St. John Day 6 - Ram's Head, Rock Beach and Girls on the Town

Our plans for this day mostly consisted of a hike. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we had planned to do one of the island's most popular hikes to see petroglyphs, but the best way to do it to ensure it could happen with the kids' little legs was a return trip by boat that was booked. So I tried to find another hike that would be intriguing to the kiddos. With my new handy dandy hiking map of St John in hand purchased on the previous day's shopping trip, I found a seemingly cool hike on the other side of the island that showed some ruins. The boys would love that! Plus we would get to see Coral Bay (east side of the island) which we hadn't had an opportunity to see yet. Rachel opted out of the trip. So we were on our own!

While the island is small, it is very mountainous. To get anywhere, you have to traverse steep roads with some crazy switchbacks. Any trip is a windy trip. It's so windy that my poor Dylan, who's never had an issue before, got carsick on the way there! We had to make a quick pull over on the side of the road to get him some fresh air. Once he felt able, we continued the rest of the short way to the head of the trail.

It was a HOT day....the hottest one we had while on the island. And, due to our lack of efficiency that morning, we started out our trip at high noon. It wasn't the best plan. It became apparent to me very early that we would likely not see the end of the trail. The only thing that kept the boys motivated was the promise of finding some ruins. Unfortunately, return hikers told us there were no ruins. Luckily, Dylan was undeterred by their negativity and carried on sure that he would find them.

After hiking for a bit, we needed a lunch break. The trail split and we headed down the way of the beach. It was a really cool beach....all made of rocks. The sound of the water rolling the rocks up and down the shore was super awesome. There wasn't much shade to be found so we made due with a small patch of it that was precariously surrounded by thorn bushes.

Rock Beach

Cooling Off\Filling Bellies

We called this the Green Bean Tree.

After lunch, I was ready to turn back and call it a day. We got our bags packed up and back on our bags. Dylan took off....but not back to the start, but continuing on to the end. If he was determined to go the end and find the ruins, I was not going to deter him!

Hike On!

Top of a Crevice
There was an extremely strong gust of wind blowing up it.

Looking Down the Crevice

That Dylan marched us to the end of the Ram's Head trail....the only thing past us was ocean! With no ruins in sight, he made up a story about the fish king and what must have happened to his ruins. Quite the imagination, that guy. Did I mention Cade was content to ride on my back this whole way? With his warm little body against me, the sun beating down and no shade to be found....I was working my way through my water fairly quickly.

Ram's Head
Family Selfie

Pipe Organ Cactus

Some pretty stunning scenery made the discomfort worth it.

Another treachery to avoid all along the trail were cacti. We'd seen lots of pipe organ cacti throughout the week but this was a new one. Looking it up later, we found out it was called a Turks Head or Barrel Cactus. Thanks to a Disney Junior show called Sheriff Callie, we called them "Toby" cacti. The little round cactus character on the show has an episode where he grows a read bump just like the ones these had on them. Toby's turned into a flower. The Barrel Cactus red bumps are a fruit. Cade had a lot of fun searching out "Toby's" out by the trail. It wasn't hard to do since they were everywhere. I was so worried that Dylan's tired little legs would stumble on them or into them but he left unscathed.

Barrel Cactus
Description: They are round, or barrel-shaped and can grow in hard, rocky
windswept and sun-drenched environments where little else can survive.
(I can attest that the environment described is where they were growing.)
The small pink fruit is edible.

Can you see all of them dotting the landscape?

I forgot to mention that between the parking area and the beginning of the trail head was a beach. Not a rocky one, but a nice sandy one where many a folk were enjoying playing in the water and relaxing in the sand. A little cool down was more than welcome for me. Mike and Dylan, very tired at this point, opted to skip it and head straight to the car. Cade, confined on my back, had to stay with me. I plopped us right down in the water and cooled off for a few minutes. It was really nice! If we had the day to re-do again, I would have made for an earlier start, a cooler hike, and some time to rest\play\eat at the beach afterwards. Instead, we went back to the car, headed back to the house and the boys quickly fell asleep and napped off a long, hot, tiring hike.

Oh and as for the ruins. I found out on the way back to the car from the beach, that they were just off the short trail from the car to the beach on a side, unmarked trail. By the time I had this knowledge, everyone was too tired to be interested in going to see them.

Back at the house, I spent a good amount of time on the phone. Actually, I spent a lot of our "down time" in between activities on the phone that week. I've been struggling how to work in a pretty sad point of our happy vacation time. It's about our baby Luci...our 13 year old cat. We found some lumps on her 6 days before we left. All the testing we were able to do without surgery was inconclusive. The plan was to medicate her with the best of our knowledge to keep her comfortable and then decide what to do when we got back. Unfortunately, things started progressing in a downhill manner very quickly. On a daily basis, there were numerous calls to our cat sitter, our vet and pharmacies to help her as much as possible. Mike was kind of not handling it well emotionally, so the responsibility fell almost solely on me. Also unfortunate and frustrating was the lack of cell reception on most of the island. It was very hard to communicate efficiently and easily. The only place at our rental house with reception was on the roof deck...the unshaded, very buggy roof deck. My time spent up there definitely aided in my sunburn and full body coverage of bug bites. More on Luci later.

Okay.

After a long, not extremely relaxing day, it was time for a little fun. Mike took the boys for the night and let Rachel and I have a little girls' night out. We did all the necessary things to make for a successful\fun night out - souvenir shopping, appetizers at one of her favorite spots - The Tap Room, and dinner at one of the nicest spots in town - The Waterfront Bistro.

Cheers!

We had such a great time goofing around, recounting old times and laughing a lot that we closed down the restaurant! Wild night out. We even got wild and crazy and stole a car! Ok....not really. But it did feel that way. The parking lot where we had parked the car for the night (also the place where we rented our jeep for the week), had put a chain over the entrance\exit of the lot. I had to figure out unlock the chain so we could get back home. Very exciting stuff for two "old" friends!

St. John Day 5 - Beach, Ruins and Date Night!

After a day on St. Thomas, not spent on beaches, day 6 was back to playing in the water. This time, Rachel took us to her favorite beach, Trunk Bay. One of the big things it's known for is it's snorkeling trail. Unfortunately for us, there was a storm somewhere off shore and the water was pretty rough that day. There was no way we were taking the boys out snorkeling on the trail. The waves, while small, were really coming in hard. I was worried the boys wouldn't enjoy the water. Boy was I wrong.

My sweet Dylan, who is sometimes quick to give up, had a great time playing in the waves. Even though they were sometimes so strong they would knock him down, wash him up the beach and then pull him back down a bit with the undertow, he kept on standing back up and running back in for more!

Cade on the other hand, preferred snacking while sitting down on a beach chair. Since that was also mine and Rachel's preferred spot, the three of us had a lovely time hanging out. We also got to see a really cool big crab and a whole bunch of hermit crabs! Cade did venture in the water...but only when I was holding him. I swear, those waves were so strong, I was sure my legs were going to be bruised where they smacked me over and over. Thanks to Rachel back on the beach, we got a few lovely family pictures of us playing in the surf.

Cutie Chillin

Dylan Having A Great Time

That's Mike's head peeking out of the water.
He was riding the waves in and trying to catch the boys.
They thought it was a hysterical\fun game.

While Cade and I were hanging out in the water, I saw a huge stingray just off shore. I pointed it out to a nearby snorkeling family who went to check it out.  The father offered his gear to me so I could take an underwater look...and also offered to hold Cade while I went. Cade let the guy hold him so I ventured out. It was really cool!

As I would find out later, there is A LOT of sand hiding in these swim trunks.

There were some cool rocks at the end of the beach I wanted to check out. So after a LONG time playing in the water, I convinced everyone to join me for a little walk.

Rachel obviously taking her tour guide duties seriously.

My Best Little Mermaid Impression

Thought it would be awesome to get the Little Mermaid with the waves crashing on the rocks.
Instead, I think it looks more like I'm surprised by getting smacked in the face by some water.

The Family

Cool Dude

Rachel and Cade had a lot of fun spinning around.

On our jaunt to the rocks, it started raining. So, naturally, we headed into the trees for some shelter. However, we quickly found out that was not the wisest of ideas. The sign reads:

Use caution around the Machineel Tree. Wet sap may irritate skin, do not use for shelter in rain.
All parts of this plant may be dangerous. Fruit is toxic.

Yeah, so we headed back out into the rain. Luckily, it was a quick passing shower.

One of the things Rachel really likes about Trunk Bay is that there are shower facilities there. It took quite some time to try and de-sand everyone. I mean, there was a serious bunch of sand in every crevice and every nook of every family members' bodies. And the water was COLD! But, it was nice to not have dragged all that sand back with us into Rachel's car.

We had planned for a hike the following day. One of the ones we were considering required tickets so that the long hike didn't have to be round trip....they would pick you up by boat. So after our morning at the beach, we went in town to get those tickets. Unfortunately they were all sold out. We'd have to come up with a different route. Since Cade fell asleep on our drive into town, Rachel and I took the few "free" minutes and did a little souvenir shopping. Then we headed back to the house.

This cat came and visited us for a bit back at the house that afternoon.

Rachel, being the awesome tour guide\hostess that she was, graciously offered to watch the kids one night of the week so that Mike and I could have a date night at the nicest restaurant on the island - Zozo's. Quick side story. Back in high school, I interned at the Rosewood Resorts Caribbean Reservations Office. It was my first knowledge about anything in the Caribbean. Well, ZoZo's just happens to be located at Caneel Bay which is one of Rosewood's resorts that our office dealt with. So, after more years than I care to admit, I finally go to see the property in person!

And the property was lovely. It had several "ruins" on it from old sugar mills which we explored for a few minutes before heading up to the restaurant. We also finally got to see the infamous wild donkey's that Rachel told us were all over the island.

I photobombed the donkeys!

I love this picture....the donkey's are following the "Public Access to Beach" trail.

The Moon Over the Ruins

Of course, the best time to have reservations at ZoZo's is when you can see the stellar views of the sunset. It was truly a wonderful thing to see. Mike and I got to talk, look out at the sunset, view the slowly changing colors and clouds and enjoy a slower pace of life that you just don't get to have with the kiddos around. Very lovely. And the sunset did not disappoint.

Date Night Selfie

And although Rachel chided us for not taking a more leisurely dinner and not staying out late enough, we were really happy that she allowed us the opportunity of a vacation date night!