Virgin Islands Trip, Trunk Bay

That's Ken standing on the beach of Trunk Bay with our snorkel gear!

After a great day on the island of St. John, we decided to head there again the next day.  With the majority of the island being a national park, there was so much we wanted to see.  Unfortunately, we only had a couple of days left of our vacation so we had to choose from so many beautiful places on the island.  Since we love to snorkel, we chose to spend the day at Trunk Bay, which is known for its underwater snorkel trail.

After breakfast at the resort, we were once again on the ferry in Red Hook.

Again, we were treated to a beautiful ride from St. Thomas to St. John.  The first picture below is a little blurry, but it gives an idea of all the beautiful islands so close to each other.

After the ferry ride to St. John, we quickly found an open-air taxi and were on our way to Trunk Bay.  Again, the views from the hillside were amazing and I snapped the picture of Trunk Bay from the taxi.

Minutes later we were at Trunk Bay, which is a part of the National Park.  As luck would have it, we didn't have to pay the $4 per person entrance fee because all national parks were waiving their fees for the weekend.  

The wooded walkway had several entrances to the beach, just welcoming you to come in!

The beach was beautiful, but I don't think you'd find an unattractive beach on these islands!

Like Cinnamon Bay, this beach also had lots of natural shade underneath the bushes, where we grabbed our spot.

After snorkeling the underwater trail, we kicked back on the beach for a while and enjoyed the views!  To be honest, we loved the beach of Trunk Bay but the snorkeling wasn't the best.  The water was clear and beautiful, but this particular day didn't provide very many fish.  However, it was still a great time.

When we were ready to head back to town and catch the ferry, we took advantage of the clean showers and changed clothes.  We also noticed that there were camp sites along the path for rent ... what a cool place this would be to camp!

We grabbed the ferry back to St. Thomas, and once again were treated to beautiful sights.  If you look towards the center of the picture below you'll see a sailboat on the horizon among the islands ... love it!

We arrived back to the Sugar Bay Resort in time for a few evening cocktails at the pool bar.  That drink in my hand was a "Moonlight Sail", which was full of alcohol (will post recipe soon) but tricked me with its innocent taste.  Let's just say that after two of these drinks on an empty stomach ... I had to ask Ken what we ate for dinner!  Ahhh ... good times!  I'm such a lightweight, but luckily I passed out before 9pm so I was feeling fine early the next morning for our 8am ferry ride (only runs once a day) to Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands.  Thank goodness for alarms ... the only time we used one the entire vacation.  Thanks to Ken as well for setting it ... he knew there was no way I had!

Ken said that after dinner I kept trying to get him to go to the resort's casino and play blackjack with me.  Luckily, he got me to our hotel room instead because the next day was another great one.

More to come about Jost Van Dyke and two of its famous bars ... Foxy's and the Soggy Dollar!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Virgin Islands Trip, Cinnamon Bay

Our last post showed the little town of St. John, which we enjoyed exploring the morning that we arrived by ferry.  After a while, we were ready to catch a taxi to Cinnamon Bay, which I heard was really beautiful.  The taxis are pretty much open air trucks, which is much nicer in my opinion.  Who would want to ride in a typical closed-up car?  Riding through the hills with the breeze through my hair and the island scents ... nice!  Since the island of St. John is so small, it only took minutes to arrive at Cinnamon Bay.  The views on the way were beautiful, and I managed to take a quick picture (above) as we sped past this site in the taxi.

Across the street from the beach path was the "Cinnamon Bay" trail, which was a short path leading through ruins of a sugar plantation.  Interestingly, the ruins were occupied as late as the 1960's ... hard to believe!  Some of the ruins were from the house of the the supervisor.  The supervisor wasn't the owner of the plantation, as he lived on St. Thomas.   With the ruins located only about a mile from the beach, it seems that the supervisor had it pretty good!

Ken exploring the ruins and reading one of several plaques throughout the trail

The ruins also contained an old cemetery, which held the remains of the owner's family.  I wanted to get a closer look, but Ken was spooked.  He wasn't getting close and gave me a hard time about "walking on the dead".  In my defense ... I wasn't walking ON the tombstones, just around them!

The ruins that I'm sitting in front of were the supervisor's home.

The trail made a loop and took us back to where we began.  We walked across the street and these were some of the first views of Cinnamon Bay ... ahhh!

Although these two guys were windsurfing and it looks calm in these pictures, it was very windy and there were no beginners ... only these two guys.  They were really moving.  I definitely want to try this someday!

As expected, Cinnamon Bay was beautiful!  We sat for a few minutes and watched the windsurfers while absorbing the surreal beauty around us.  Since we wanted to be flexible and didn't know what the day would hold for us, we had packed our swimsuits and a towel into our "Pampered Pirate" backpack.  It didn't take long to determine that we needed to change clothes and get in that beautiful water!

After changing into our swimsuits we walked along the beach and noticed that although the beach was fairly crowded, it wasn't obvious.  The beach was lined with large sea grape bushes, which provided the perfect place to tuck yourself away under the shade of the bushes.  How nice to have natural shade!

This picture is kinda dark, but it shows the beach and natural shade!

Our "Pampered Pirate" waterproof backpack ... you can get one too!

The water wasn't only beautiful and clear, but it was just the right temperature.  Ken and I spent most of the afternoon at Cinnamon Bay, swimming and sunbathing.  The sand was soft and felt great on my feet!  Also, this particular beach had a lot of little seashells on it.  I was determined to find two little shells that were similar and good for making matching necklaces for me and my daughter.  I enjoyed searching for my "treasures", and I did find two cute little shells that will soon be on a little satin or leather chord.  Oh, and did I mention how perfect the weather was?!  Well, it was ... the entire trip!  After being used to the heat and humidity of Louisiana, having low humidity and a constant breeze was awesome.  It was like being on vacation or something!

Okay, here's the bikini shot!  Some of you may have read my post before our vacation about my personal challenge, and my efforts to get bikini ready for our trip.  In that post, I included a bikini picture from 15 years ago.  At 45, I think I'm doing pretty good at maintaining my weight.  I owe it all to exercise and discipline ... not luck!

After a great afternoon, we figured we'd head back to the restrooms for a quick rinse in the shower (very clean and convenient) and to change back into our clothes.  We had no idea what time it was ... no watch or cell phone.  We were getting into the "island time"!  Getting a taxi back into "town" was very easy, as there were several waiting in the beach's parking lot.  Once we were back in town we went to a bar that one of the guests at Sugar Bay told us about.  It was called "Cowboys" and was supposed to have a good "happy hour"  with great brisket sliders.  Ken and I love brisket and a good bargain, so we tried it out even though the place didn't sound very "island" like.  We really enjoyed the sliders and the $3 rum punch, but not the country music ... the one type of music we just don't get into.  The views made up for the music, since the bar was located right across from the water, the Visitor Center, and the dinghy dock.  We watched a few "cruisers" pull up in their dinghy, and imagined pulling up in our own dinghy someday.

Afterwards, we walked across the street to get a better look at the dinghys.  Just like the sailboats we saw, the dinghys were a little intimidating.  We recently bought a dinghy with an inflatable floor, and all the ones that we saw had hard bottoms ... damn it!  We did speak to a couple as they were tying up to the dock.  They appeared to be in their sixties, and they had been cruising for about 3 months.  They said they were learning a lot, but enjoying it!  I asked where they cruised from, and they said nearby in Tortola.  They decided to buy a sailboat that was already in paradise ... smart couple!

We then meandered to the beach nearby, where the ferry had dropped us off earlier that day.  We enjoyed another cocktail (and another happy hour) at a bar called "High Tide".  This bar was right on the beach, so the views were even better.  While kicking back, I noticed a little sign in the corner of the bar that said "Clearance - $5.00".  My frugal self had to check out the clearance rack.  I found an orange (my favorite color) tank top for 5 bucks!   I love a bargain and now had a shirt from St. John!

View from the beach at "High Tide"!

Ken tried "Banks Caribbean Lager", which he said was pretty good ... especially when sipping it at a beach bar on St. John!  You can see the bartender's "High Tide" shirt in the background.

The ferry back to St. Thomas runs every hour, so when we saw the ferry pull up to the dock we figured it was about time to head back to the Sugar Bay resort and enjoy a good dinner.  Like that morning, the 20-minute ferry ride was a lot of fun, with great views.  I snapped the shot below of St. Thomas as we approached and enjoyed the sunset! 

Ahhh ... another great day in paradise!  We had so much fun that we decided to spend the next day back on St. John so we could snorkel at Trunk Bay.  I'll have more about in the next post!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

A Personal Challenge!

I was looking over some old pictures the other day, and came across this old photo.  It was taken 15 years ago, when I was 30 years old.

With our upcoming trip to the Virgin Islands, I wondered if I could look like this for our trip.  With my frugal ways, I still have this bathing suit!

So, I'm challenging myself to step up my workout routine and get in shape like I was15 years ago!   I can tell you I won't have that tan.  When this picture was taken, I was going to the tanning booth.  While I loved my tan (this redhead does tan) and the relaxation of the booth, I didn't go to the booth very long because I knew how bad it was for me.  I'm glad I stopped!  I 've tried some sunless tanning lotions in the past, and they seemed to work pretty well, so I'm gonna try one of those again this year.

I"ve always been into fitness, have completed a few triathlons, and try to stay in shape.  Exercise is what keeps me going!   However, I'm going to have to push myself a little more to get ready for our trip.  Wish me luck!

Triathlon Days, 2005

BTW, that's my baby girl in the picture with me.  She just celebrated her 20th birthday last month ... wow!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Sailing At Last!

This past Saturday Ken and I escaped from our responsibilities for the morning and finally went sailing.  We woke up early and were off by 8 a.m.  The weather was perfect, with a nice wind and blue skies.

We were the only boat on Lake Pontchartrain, so we were able to practice sailing without any worries of other boats, or spectators. 

After having Nirvana in the in the boat yard for 2 1/2 months, and then having her home for 6 weeks with a broken water pump and rainy weekends, Ken was happy to actually be sailing her again.

... and so was I!

We started with just the head sail up, as we have never gone out without a friend on our sailboat or on another sailboat for support, or help!  There was a pretty good wind, and you can see the waves in the picture above.  The bridge connects Slidell (where we live) to New Orleans.

 After Ken steered a while and got a better feel of how Nirvana responds, he pulled out the head sail.  We didn't pull the head sail all the way out, as it was pretty windy and we didn't want too much too fast.

I have to admit I was a little nervous at first, since we had experienced once before how quickly things can get a little hairy when you're not experienced and it's a windy day.  But, after the head sail was up and I realized we were moving along just fine I was able to kick back and enjoy the music, the breeze, and the beautiful day.  We did a little tacking, and next time we'll try a few more things.  We stayed on the lake for a few hours, and then reluctantly headed back home to take care of those responsibilites that come with being a landlubber.  Too many, I might add!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!