.  

Same AMAZING view!

Zipped out to Cinnamon Beach (where the kids' handstand photo was taken last year) for a couple hours..  A little rainy & buggy because it was later in the day.

My real man and I picked up some quiche & salad and ate in for dinner.

Watched "Lars & the Real Girl" (sweet and tragically funny) on DVD in our bed and fell asleep by 9:30PM.

Up at 8:30AM.

Went to Starfish market for sammies to put in our cooler along with waters and sodas.

Explored a bit (francis bay & school ruins)... the green, wind-y tunnels of trees with drizzly rain is SO like Hawai'i.

We ultimately landed at Maho Bay for the day.

A little slice of heaven (with chickens)!

If we went to that beach every single day (which we won't), I would be just fine!

Snorkeled.

Thought of poor Tyra who would have been TRAUMATIZED by the THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS of teeny tiny fish that surrounded us.

Also HUGE fish (grouper?) and long skinny fish (tarpin?) and sea urchins.

We read and basked and swam and relaxed.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Swung by the market again on the way home... we are going to eat in again tonight.

Daddy (D) will head out to a meeting in town for an hour or so while Mommy (me) BLOGS - ha!

Then we will eat and watch another movie and do it all again tomorrow.

We have real, quality problems I tell you!