St Thomas - yeah baby!

Cinnamon Bay - St John's

Aaron and I spent the last 5 days in the Caribbean, mostly on St Thomas, as a 15th anniversary present to ourselves.  Aaron was very good to me and chose a place he knew I preferred - warm, tropical with a beach.  Aaron's parents watched the kids while we were gone - Thank you Paul and Jody!

View from the beach at our resort

Our building - we are top floor second unit from the left - beach is to the left

Our room was a 3 split level layout called a studio-plus.  This means we walk in to a floor with the bathroom, shower and big closet.  Walk up 3 steps to our kitchenette and living room with balcony.  Then up another 5 steps to the bedroom that is open to the floor below.  Very cozy and perfect for up to 4 people with a pull out couch.  Our balcony overlooked the beach.  And we were just a few steps from the sand.  Perfect location! 

Aaron contemplating his next move

The resort - Bluebeard's Resort - had a huge chess set that people actually used.  

The resort's beach

Magen's Bay

On our first full day, we took a drive over to the most popular beach on St Thomas, called Magen's Bay.  It is suppose to be one of the top 10 beaches in the world.  The sand was perfect and the water was crystal clear.  We stood in the water and watched 2-3 inch tarpon swimming around our feet.  They would bump into us and scare me every once in a while.  There were bigger fish too, about 1-2 feet long, called Gar (sp?) that would chase these fish and eat them. These fish didn't get close to use at all.  

We also had pelicans and boobies dive bombing the tarpon all around us.  No snorkeling this time, but we had a good time just snuggling and people watching.  

A stingray in a shark nursery

Our second day included a trip to Coki Beach and a place called Coral World.  Coral World houses fish, sharks, turtles, birds, iguanas and observatories, plus offers diving, snorkeling and underwater sea treks with divers helmets on.  We decided to just walk around and see the sites and head to the beach for some snorkeling.  

Iguanas are everywhere on the island - this one is at the food court (lots of cats too, to keep the mouse/rat population under control)

Coki Beach

We rented snorkel gear for about $10 each and spent a few hours combing the rocky reef area on the right side of the picture above.  There were quite a few fish and they weren't shy about swimming right next to you.  Schools and schools of fish, but not a lot of variety.  Some people brought chips to feed the fish, so my guess is these fish are very use to people and the free meal that we represent.  In any case, it was a cool experience to get so close.  I kept trying to grab one, but they were too fast.  Slippery little suckers!

Cinnamon Bay - St John's

On the third day, we took a car ferry over to St John's with a couple of friends we met at the resort.  We spent most of the day at Cinnamon Bay, which we read online was suppose to be the best beach on the island.  We rented snorkel gear there too and had a blast cruising all over watching the thousands of fish.  The fish weren't in our faces, like at Coki, but there were lots of different kinds and a bigger space to explore.  I wish we had an underwater camera to show you all the fun things we saw.  Quite an experience.

The water was pretty choppy all day, but you couldn't really tell while we were swimming around.  Only a little whistling in our snorkels.  

We had originally planned a half day snorkeling / fishing trip with a local guide, but there was a small watercraft advisory, so we decided not to risk spending a ton of money and getting seasick.  St John's was a great alternative.

Hermit Crab found on the walkway

On the way back to our car from Cinnamon Bay, our friend Roger found this crab.  He coaxed it out of it's shell for this picture.  When you look at him up close, he's kind of creepy!

A crab we found in the resort parking lot

After we got back from St John's, we showered and went to dinner at Iggies beach grill.  When we returned, we found the crab above in the middle of the parking lot.  He was almost a foot across with his legs.  That claw was huge and he was not happy to pose for pictures.  

Most nights, we went down by the pool where people gathered to have Cornhole tournaments.  It is kind of like a bean bag toss, but you toss the bags into one hole cut into a board. (board is about 2 ft x 3 ft in size)  I guess this game is pretty popular in other places, but it's the first I'd heard of it.  It was really fun, so maybe I'll have to try and make one.

It is tempting to go back again in a few years, but we'll need to save our money.  Everything was so expensive. For example, we paid $7 for a box of Frosted Mini-wheats.  A bag of chips was $4.  A sleeve of Oreos was $3.  A bunch of grapes, probably close to a pound, was $11.  Gas was $4.50 / gallon.  

Driving was pretty crazy too.  You drive on the left side of the road, but the steering wheel is on the left side of the car, instead of the right like it is in Australia.  The island is a former volcano, so all the roads are steep and twist and turn very sharply.  There are also no sidewalks, so it's very common to have people walking on the edge of the small two lane road.  Aaron did a fabulous job getting us to and fro safely.  All that practice in other countries helped.  :-)

We are glad to be home, but were very sad to leave the 85 degree weather.