The Last Lil Bit

 

Still snorkel tour day. the guide said try windmill bar and boy what a view overlooking hawksnest bay etc. it was $5 to park and you know me i wasn't happy about that but in this islands economy it was worth it.

dunno where this black came from but it wouldn't come off

double rainbow!

It was jens idea, we hired a private chef. it was awesome, it was expensive or course but worth it. No one wanted to go to town for 45 min up and down those roads for a fancy dinner and have to go back afterwards. Erin Pryor of Coral Bay Catering and forgot the name of sous chef made a beautiful night for us as we drank sunset cocktails and the nice bottles of wine we brought for this purpose

grouper, eel reduction sauce, forgot what else

forgot what this was, it was local greens though, which we were wishing we could buy but nowhere sells stuff like this

lobster on top of filet mignon on top of crazy good mashed potatoes on top of crazy good mushrooms and cream and brussels sprouts

challah bread home made icecream baked icecream

just wanted to stay in the hot tub under the stars drinkin seltzers all night

everyone wanted to be lazy the next day but i had a mission and i could see it from our hilltop house. There, Pelican rock, they said the snorkeling around it is awesome. The plan was to kayak to that lil beach on the right and avoid the owners of the beach which was plausible cuz that lil sandy section of beach was kinda separate from the rest. then swim out and snorkel pelican rock. it ended up not being dangerous at all, seems like all the snorkel spots are so protected there are just no waves. It was stormy before so the water was full of particulate and not great visibility but was still cool because it was OUR snorkel trip. of course we drank seltzers on the shore after and it was a blast (bobby motion sick tho and feeling bad)

we picked up supporting dishes for dinner several times over the trip at places in Coral bay like pates from Ekaete and stuff from Johnny Lime.

In the morning I ran down to the snorkel spot by the house to try to snorkel with the turtles that we always see in the mornings coming up for air but i didn't see any and then later saw them right where i was! It was a rush going down there by myself, nothing but the vast ocean ahead of me, low visibility, just toodlin' around the warm waters looking for turtles. Almost makes me want to cry, something about it being the last few minutes of our trip and i'm just floating out there in the blue, an insignificant little speck in the vast ocean with the fish who don't know what time is, they just are, and they still just are and they're out there in the beautiful blue azur waters of St John which seems like a million miles away sitting here in this brooklyn apartment which is very much somewhere, sometimes too much somewhere. 

We had to drop off jeeps at 10am with a full tank. of course they didnt have the cheapest 87 gas they only had the next level up. as we waited for the ferry we drank more painkillers, then had lunch and more painkillers, then the ferry and then taxi van to the airport (a PRIVATE one this time) and then another painkiller as we all waited for our flights. Trying to squeeze as much out of the trip at the end as possible.

parent's flight was before ours to rochester. HAPPY 50th ANNIVERSARY mom and dad, I hope it was a good week, thanks for having us, thanks for paying SO much money for the house and tours etc, and here's to 50 more years!!!! :::)

Snorkel Tour

mom booked a kayak snorkel trip. everyone who does tours are expats, locals don't do it. There's gotta be a lot of factors going on here

an octopus in its nest

southern sting ray

baracuda

kinda big and swim straight at you so here's me freaking out and trying to swim away from it path

The spotted eagle ray, the feather in the cap of my snorkeling career

green turtle

funny looking, people just look funny in general snorkeling

fyi all these pictures are from the tour guide's waterproof little consumer camera that they later sell the photos to you for $45

brain coral

porcupine fish

St Johns 50 - Bobs Best Day Ever

Bob's best day ever started with an 8am call time meaning we had to leave at 7:15am meaning he had to wake up at like 6am. Bob gets motion sick and he thought maybe this time gummies would help him

things were going cool, we saw a little shark, it rained a little but we were in the water so we were warm. But then on the way to the next spot it started getting stormy, the waters got rough and we were haulin' A in our little boat and hit many waves and hit a big 6 footer he said which means scary. By then bob was hanging on for dear life with 2 hands, in the back of the boat, puking over the side and getting hit with wind and water due to our high speed, for like 20 minutes. I didn't take a photo of this out of respect for bob but i should have

we snorkeled the mangroves at hurricane hole, very cool environment.  As we left hurricane hole bob was puking again.

we were having a swell time, the sun came out, we went to the floating pizza boat but bob just had to lay on a cooler in the back of the boat as the boat rocked back and forth relentlessly as we ate fresh pizza and cocktails.

A new day

the rest of the fam declined so we went to hike some cinnamon bay trail up to the america hill ruins

termites

these things are BIG

matching

awesome thing about st john's is you can go from hiking immediately to snorkling. I sat on this rock and my wallet fell out of my pocket which i didnt realize until we got home. The sea did not win though! We went back the next day and they had my wet wallet at some desk and said someone found it in the water. Wow! my license and credit cards were in the slots but all the interior contents which included $105 and a completely filled wine store punch card word $32 and random business cards were gone. I'm guessing they just got washed away by the sea but I do hope some local found that money and not a tourist.

a few games of Yut Nori before bed