Well, after a year and a half of plans and waiting, we finally took our trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands with Ander's family, his dad Kelly, his step-mom Janell, his brother Joel, and his half-sister Hannah. This post is going to have a lot of pictures, just be warned. Also, we had underwater cameras, but we need to get those developed before I can scan them into my computer to post them. So those will come later.
We arrived on St. John's island on Saturday May 14th and it was beautiful! We stayed at the Westin and had a two bedroom villa on the 3rd floor. This is what we were able to see every morning off of our balcony:
A lot of green, a lot of water, and a lot of boats. It was so pretty! That evening we took a tour of our resort. It got dark around 6pm-ish there, but Ander still managed to find a snail. Escargot anyone?
Gross. They were also lighting the tiki torches along the beach as we were walking by, so Ander pulled his best Haka impression... even though we weren't anywhere neat Hawaii. (That's for you, Dad)
It's pretty good, don't you think?
Every morning there were these iguanas hanging out on the rocks right below our villa. Every morning! They were huge, and awesome. And of course, Ander being male, had to get closer to them, but when he got really close they hissed at him and ran away... They were all over the island: in the bushes, trees, on the roads, in the grass... they were everywhere!
See? They look angry. Kelly actually tried to nudge one with his suitcase and the iguana almost attacked him! Vicious.
We snorkeled almost every single day we were there. One day it rained so much we couldn't really go anywhere, but that was alright. Our skin needed a break from the sun. The beaches were beautiful and the snorkeling was pretty good. We saw all sorts of things: sea turtles, stingrays, moray eels, all sorts of different fish, starfish, and even sharks!
Here's the offspring crew. Joel wore a full wetsuit to protect himself from the sun and other things lurking in the water. Pretty smart if you ask me... I hate the feel of seaweed around my ankles. He also never really got sunburned.
Ander, Joel, and Hannah
And of course Ander had to build some sort of sand-something, so he built a sand fish. That's right folks, a sand fish... coming up out of the ground. I thought it was pretty good!
The beaches were so pretty! The water was VERY blue and the sand was really, really soft. It was so wonderful! Janell: "Hannah! Did you know you're sitting in Parrot Fish poop?"
Hannah: "....."
We all start to giggle.
Hannah loved the sand. She was always absolutely covered by the time we left each beach. Did you know that sand is actually Parrot Fish poop? Yeah, neither did I. Apparently they eat coral and turn it into sand. My opinion of sand has changed, needless to say.
The icing on the snorkeling cake was when Ander and Kelly got to see and swim with a 4 foot Black Tip Reef shark at one of the bays we went to. They were so far out in the water, if I would have gone, I don't think I would have made it back. Like I said, underwater pictures will come soon. We need to get them developed first.
"Ander, I really need to go to the bathroom..."
"Just go in the water"
"I can't! It just doesn't feel right"
"Pretty sure I've peed like, six times already"
"...Thanks for that."
-Snorkeling with Ander is always an adventure
Ander found the TINIEST hermit crab I've ever seen in my life on the way back to the car one day. Teeny weeny.
We ate a lot of really good food on the island, and one of my favorite things we found was a little hot sauce bottle with a tiny little sun hat on it!
They also had the tiniest little Ketchup, Mustard, and Mayonnaise jars I've ever seen.
Not to mention the Wendy's we went to once had Barqe's Red Cream Soda ON TAP! That was pretty amazing. Never seen that before. Also, everyone drove on the left side of the street there. It was really strange and I don't think I ever really got used to it.
But then on the way home I started thinking about driving on the right and I couldn't picture it...
One of the coolest things we did was a tour with a park ranger about sea life. We waded out to our shins in water and turned over rocks finding all sorts of cool little buggers.
We found Sea Eggs
And Brittle Stars (my favorite is the bright green one)
And we found small sea urchins too
And they move!!!!
We also found small crabs, sea slugs, sea cucumbers, and TWO Black Tip Reef sharks! They were really small and swam away really quickly, but we saw them! We also found Conch shells, and even one with a Conch inside, but my picture didn't turn out very good :/ It was such an educating experience, I had no idea all of that was just hanging out in such shallow water. It was a lot of fun.
Finally our trip came to an end, this here is me and Ander outside the Cruz Bay Prime, and delicious restaurant located right in our resort. It was our last supper.
Flying home was extremely long. We flew on three planes that day. And our first plane was this little guy:
Yup, that plane fit about 12 people, and Ander sat right behind the pilot!
It was pretty surreal flying over the islands in such a tiny little plane. And we said goodbye to St. John. Beautiful islands, wonderful vacation.
We were very pleased with our trip. It was the vacation we desperately needed. We woke up when we wanted, we never knew what time it was, and Ander could swim for hours with his kin... I've always said he was a fish in his former life. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, and have a lot of good memories. I will scan the developed pictures when we get them, and Kelly has also graciously agreed to e-mail us his pictures as well, since he took some that I'd like to put on here. I'd like to thank Kelly and Janell for taking us on such a great trip. These tan lines will remind me for years to come of our fantastic vacation together.
