St John Wednesday July 9th, 2008

Ah, another beautiful day in paradise. As much as I’d like to say that I have fallen in love with St. Thomas, it is nothing compared to St. John. Today we woke up, had breakfast overlooking the bay where the cruise ships come in and decided to go on an island hopping adventure. One thing I love about my wife is she is pretty adventuresome and has enough faith in me to do “whatever”. So I digress, which I will a little bit more to tell you all about our night last night. After a mellow day at the beach, we decided to go to eat at Black beard’s restaurant The restaurant sits right below the black beard tower. This tower was built in 1679 to view any threatening ships. While this was not built by blackbeard, nor did he use it, it sure make the tourist flock there. Allyson had met a kind women at the spa who convinced us to go there because her boyfriend owned it. Good food, good company (Ally’s friend was a little chatty Cathy ) and a great experience. That brings us to today. After breakfast we drove the car over to the East side of the island called Red Hook. That’s when things got a little interesting. We drove our car onto an auto ferry, had to back her in, which took us on a 30 minute ride over to St John. This was both of our first times on an auto ferry so the experience was pretty unique. After arriving in St John, we drove around the west side of the island. They had the most wonderful beaches. The whitest sand you have ever seen. Not very many people either. The cruise ships do not port there so the island is much more casual, slow and less busy. We decided to try a beach pretty far away because it is rated very high for snorkeling. This area is called Linster Bay. The only way to get there is by boat or hiking in. No boat for us so we hoofed it. About a 20 minute walk on a nice even path and we were in paradise. After hanging our backup in a tree we went snorkeling. Some of the best snorkeling we have experienced together. We hadn’t been in the water for more than 5 minutes when we saw three huge sea turtles. They were so graceful. I actually dove down a few times and touched a big turtle. Didn’t seem to mind too much but swam away after I touched him. After our turtle encounter we saw so many different types of fish. We swam in a school of fish that had millions and millions of small neon looking minnows. We then saw parrot fish, squirrel fish, puffer fish, a flounder, angels, blennies, and even sting ray. It was a wonderful trip and something that I will never forget. We came back into town (Cruz Bay) and had dinner at Margarita Phils. Then back on the ferry and back home. One special treat I brought back was a nice big sun burn. My back looks like a lobster. Even though putting on sun proof spf 15 I am still fried. Oh well, It’s the price you pay for spending an afternoon in paradise. Until tomorrow. Love you guys and gals.