St. John - Day 6

Woke up at 8:30 and got on my face out on the deck for my prayer time. Nothing quite so amazing as praising God with the expanse of His glorious creation - the ocean - stretching out before you while a flock of tiny, bright yellow birds swarm a dish of sugar water and a brown thrushie bird zips back and forth feeding her nest full of chirping babies over head.

From the BIG to the little, God's creation is AMAZING.

Did my Beth Moore Bible study (catching up on the Psalms of Ascent).

Dad (D) & I woke up and had coffee & breakfast then packed up for the beach and dabbled on our laptops for a little bit.  We got gas then headed to our daily trip to Starfish to get a sandwich to take (we split one every day and bring that along with some sodas and chips and maybe a candy).  We did a little research to find out about ferries over to Virgin Gorda (fat virgin) or Jost van Dyke (pronounced "Yoast"van dyke) - which are both British Virgin Islands or BVI (whereas we are on the US virgin islands , or USVI).  We can do a self-guided all day trip to one of these via ferry or we can do more of an excursion type tour and hit 4 islands in one day.  Sounds like this might be the best way to go.

We ventured to another of the 'secret beaches' today... Gibney.  Parking is up on the road by a steel gate.  

We hiked down and there was a police officer parked at the bottom with his scout troop.  We hiked around through the water to a more secluded part of the beach and were all by ourselves (except for a dog we named "Daisy" for the day, because she reminded us of Bijou but we didn't want to call her "Jouey", so we gave her a name of her own).  

An older woman with long gray hair, a floppy orange hat, and a large gap between her front 2 teeth climbed out of the water and we were able to ask her some questions about the island.  (She currently lives in Maine, but had lived on the island for 20 years.)  She was back for 3 weeks for a 60th birthday party being held that very day in the Oppenheimer property (Oppenheimer was apparently called the "father of the atomic bomb" and he bought SOME of the property from the Gibneys back in the 1950's).

Anyhow, we were alone on the beach from about 11:30-2:30 when a group of about 12 women, no men, cam and flopped down 15 feet from us and then 20 minutes later a couple and their Yorkshire terrier cam and parked 15 feet from us on the other side.  Oh well, we had secluded paradise for a FEW hours.  Meanwhile the sounds of music floated through the air from the party and the ocean ebbed and flowed and pelicans dive-bombed the water and it was a fine day.  

We left Gibney at about 4:30 and headed 'home' where we showered in the shower with open views to the south and west and overhead (open-air skylights with screens)... feels almost like showering outdoors.

We've eaten in 3 nights and out 1 night.

I think tonight might be another 'out night.

We have also watched a DVD (rented from home before we left) every night.

(Yesterday, in the rain, we watched two.)

Ahhhh... vacation rhythm... Just limin' mon.

Day 4 Continued

We packed sandwiches at the house today and headed out around 10:45 or so.  We read about the beaches on the far east end of the island and looked over the road map, packed up the ice chest and jeep and headed out.

We took a long, winding, green & lush road across the entire island to Coral Bay.  

Through town we came upon donkeys 

and goats roaming the roads.  At one point there was a goat herd of a couple HUNDRED goats (I got the video camera out in time, but not the still camera. Boo!) ... pretty funny!

We then veered South and went to Little Lameshur Bay and Salt Pond Bay.  These were down long, unpaved, rocky roads that you really needed 4wd for... the jeep came in handy.  We snorkeled at Lameshur and Dad (D) got the hang of the cheapo underwater camera we bought at Starfish market.  About 20 people at this beach.  Mostly an older, retiree crowd.

Thunder boomed in the distance and some big clouds rolled in so we took that as our cue to head out.  We went to Salt Pond and hiked down to the bay (about 10 minutes).  It was steep and rocky.  This was a nice little bay.  A little rocky.  Only about 20 or so people there... a lot of hikers.  We were there just long enough to take a dip then hiked back and it started raining.

We took this opportunity to drive to the far East End in search of Hansen Bay.  We FOUND it but it was all barbed wired in and had 'no trespassing' signs.  We did a few u-turns but couldn't figure out HOW to actually GO to this little beach.  We stopped at Vie's Snack Shack to ask and found that you COULD go to this beach for $2.50 per person.  This little beach had been owned by Vie's family since 1894 (or something like that).  We walked through the little gate, through the small, above-ground cemetery (complete with basketball hoop???) 

and onto the small but lovely shore.  We snorkeled and saw a little troop of 18 squid staring at us as they floated together.  We met a couple from the Jersey Shores who owns a place on the island.  They told Mom (me) about a couple "secret" beaches we will visit in the coming days.  They also pointed us to some good snorkeling spots.  Although it seems to kind of be a dormant season, it was still great.

We came back to the house, showered and went out to La Tapa for paella.  On the way back to to the car, we stopped and watched a local soft ball game... it looked like maybe employees from 2 separate companies battling it out... we watched an inning.

Now we are back at the house to watch a movie and hit the hay.  We are beat from a LONG day at the beach & exploring (haha!).

Nightie Night!

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!