Tuesday, June 16, 2009

More on our trip.

One of our days was spent on the island of St. John. Thankfully we had finally gotten used to driving on the "wrong" side of the road and were able to enjoy the gorgeous scenery that surrounded us.

Here we are with Jay and Emily. Funny story. We ended up at Trunk Bay for some snorkeling. There was a snack bar there where you could get burgers and hot dogs. The lady there warned EVERY SINGLE PERSON to BE CAREFUL and cover your food. The seagulls we quite aggressive and they had been known to steal your food. Brian and I covered ours up with napkins in order to avoid losing our lunch to the sweet little birds or the rain that had suddenly moved in. Jay, thought that his thumb would divert the birds enough to make it across the clearing to the little store on the other side. Lesson for the day...seagulls are NOT afraid of your thumbs. In fact, I think it made the attack that much more enjoyable for them! There were about five or six seagulls that dive bombed Jay, then one swooped in for the burger! Jay left with an empty tummy, but thankfully he still had his thumbs!!


This was taken at Coki Beach. We ventured here to try our hand at Snuba. It is a combo of snorkel and scuba. You have a tank like you would if you were scuba diving, but it stays on the surface in a little raft. You are tethered to it so you can only go down 20 feet. I am VERY claustrophobic so I was really worried about freaking out. I had almost managed to talk myself out of our adventure. (Little did I know, Big Daddy had already told my parents that he KNEW I would chicken out!) I sucked it up and decided that if I didn't like it I could just go back to the top and snorkel. I was SOOOO glad I did because it was seriously one of the coolest things I have ever done. It was like being in a swimming pool FULL of tropical fish! I did have a near miss with a bunch of sea urchins! Thanks to the warning of one of the guys with us I missed coming home with a belly full of sea urchin spines!

This was taken just moments before Big Daddy....wait for it....CHICKENED OUT!!!! Things were going swimmingly (ha!) until I looked around and found Big Daddy at the surface. I was worried that his ear was giving him trouble since his eardrum ruptured back in the spring. However, when I came to the top he revealed that he had totally freaked out! In his defense, I think they put too much weight in his belt and he was having to fight a little too hard to stay off the bottom. But don't worry, I didn't rub it in...too much.

Speaking of rub, one of our activities that we could choose from for the week was a spa treatment. You know we jumped on that opportunity. We decided to go ahead and treat ourselves to a second massage. Big Daddy also surprised me with a facial as well! I have never had one and it was great.

There was only one problem with all of the relaxing. (Here it is, the back injury story!) On Saturday there was a farewell dinner for us on the beach.

I was sipping a pina colada just taking in the whole scene. The tables looked so pretty, the lights, the food...it looked like something from a movie. When all of the sudden one little sip ended up in the wrong spot and I choked. Nothing major, just a couple of big coughs...no big deal. WRONG! One of the big coughs was accompanied but a hot and blinding pain that shot through my lower back! Shortly after, I could not move. It was awful. Big Daddy thought I was making it up. Best of all....we had to fly home the next day. I think I was just too relaxed. Is that possible? It seems as though I "rotated a vertebrae." Whatever I did, it smarts.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Jost Van Dyke

**Pronounced Yost Van Dyke**
From A Little Bit of Life

This was the best day of our vacation. This island is in the Brittish Virgin Islands and there are very few people that actually live on it. We sailed there stopping halfway to snorkel here.

From A Little Bit of Life
Someone told us they call this "Two Butt Beach" because that's about all you can fit on it!

We arrived at Foxy's and ate a DELICIOUS meal.

From A Little Bit of Life
People take their shirts off, sign them and hang them from the ceiling. The floor is sand and it is VERY relaxed. Not nearly as relaxed as the next bar we went to. Ivan's stress free bar. You walk up, write down the drink you want and then fix it yourself! You keep a tally of the drinks you take and put your money in the tackle box full of cash.

It was rather funny when I ordered a Coke at Foxy's. I said, "I would like a Coke please." The bartender looked at me for a second and said, "A Coke and....what?"

From A Little Bit of Life

Big Daddy was trying to convince me to run home, grab the kids and bring them back to live on the island. I laughed...he didn't.


From A Little Bit of Life


This was taken on the boat...looks like shoes and clothes are not the only thing we need to special order! I will keep that in mind when we buy a new sailboat.