More St John

Grey Parrot at the Westin Resort - He could whistle the Andy Griffith Show Theme Song
Along the beach at the resort
More Resort

Flowers on St. Thomas

Solomon Bay (sometimes spelled Salomon) My favorite! So pretty, not busy, and so clear. We swam and snorkeled around the rocks over to Honeymoon bay -

saw lots of fish, coral and some jelly fish . . .

This is the ruins of a sugar plantation windmill on peace hill - There are beautiful views from here of Trunk Bay and Jumbie Bay.

Someone left a rosary in one of the crevises of the tower- another one had a beehive in it.

View of Trunk Bay from the tower, notice the catus - it was all over the island - weird!

View of Jumbie Bay from the tower

Beautiful - wish you were here! (as Meg Ryan said in French Kiss)

We saw hundreds of Hermit Crabs on the rock walls and ruins on one of our hikes. We hiked to a point where we could snorkel out to Watermelon Cay - beautiful coral reefs - and at the beach, Leinster bay - I saw a REAL SEA TURTLE. So amazing! He was just swimming there with me - didn't seem to mind or notice me at all. I felt like I was swimming in a tank at Mystic Aquarium.

Another view of Trunk Bay from Peace Hill

Honeymoon Bay

View from the top of Bordeaux Mountain - the highest point on St. John. This is from the tourist view point. We tried to drive up to the peak, but it's all rual residential and trees are everywhere blocking any view there might be.

On the ferry to Virgin Gorda where there are huge rocks that look like they were tossed there by Giants playing some kind of game.

One nice earthquake and they would all come tumbling down, but for now we the tourists get to climb through them while the waves crash through the gaps.

We had to snorkle in, and my camera isn't waterproof, so I don't have photos - but Rob does.
This is from the ferry ride too - after Virgin Gorda, we went to the Caves, on St Norman I think. There were three caves on the rock face where pirates hid their treasure. It is close to Tortula where Blackbeard used to hide his ships and attack the ships sailing by, then hide the treasure in the island caves underwater so they could still dock their ships in ports. The caves had the best fish, snokeling yet - clear waters, lots of fish, squid, cool stuff.

Trunk Bay - great snorkeling, we saw an octopus here . . .

Colorful buildings at the Mountain view point

Iguanas galore outside our hotel. Garrett wanted us to bring one home. When we got home he searched our stuff - apparently he was serious - can you imagine?

This pelican was so fun to watch. He would fly up and watch the schools of little fish that were close to the surface (we'd swim through them snorkeling and looking for bigger fish) - then the pelican would dive bomb, surface, shake the water out of his pouch and swallow. I always thought pelicans would skim the surface, never thought they could dive like that.

Flying to good fishing waters - Just so amazing

We had so much fun - and then we were so happy to be back home too :)

Life is good is an understatement.

St John, Part II

More rainy first morning. We drove around until the clouds broke up and then went snorkeling on two beaches - both beautiful. Saw lots of fun stuff.
Jumbie Bay

Gregg taking a breath before putting on the snorkel gear :) He'll be so pleased I posted this photo . . . .

Our sooooo COOL, island loving friends . . . and the jeep

St John trip, part I

Thanks to our dear friends who invited us, and our parents who watched the kids for us (mine flew out from Texas and satyed in the house with them, Gregg's parents helped too) Gregg and I were able to go with our friends to St. John in the US Virgin Islands. It was so amazing!

This is the entrance to Cruz Bay Harbor as seen from a view point on a road up above it. We rented a jeep and drove around the island the first day - It rained so we just enjoyed the scenery from the car. We saw beaches, trees, harbors, animals . . . Rob took a photo of wild burros on the road in the rain. I'll post it later when I get his photos on the computer.

The traffic drives on the left side of the road, but unlike in England, the steering wheel is still on the left side of the cars. Everyone makes a point of telling Americans from the mainland to stay left. The rental jeep had a sticker reminding us too -

Maybe someone thought it would be funny to confuse drunk tourists by applying the sticker upside down . . .

A little confusing sober too - it was pretty funny!

More soon . . .

Halloween - late post

Candy, costumes, pumpkins, my least favorite holiday has come and gone. Becca still talks about costumes and what candy is or is not in the plastic pumpkin she trick or treated with. Usually we have candy until Christmas, this year it's all gone already. They didn't get quite as much this year and we didn't put it up in the high cupboards out of reach and out of sight - hmmm . . .

I wonder which variable made the biggest difference?

The kids worked hard on their pumpkins this year. Kathryn and Garrett designed and carved theirs all by themselves - even though we had other options this year. They did a great job and won prizes at our church's fall festival too.

Kat's is the cute smiley face, Garrett did the CTR (choose the right) one.We finally bought the patterns and cool carving tools that everyone else has been using for years and Becca chose the skull in spite of my proteststo put on her little pumpkin. Mind of her own that one. Alaina wanted the 'cute-not-scary-BOO-Monster' for hers.

Ginny Weasley - aka Alaina

Ninja Garrett

Becca changed her mind and became a giraffe instead of the ladybug she wore to the church trunk or treat.

Kathryn the Kit Kat bar :)

Unfortunately I stayed home sick and Gregg took the rest out for the night - they had tons of fun.

Now on to the really good holidays - Since I don't have any Halloween or Thanksgiving music, Christmas music has been in my car for a week or so already - are the rest of you ready for carols, Thanksgiving, turkeys, pies, stuffing for turkeys and bellies,

and all the joys of this time of year?