More St. John Travelogue

IMG_0603, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

May 10th: Scuba day with Low Key. We went to Lovango cay and Grass Cay. I think I either need to make it a point to go scuba diving once every six months or so or just quit altogether because I didn't really enjoy myself that much. Of course, putting a BC with a heavy tank over my severely sunburnt back may have had something to do with it. After scuba and lunch, we took the kids to Hawknest Bay, a beach I've never been to. It was gorgeous, just like all the other beaches on St. John. Ho hum.



May 11th: We chartered a boat to the British Virgin Islands. This trip was definitely the highlight of our vacation. The boat we chartered was the Born To Rhumb (there are a lot of Rhumb puns in the islands) with a captain, Kevin, and - assistant? first mate? not sure what her official title was. Or name. We headed out at 9 and stopped at Soper's Hole in Tortola to go through customs then had a delay for some shopping (don't ask). Prices in St. John are high, and outrageous in Tortola.



Our first top was the Caves at Norman Island, supposedly Robert Louis Stevenson's inspiration for Treasure Island. We snorkeled around with the kids in tow wearing ring floatys. Brenden refused to use his snorkel but he loved his mask. He'd dip his head in and report on the fish he saw. I saw some small squid and pointed them out to B. He thought those were cool. The caves were caves.



We had lunch on the Willy T, (the William Thornton), a ship that was converted into a restaurant. Yes, you have to park your boat next to the ship to climb aboard. Despite warnings that no jumping is allowed, people jump off her all the time. Including us. All of us, even Brenden. The kids absolutely loved eating on the 'pirate ship'. About that time us adults all started in on the beer.



Next up was a small island with a very nice beach with naked people. They mostly got dressed when they saw the kids. They also left, thank you. The captain told the kids it was 'Gilligan's Island' (heh) so they loved that too. We swam and played on the beach for a while, then we headed to Jost Van Dyke, home of the Soggy Dollar bar.



I just remember floating and drinking. The captain's assistant was kind enough to wing a fresh beer my way when I was empty. Don't ask me about the trip home because I don't remember. It wasn't the beer, it was the Painkillers I had on top of that. Not the drug, the rum drink.



May 12th: that was Wednesday, or recover from the charter day. What the heck did we do? Oh yeah, we got a late start and went to another beach I've never been to, Maho bay. The kids (by simply being kids) pissed off some lady reading a book nearby - people don't tolerate little kids very well. Sorry lady. I hear there's an adults only beach at the Caneel.



May 13th: We went to Trunk Bay, and the surf was moderately rough. Andrew loved the hell out of being tumbled around by the waves and it brought back nostalgic memories of how much I loved the same when I lived in Puerto Rico. Brenden liked it too, but he preferred building a sand castle and Sierra didn't like it much at all. We ate lunch afterwards at the Banana Deck, our go-to place this trip. Brenden loves strawberry daquiris. Virgin daquiris, of course.



May 14th: Our return home was uneventful, except I had a traumatic experience at the McDonalds drive-through when we were coming home from Atlanta. I asked for UNsweet tea, and Jon drove away before I could taste-test and discovered it was sweet tea. I hate sweet tea with a mad passion. If I'm going to drink sugar water, it better be carbonated! It just goes to show you: they FARK you in the drive through! Every TIME!!