Our 3rd cruise stop was St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. We didn't want to stick around in St. Thomas so we got off the cruise ship and then found and rented a big size taxi to take all of us to the Red Hook Ferry station. From there we caught the Ferry over to the island of St. John. We must have looked determined and like we knew what we were doing because when we got to Red Hook Ferry station a Spanish couple got off the taxi with us. I really didn't pay much attention to them until the Ferry person waved me and Aaron over to ask some questions. I guess the Spanish couple who didn't speak much English at all just hopped on the taxi with us figuring that we were either part of some excursion or that what we were doing looked interesting and followed us? I have no idea. I just know they followed our entire family and decided to come along for the ride. After we realized they were a bit confused and maybe lost about what they wanted to do they just joined up with us. Luckily, my brother in laws (Burke and Tom) speak Portuguese (since they both served their missions in Brazil) which is really close to Spanish so they were able to communicate somewhat. Here we are hopping on the first taxi:
The Spanish couple came along on the Ferry with us. We took the ferry from Red Hook over to St. John.
It was a 20 minute ride so enough time to sunscreen up:
Despite putting on massive amounts of sunscreen this whole trip we all still got sunburned and are all peeling. Sigh....
Anyway, on the ferry to St. John and on the way back to St. Thomas this bird stayed right in front of the ferry the entire way. It was interesting to watch it. As soon as the ferry started moving it flew right over and stayed right in front of the boat both ways the entire boat rides.
Anyway, we got to St. John. After getting off the ferry we found another taxi (well two taxis that worked together to take our whole group) and our newly adopted Spanish grandparents over to Trunk Bay which is a US National Park. Before getting to the beach our drivers stopped so we could get some pictures of the entire beach on from the top of the hill for a better view. It really was beautiful!
When we got to the beach (Trunk Bay) we were the only ones there. It was pretty awesome. Since it was a National Park we did have to pay to get in because we forgot to bring our 4th grader parks pass on this trip --DOH!! Oh well, it was worth it!
The water was crystal clear and very blue as well as warm. It was the most beautiful beach I have ever been to. The kids wasted no time getting into the water. Sarah and Josh immediately put on their snorkel gear to see what was in the water.
We were the only ones there for a few hours which was so nice!
Here's a panorama of the empty beach we were on:
We swam, snorkeled and played in the sand for most of the day.
I had a hard time snorkeling for very long, though. The bobbing of the water was making me barfy so I just enjoyed walking around the beach or just wading around in the water.
The snorkeling was pretty awesome. They saw an octopus, all kinds of brightly colored fish, squid, angel fish, Blue Tangs, coral, jelly fish, etc. Here's a few pictures:
The jelly fish were clear and hard to see, but at least they didn't sting. You can see the clear jelly fish tentacles over the black ring if you look closely:
During the last little bit on the island Josh, Jennifer, Tom, Bryan and Burke all decided to go snorkeling around the mini island. Unfortunately, they didn't have a watch with them. They ran late and we were starting to get antsy because in order to get back to the cruise ship we HAD to catch the 1 pm ferry. If we missed that ferry the big cruise ship would be gone by the time we caught the 2pm one. Things got pretty tight, but they all finally made it back in time to run to catch the taxi to the ferry. Even our adopted Spanish grandparents were getting quite nervous. Anyway, we made it just in time for the 1 pm ferry to leave to get back to St. Thomas. Phew. We were able to see the bird hanging out on the beach as we were leaving:
In the taxi to the cruise ship which was about a 30 minute drive all my kids completely passed out and fell asleep. Here's Sarah and Daniel asleep on my shoulders in the taxi:
Josh kept nodding off and finally put his head in his hands the last part of the ride:
Noah is passed out on Aaron's belly with the photobombing cousins in the background:
Our adopted Spanish grandparents told us thank you for letting them come along with us in broken English on the taxi ride back to the cruise ship. I was just surprised they tagged along with us not knowing exactly what they were doing....Glad Jennifer and Tom knew what they were doing since they planned this excursion for us--haha!
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