Bryan and I just spent the past week being secluded. It was peaceful. It was relaxing. It was soothing. Basically, it was pretty darn close to perfect. If we hadn't missed our kids, it would have been perfect. Those darn kids! Only joking, of course...we love them too much...thus the missing them. The kids got to spend 10 days at Gpa and Gma Sagers' home (they had a few extra days since we had to travel to drop them off and pick them up again) and probably missed us about as much as we missed them. Just enough to make the experience almost perfect - but not quite. Continuing on with the story.
We spent a week living the dream. Well, someone's dream that is. It might be yours...it might not...but we sure loved it.
Just picture it - waking up and being lulled to sleep by tropical birds right outside your window.
(This wasn't actually outside our window...this was at a butterfly farm that we walked past...but it fit.)
Looking out from your balcony to see this.
We did have quite a bit of overcast weather, but it was still a beautiful sight. That's what we get for going during hurricane season! It literally only took us two minutes to walk from our door to the private beach at the resort. We spent several hours snorkeling in the private bay and lounging at the beach. The ocean temperature was so perfect that we hardly spent any time at all in the pool! We saw some amazing shells and fish, including a very large blowfish!
We arrived on the island late Saturday night so our first real experiences came the next morning. We overslept and missed going to church so we drove around the island instead. We did our best to follow the maps we were given at the resort and almost made it through the day without getting lost. Okay, that's not true. We almost made it until lunch time before getting lost. I refuse to take credit (or blame) for that...since there are hardly any road signs to follow and the maps only show the main highways. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!
This is the view from Drake's Seat - a bench positioned on one of the many scenic points on the island. St. Thomas is very mountainous, thus providing many such views. You can see Magen's Bay and several other islands. Incredible.
We just loved the rainbows. A perk of having rainstorms nearly every night (and a few of the days) while we were there.
Bryan was having a blast remembering to drive on the left side of the road. It was a slight adjustment, but he did great! The truck in the picture is actually a taxi. The bed of the truck has been converted to bench seats (think of the trams at Disneyland) and can seat up to 15 or so people (at least I think I saw that many in a taxi at one time).
Iguanas were everywhere! There were also signs saying "DO NOT FEED THE IGUANAS" everywhere. After a few times of being startled you just get used to them.
Tuesday we went exploring in the downtown area of Charlotte Amalie (the capital of St. Thomas). There is a walking tour of Government Hill, which takes you through a few colonial homes and Blackbeard's Castle. One of the first stops on the tour for us (apparently you can start at the top or the bottom of the hill...and we started at the bottom) was the Hotel 1829 and the Amber Museum. The hotel was built in 1829 - thus the name - and has some interesting history. The really interesting part for us was the amber. Amber is native to the islands and can be a very precious stone.
The Amber Waterfall is two stories high and contains 2 million stones (if I remember correctly). It is amazing!
It is said to be lucky to rub the amber - so the guests are encouraged to rub the waterfall. Let's hope it works!
This was part of the exhibit for learning the history of amber, which is actually fossilized tree resin from prehistoric times (learn something new everyday!).
All along the path were statues of well-known pirates. I'm not sure which one Bryan decided to pick a fight with, but I have my doubts that Bryan would be able to steal the pirate's rum!
We finally made it to the top of the hill - only to be put in the stocks!
This is the statue for one of Zeb's favorite pirates...or should I say one that he recognizes. Captain James Hook. There was also a statue of Captain Jack Sparrow mixed in with the likes of Blackbeard, Captain Morgan, and several others. Also at the top of the hill is the rum factory where you can watch the rum-making process and even taste the different types of rum produced locally. We skipped that part of the tour.
Blackbeard's castle turned out to be a tower...and likely never even used by Blackbeard himself! The Danish used the tower to keep a lookout for pirates who favored the duty-free port.
Wednesday we took a ferry over to Water Island (a small island a 7-minute ferry ride from Crown Bay - one of the ports for the cruise ships) to do a bike tour. Yep, we went on vacation to mountain bike on an island. Even though we biked mostly on paved roads and well maintained dirt paths, I still consider it mountain biking because of all the hills. I don't remember any part of the tour being on level ground for more than 100 feet. (I might be exaggerating a bit...but not by much!)
Water Island was used by the U.S. military during WWII - or more accurately stated - was prepared for use, but never used. The war ended before all of the structures were completed. Many of the army barracks and other buildings have been converted into private residences and the underground facilities have only been used as a refuge from hurricanes by the locals. The population of the island is under 200 and we biked around a good part of the island in under 2 hours.
Pay special attention to the hours of operation for the local eatery...outstanding.
Preparing for yet another hill. What were we thinking?! It was actually a very fun tour and we ended up at Honeymoon Beach and got to swim/snorkel for about 45 minutes before needing to catch the ferry back to St. Thomas. Not bad. Bike for 90 minutes, relax at the beach for 45 minutes...it all evens out. Biking was a very different way to sight-see and we thoroughly enjoyed it!
Thursday we took a barge over to St. John's. We didn't want to pay for taxis...so we just took our rental car with us.
A beautiful day for a barge-ride.
We started out by snorkeling at Cinnamon Bay...and then went to Trunk Bay for more of the same.
There is a snorkeling trail in Trunk Bay, complete with signs on the ocean floor explaining about the fish and coral seen along the trail. We saw a scorpion fish and several others that we don't know the name of. We went around the entire island on the map loved every minute of it.
This was our barge...and yes, there are palm trees on it. Maybe they thought we wouldn't see enough of them on the islands?
We were a bit tired on the way back to the resort...can you tell?
Friday we headed over to Magen's Bay (one of the top-10 most beautiful beaches). We went by way of the "world-famous" Mountaintop - home of the "world-famous" banana daiquiris. We tried one...virgin, of course...and it was delicious!
This is a view of Magen's Bay from the Mountaintop. I could look at that all day...
but it was much more enjoyable to be at the beach! The water temperature was perfect to just float the day away. We pretty much spent the day lazing about. Swimming, taking breaks to read, swimming again, reading again...and so on.
Right on the shore were millions of tiny fish (we didn't catch their name)! At first, we thought it was just grass. Then we went in the water and the fish gave way to our feet. Mixed in with the tiny fish were Sea Bass and Rays (we heard there were also sharks, but we didn't see any) having a grand time feeding. There was a local catching the tiny fish to use as bait. His net was awesome! It was circular with weights all around. When he threw it in it floated down like a parachute and trapped the fish inside. Then he would pull a rope and the weights would gather together, creating a sphere of fish. He only had to throw it out twice and he filled his buckets. He said that it usually takes him 2-4 hours to catch as much as he did in 20 minutes that day. He also said that the fish being right up on the shore only happens once every 1-2 years...so we were lucky to see it!
Somewhere in all of our adventuring, we still found time to shop and relax (I guess the relaxing was a big part of our adventuring though!). By the time Saturday rolled around we were ready to come home and see our amazing kids again. Two long and mostly uncomfortable flight and one semi-long drive (we flew into LAX instead of the airport that is minutes away from our home...long story) later we were finally home. What a way to spend a week!
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