Day 4: St. Thomas

So, I'm going to apologize for the long, drawn out, daily travel review. Feel free to skip this if you are getting a little worn out with "Erin's lovely vacation review... again." For those of you, like me, who just can't get enough of seeing beach pictures, cool places, and reading about new places, then continue, enjoy!

So day 4 was the beautiful St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Funny actually, we only spent a few minutes on the actual island of St. Thomas. When I found out our itinerary had changed (the day before leaving) I printed tons of information on St. Thomas and where all the cool places were to visit. Turns out, most reviews said, take a ferry from St. Thomas to a small island called St. John. So that's what we did. The very second we stepped off the ship, just walking across the street, we were greeted by this:

I couldn't believe my eyes! Had we stopped at the zoo? Nope! And then just as quickly as we saw it, he was gone.

We quickly found a taxi to take us to the other side of the island to catch the ferry. The only problem was the ferry left in 15 minutes and we had a 20-25 minute drive ahead of us. We told the taxi driver we wanted to make the ferry. He did not take our request lightly. So we all hopped in the 12 passenger taxi van and away we went! Speeding through residential streets, barely wide enough to fit 2 cars; driving on the left side of the road; topping out at speeds around 70mph; up and down hills; winding narrow roads, and blind corners. Yeah, I have to admit, I think I saw my life flash before my eyes. But it worked out! We got to the ferry terminal just as they were getting ready to shut the gate. We made the trip in just under 15 minutes!

After a 20 minute scenic ferry trip across the ocean, we arrived at the beautiful little island of St. John. This mini sailboat was our welcoming committee...

A local then came up and asked if we wanted to rent a jeep. After the expensive taxi experience we had in the Bahamas, we opted for the jeep! The four of us jumped in and away we went! (on the wrong side of the street still!!!) The roads were narrow, but lush and green. Matt did well adjusting to driving on the wrong side of the street. There were so many places to stop and take pictures...it was a photographer's paradise!!!! If only I could have all my photo shoots here!!!We drove to a beach called Trunk Bay. When walking to the entrance, the blueness of the water was breathtaking:

It was a beautiful beach that had some great snorkeling. There were underwater plaques describing the kind of fish and coral you were looking at. So it was sort of a guided tour without the tour guide! There were very unique plants and fish I hadn't seen before. (sorry, I don't have the "old fashioned" film from the under water camera developed yet.) The beach was so scenic and sooo relaxing...just what the dr. ordered!!

This is a view from the road overlooking the amazing Trunk Bay. It's like a scene taken right out of a magazine, except we could feel the ocean breeze on our face...ahhh....

In the parking lot to Trunk Bay were these cool ruins. I don't know what it used to be, I just thought they were so awesome! (Again, if only I could do all my photo shoots here!!!)

So after snorkeling, and relaxing, and swimming, and relaxing a little more, we jumped back in the jeep and drove off to explore the island. St. John did not disappoint. It was extremely beautiful. I had Matt pull over so many times so I could take pictures, it almost would have been faster to walk! Well...except for that mountainous part that Matt drove like we were being chased or something! It was super fun! We stopped to take in sights like this...

Then at the top of the road, the view was awesome. It was starting to rain, so the visibility wasn't super clear, but you could still see the amazing view. We stopped for some local island smoothies and a view of this...

Then it was starting to get late and we decided we'd better get the jeep returned and get on the ferry back to St. Thomas. We tried to hurry, but by the time we stopped for gas and took a very crowded one way street back, we missed the ferry...by only 2 minutes!! We looked like caged animals reaching through the gate shouting, "Come on! Please! Let us get on!" But to no avail. The ferry left. So now we had an hour to kill, in the rain, until the next ferry. So what do you do? SHOP! We found this awesome local shop that sold local made jams, and hot sauces and some delicious chocolate covered apricots....mmm...yummy. Then we found a pay phone and called home. We got to talk to all the kids and hear their sweet voices.

We made sure to get to the ferry 15 minutes early, and make sure we didn't miss this one! If we had missed it, we would have missed our cruise ship leaving port!! We got on the ferry and made our way back to St. Thomas. We got a taxi and headed back to the ship. We rode in the taxi with this super funny couple from Baltimore.

After making it back to the port, I had to go into one more shop, and then we headed back to the ship. We were supposed to be back on board by 7:30pm, so Matt and I walked up right at 7:30pm. You have to take advantage of every minute right? This was the cool night view of our ship...

At this point, we were hungry and headed straight for the buffet. And then a nice relaxing dip in the hot tub topped off this awesome day.