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!

A Day on St. Thomas

The last 2 weeks have been the barely keeping afloat kind for us. My usually really healthy kids have not been at all so - both of them with different afflictions plus allergies meant lots of lost sleep for them and me. Every time we think we are healthy again, we find out that we're not. It's been frustrating and tiring. So, cross your fingers the road to good health is finally here...my sanity can't take much more! All that is basically a long way of saying, that's my excuse for staying so behind on blogging. Life happened.

As wonderful as our St. John trip was, it seems like really old news now. Not to mention, we are well into planning our next vacation. This blog is going to make it seem like our life is just a lifelong vacation! I assure you, it's not. There's a ton of regular, not interesting stuff that goes on in between. But, since this is the place to post things that are more interesting, you only get to see the best of the best of our lives. I'm going to hopefully finish posting this trip rapid fire style before the month closes out.

Day four of our St. John trip was actually a trip to St. Thomas. We loaded up Rachel's car onto the car ferry....well, Rachel made ME back up the car onto the ferry. She's a big chicken about it and we gave her lots of grief. But, in her defense, driving around the island is no joke and I give her big props for that. However, yet another reason it baffles me that backing the car on the ferry gives her anxiety. Seems pretty easy compared to what she deals with day to day. Anyway, we headed over there because Rachel had some errands to do, and there were a few things we wanted to see there too.

First up was Coral World. It was a small but pretty cool aquarium. We got to feed the sting rays and the Lorikeets. The highlight of the place, for me, was Franco the sea lion. We learned about him and saw him doing some great tricks at the sea lion encounter.

Feeding the Stingray
As Cade Said "AH! Him so cute!"

Franco

Blowing a Kiss Goodbye

I guess this was just the day for Rachel to be a chicken (Rachel, you know I love you!). She also opted out of going into the Lorikeet enclosure. I thought it was great. The birds were stunning and the boys both got a chance to feed them nectar.

Speaking of Cute

After Coral World, we took a drive over to the the town of Charlotte Amelie. Rachel gave us a bit of a tour by car. The one place we HAD to stop was Bumpa's. That's what the boys' call their paternal grandfather and we needed to check out the namesake restaurant. On the ride over, both the boys fell asleep, so Mike went into Bumpa's to get some sandwiches for all of us to eat in the car.

After that, Rachel drove us through her kids' school campus where I caught a glimpse of Ainsley on the baseball field. Totally by chance. Then a few errands for Rachel and we were back on the ferry. To avoid getting seasick (me), we took to the fresh air. The boys had a blast getting blown about by the wind.

Look at that view beyond the ferry. Stunning!

Nice Hair Cade

Boys On Watch

Puffy Windblown Shirt

And Another Puffy Shirt

Ferry Tracks

Mike Getting In On The Fun

I think this was their favorite part of the day.

Since the car ferries aren't quite as timely as the passenger ferries, we ended up racing Rachel's kids back to St. John. We made it back just in time to pick them up from their ferry and then went to grab a snack and a drink at happy hour. We ordered food to go. Back at the house, we enjoyed the views, pizza and all watched a movie together.

Hummingbird

Sunset

Dylan wasn't the only one excited about the treasure map.

My kids went to bed and Rachel's kids headed home to get to sleep at a reasonable hour. Rachel stayed over long after the kids were gone and hung out with us. It was a really nice night of chatting and laughing.

A Day of Beaches

We have finally had warmth in New England! It's been wonderful! It's also reminded me that I STILL haven't blogged about most of our St. John vacation. I haven't even gone through all of the pictures yet. I uploaded these about a month ago. Perhaps I'll find some time during this busy week to pick out a few more of our favorite pictures (hardest task about this blogging thing) so that I can post the rest of this vacation before our next one comes about.

Day 3 of St. John was all about beaches. Granted, that's not exactly a hard task when you're on a small island but after a couple of days of other "stuff" thrown in, we needed to dedicate a day to sand and water.

First thing early in the morning, after Rachel dropped the kids off at the ferry and returned to the neighborhood, she and I had a little solo hike to Reef Bay. She calls it her own private beach because she rarely runs into anyone else there. And, as is her norm, it was just Rachel, me and pup Toby hanging out for the morning.

All Those Black Spots Are Sea Urchins

Look at the cool backpacks we borrowed from our kids for the trip!

Reef Bay Beach From the Road

We headed back to the house, packed for the beach and then had to wait a bit for Rachel's AC guy to show up and give her some cold air (important stuff). Because of that, we got a later start than hoped and the top beaches Rachel really wanted to take us to were all filled up on parking. So, we kept going on the island road until we found somewhere we could park and ended up on Little Francis Beach.

While waiting at the house, we hung out and watched iguanas in the trees, 

humingbirds at the flowers

and good ol' injured Spike still sunnin' by the pool.

Little Francis Beach is, according to Rachel, not one of the best beaches on the island. It truly didn't matter a lick to us because we found it to be stunning and had a great time playing.

We splashed in the water, observed fish right off the beach in the crystal clear waters and practiced snorkeling. Cade even when on a little snorkel trip with me. I snorkeled and dragged him around with me with his swim vest and noodle.

Cute Boys Having Fun

Seriously if this is the "worst" beach, it truly is paradise.

This school of small fish attracted some much larger fish VERY close to shore.
It was pretty exciting to watch!

It was funny...the boys didn't even seem to take notice of the pelican hanging out nearby.

Pelican

Now, one of the things Rachel and I had to do VERY quickly when we drove by to pick her up for our beach trip is make a pirate map. She had come up with a fun pirate story for Dylan about a hidden map on the island. We rumpled some construction paper, drew some pictures on the map (quickly and not well thought out I might add) and burned the edges (and just barely escaped burning more than that). Rachel's tale for Dylan had some clues where the missing map might be. And wouldn't you know it, Dylan found an ancient pirate treasure map on that beach! Amazing!

Dylan and His Awesome Find

I cannot even tell you how ridiculously cute Dylan was with that map. He didn't show extreme excitement about it (because that's not his style) when he found it. But he did study it and observe his surroundings with it many, many times...came up with a lot of theories where the treasure might be and it really became a week long treasure hunt for us! More to come on that adventure in future posts.

After a long day at the beach, we spent the rest of the day at the house. Mike drove back into town for some food and supplies for us. While he was gone, we all got to witness the most spectacular sunset of the week. Photos really don't do justice to the beautiful landscape of the island. The beach pictures, while nice, aren't nearly as spectacular as the real deal. Same goes for the sunset. This sky was truly stunning. When Mike returned from town, the first thing we said to each other\talked about was how incredible the sunset was that night!

The Sunset From our Villa