Mood:
accident proneTopic: Loving...
This morning it was such a gorgeous morning that I just had to enjoy it on the deck overlooking the harbor... after an hour or so, it was breakfast time:
- fruit plate and pineapple passionfruit frappe
- pumpkin cream cheese muffins
- spinache quiche with Canadian bacon
Yum! We got dresses to take our day trip over to St. John. We ended up on the 11 a.m. ferry from Red Hook, and just chilled out in the car until we made it over there. OUr first stop was Mongoose Junction, where I just had to get my cocnut body cream from the Body Deli. I added a mint julep cream and a coconut lip balm this time to to pile and gushed to the owner about how much I adored the store- and she gave me a nice discount and held my purchases until we got back later in the afternoon so that the creams wouldn't melt in the car. We bought a slice of chocolate chip banana bread and an absolutely sinful slice of apple strudel at The Grotto Deli for our trip to Waterlemon Cay. Great way to start our day on St. John :)
We drove along the North Shore Road (encountering some road work along the way) all the way to the Annaberg Sugar Mill Ruins, where we parked to hike the Leinster Bay trail. We first passed the famous Trunk Bay, seen below:
Then we passed "OUR" bay, Francis bay!
It was a rather buggy, rocky 20 minute hike to Leinster Beach, and then we walked a little further on to an easier (i.e. closer) place to enter the water to swin around Waterlemon Cay, where we were expecting to see many beautiful sights- starfish, sea turtles, colorful fish of all kinds, etc. While hiking, we ran into this family who had alraedy snorkled around the cay. The father warned us about the jellyfish, saying that a jellyfish the size of a dinner plate had clamped onto his arm! It worried me, but I thought, "That would never happen to me! I'd see a jellyfsih that size coming from a mile away!" We finally entered the water in a shallow area, and while we were adjusting our gear, a small nurse shark about 3 feet in lenghth passed us by our feet. I should have known right then it was not going to be a good day.
Right away we saw many beautiful sights- colored fish like on this poster:
We started snorkeling counterclockwise around the island and saw a cool sea turtle about 3 feet in length eating seat grass on the bottom. It looked like this one, a Hawksbill turtle:
While I was entranced watching the sea turtle, Walter was being stalked by a 5 foot long baracuda!
I kid you not. Thank the Lord I did not see that myself! We stayed close to each other after that, and in fact, when I finally did see the large blob of jellyfish over my right shoulder, I smacked right into him in my efforts to get the heck out of dodge! When I was hightailing it outta there, I swam directly into a "school" full of baby jellyfish- all about the size of a large grape. Sort of like these, but smaller and more or them- they were EVERYWHERE!
At first I was okay, just swimming a little closer to the small island to avoid them, but they were even MORE of them closer to shore! We swam into deeper water, but they were there! As our arms brushed past them, we did feel some stings, although it wasn't excruitiating, I started to hyperventilate and I could feel my heart pounding harder and harder. It was beating so fast I thought surely it would bust right out of my chest. Much to my dismay, I started crying and freaking out inside my snorkel, until Walter told me, "Enough baby, you are okay...lets swim to shore...you can do it! Swim Jamie!" I swam as fast as I could, and it took us about 10 minutes of solid swimming for us to get back into shallow water and almost 30 minutes for my breathing to get back under control! I ran out of the water and sat panting on the shore, pulling on my clothes and drying off, while thanking God that it was only tiny jellyfish and marveling at my first (and last) panic attack.
On the hike back to the car, I felt so sorry that we hadn't made it around to the side of the cay where the jellyfish were, but by the time we had driven down the road to "our" bay, I had mostly fogotten my disappointment.
How could I not forget with this beauty?
Our bay was beautiful, practically deserted, and we wished we had just gone there to relax the day away. We did make one more stop on the way at a beach I wanted to check out, Hawksnest Bay. Truly gorgeous as well:
On our way back to to catch the ferry back to St. Thomas, we stopped again at the Grotto Deli for:
- Cape Cod chips- yum
- curry chicken salad sandwich (rather wet)
- roast beef, turkey, and cheddar on toasted rye (super YUM- Walt's of course)
- Orange "kiss me" Cake
We also bought a few goodies to enjoy back at our BnB and picked up my creams from The Body Deli. We saw two cuties lurking around the Deli- they must have gotten lots of attention from tourists because they were very friendly:
Once back in Charlotte Amalie, we showered, dressed, and headed out to a local hangout called Bella Blu. We got:
- garlic bread
- a so-so greek salad
- pesto cream basil pasta with chicken (Walt)
- stuffed chicken with feta, spinach, mashed potatoes and mixed veggies (me)
- a white chocolate/milk chocolate mousse- the only thing worth showing you was, of course this
After we finished up, we drove back to the hotel. As we were walking in, this guy was walking up the hill from town. I didn't know it, but Walter was watching him the whole time, but I didn't see him until we were right at the door to the villa, where I said "Oh!" and Walter, jumped, thinking the man had made some kind of threatening move towards me. We both rushed in the villa door and locked it quickly behond us, and then Walter turned to me exasperated, and said, "What did he do?" I laughed and said, "Nothing, he just spooked me!"
That was the second terrifying even of the day, but the worst was yet to come. I fell asleep rather quickly, while Walter watched TV in bed next to me. The next thing I knew, it was 2:15 a.m. and shots were being fired right outside our hotel! We heard several rounds of gunfire back and forth for the next 15 minutes, and then it quieted down. Of course, it wasn't really right outside our door, but down in the town. It just sounded like it was right outside the hotel. Another barrage of machine gun fire erupted around 3:30, followed by a deathly stillness, then around 4 we heard yet another round. I tried to sleep, but it was a nervous, fitful sleep at best. Th worst is that we heard no sounds, no voices, only a single dog barking. I lay there quietly in Walter's arming, while he lay there plotting what we would do if "something popped off." The thoughts of experience. Things never "pop off" in the small town I grew up in. Hey, thank goodness for that.
