We all had such a great time these two weeks.
I only wish Winn could have been here too to share it all with us....next time...

We hiked, we snorkeled, we swam, we ate, we kayaked, and we snorkeled some more.
Oh, yeah, and Noah got in quite a few games of Backgammon with Andy too.
Jam and Noah played a few scrabble games as well.
Jam even helped me cut some tree limbs that needed to come down.
And of course, you can't forget the smoothies....lots of smoothies.
I'll try to put the pics in chronological order as best as I can recall.
You may want to do something else while the page loads and come back in a few minutes to look    :)

We began our adventures at Great Lameshur Bay Beach and Trail.

Great Lameshur had great skipping stones,
tumbled smooth by all the wave action.

We saw a kestrel hawk quite close to us on the trail.

Lots of skipping rocks...

Did I mention the boys skipped rocks?

The trail led along the rocky shoreline, up and over many rocky outcrops...

The last of the Great Lameshur hike pics.

Little Lameshur beach was a much better beach for swimming
as it was sandy instead of rocky.

These ruins were just up from the beach at Little Lameshur.

Next we began on Lameshur Bay trail leading to the Europa Bay trail...

Easy going along the Lameshur Bay trail...

Nice big tree...

and more trail...

Then on to the Europa Bay trail - also a very comfortable trail.

Cool and shady...well, shady anyway...

Along the path was a salt pond off to the left through the trees.
You can always tell the salt ponds by their brown/red color (from algae).

Arrival at the beach!

This beach was also rocky.

Next we tackled the Yawzi Point trail...
at this one spot the rock looked very volcanic,
reminding us that St John is a volcanic island.

Huge cactus trees were everywhere.

And very large century plants.

As we went further there were some great rock outcrops...

...giving great views of the turquoise waters.

But do be careful of the sea urchins in the water.

and overlooks worth every look.

One spot had a great chasm down to the rocky shoreline below.

The last of the Yawzi Point trail pics.

The start of the Tektite trail.

Off we go, through the bush...

On and on we go...

Lots of cactus to watch out for...

Wow

Onward some more...

Then we "officially" started on the Cabritte Point trail...

and we're off again...

This trail has some of the most incredible views on the whole island.

Up even higher now...

And an "Oh My God" moment...

Another incredible chasm in the cliffs...
We speculated how it was formed...
Maybe an earthquake separated the rock?

Definitely a place for deep thought...

Just "WOW!"

I just had to keep these pics big so you could really get the feel for it...
but still you can't really.
It's just so incredible!

Do you see Noah way over there?
Gives a little perspective.
Right before him is that deep chasm.

So beautiful.

Hey, we're beautiful too!

A beautiful place - and beautiful people to be with...

:)

 

Then there was the trip to Hawsnest Beach, where there was great snorkeling.

And good times were had by all
and all had a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches too.

Noah became a sand merman for a time.

Then there was the kayaking day.
We snorkeled over by the mangroves in Hurricane Hole across the bay from our house.
This pic was taken by Andy way up at the house (full zoom).

Andy's rendition of the same pic. :)
Though really, I was in the single, and the boys were together in the double.

Then there was the beautiful Cinnamon Beach, where the boys did a lot of snorkeling.

Preparing for the snorkel...

And off they go.
I took a time-out and read my book on the beach.

Then after the snorkel, Noah found a coconut and banged it on big rocks till he finally got it open and tasted the milk.

Then Noah took a day off and stayed at the house with Andy,
while Jam and I did some more hiking close to our town of Cruz Bay.
The Lind Point trail begins just behind this Virgin Islands National Park building.

The beginning of the trail

This hike was a friendly hike too - not real steep, and much in the shade.

But along the path was massive amounts of a crawling type of cactus,
seeming to be strangling everthing else it covered.

Water breaks were common while hiking.

Jam found a solution for all the knats flying around his head -
just cover his head with his shirt!

We arrive at the overlook.

The Lind Point trail has a great overlook of downtown Cruz Bay.

Then it's back into the woods.

One Cool Dude :)

The first beach along the trail is Solomon Beach,
where Andy says in the 'old days' people used to swim naked.
We didn't see anyone naked today :)

Next along the trail we arrive at Honeymoon beach.

Honeymoon Beach

This yucca type plant seemed to have many stages of growth. It seemed to turn red in the middle when flowering.

I'm not sure which stage this is - no red,
but there were small clusters of fruit/nut things.
We decided it must be before the flowering stage.

The homeward trek.

Then on the drive home, Jam and I stopped by the Catherineberg ruins just off the main road.
This one is the first you see on the left of the road.

Then the main building ruin is on the right.

From a different angle.

This is inside the main ruin.
Very interesting architecture.

Notice how thick the stone walls are - no hurricanes bothering this structure!

 

Looking up in one main section, it was open to the sky,
and there were sections at the top with plants growing in them and ALSO....

On one side up at the top was a bee hive which looked rather new...

And on the opposite side, one that was obviously quite overcrowded.

Then we went to Kiddle Bay for some more snorkel fun.

Out by the point of land you see were some incredible deep caves
underwater, providing some really neat snorkeling.

On the beach was a tree I've seen a lot here,
and when I got home I looked it up on the internet and found out it is the Noni Tree,
thought by many to contain great healing powers.

The Noni fruit is squishy soft and a little stinky up close.

Cool big rock jutting up.

Looking over collected rocks.

The boys were playing on the bar where
I hang upside down with my anti-gravity boots.

ALL the boys...

All this action was a little blurry.

A little dark pic, but still good.

Same with this one.

This was the best!

In the yard at the house.

Donkeys near the road,
and Noah trying to feed one of them his leftover PBJ.

But they were shy.
I'm sure they ate it after we left.

Then there was Coral World...

We took the ferry from St John to St Thomas, and a taxi to Coral World...

A look back at the St John Ferry dock as we pulled away heading to St Thomas.

These were in a large wrap-around-the-room, floor-to-ceiling fish tank.

Lobsters...

Stingrays here too...

My two favorite fish     :)

Noah just kidding around :)
Wide view of fish tank room.

Lots of people there to watch the feeding.

The underside of the stingrays are very cool looking.

Then there were the very cool iguanas.
I think they were my personal favorites.

This one appeared to be a juvenile, but we weren't really sure.

I left a few of these pics large so you could really see the detail.

Noah reached in and pet one.

Up close and personal.

Aren't they so cool !?!

They were just crawling all over each other like they didn't care if they were walking on the land or on other iguanas.

Then there was a building with lots of small tanks.
The seahorses kept moving and were all pretty blurry.

All kinds of sea creatures...

This is a fish hiding in a hole in the sand, with just his eyes poking out.

Besides being a minature mangrove forest,
there were these jellyfish looking things on the floor of the tank.

One of the weird jellyfish things was on the glass.

A close-up of the jellyfish things.

This guy was one of my favorite fish...

Doesn't he look like a happy fish?

Night time tanks were cool.
So much of the underwater life glows fluorescent.

Then there were the sea turtles.
They were my favorites too.

Feeding time at the turtle pond.
The man was feeding them lettuce and broccoli.

And they were climbing all over each other to get to it too.

Then the sharks...

Very cool sharks.

Lookout!!

YIKES!!!!
Now that's a little too close!!

Then it was feeding time at the shark pond.

Noah really liked all the animals.
He's going to work with animals when he grows up.

Notice, this time the man didn't get IN with the sharks to feed them...

But he did pick up a small one and let people touch it.
Noah was right there for it.

Then the Stingrays...

The lady was explaining about feeding them saying
anyone who wants to can come help feed them.

The stingrays obviously new they were about to be fed, as they were
practically flying out of the water by the wall there where they get fed.

Most people ended up dropping the tidbits when the stingrays jumped up,
but she was saying to hold it agaist the wall and they would take it right out of your hand. I could see how people would get startled though and end up dropping it.

Noah was even petting them.

Jam and Noah both got to feed them a couple of times.
I just took pictures.

Noah really loved the stingrays
(by the way - their stingers had been removed)
He was the last one there after the feeding.

Then there was a nature trail with some iguanas, and mostly turtles.

A big tortoise in a small pond.

And a bunch of turtles.

That's All Folks!

Hope you all had fun!

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