Waiting for Christmas while in Bradenton, and in our continuing quest to visit all 398 National Parks and historic monuments, we made a spur of the moment decision to go to the U.S Virgin Islands for a few days. Our good friend, Mallorie Fisher, is a travel agent (specializing in cruises) and found us a really good deal with airfare and hotel on St. Thomas. So off we went.
We stayed at the Marriott Frenchman's Reef Hotel in Charlotte Amalie, the largest town on St. Thomas. We had a nice room near the beautiful white sand beach which had some nice snorkeling at one end. The hotel has a beautiful patio with an infinity pool and pool-side bars, and is a great place to enjoy a cocktail while watching the sun set and cruise ships arriving and departing.
Our first day we ventured into Charlotte Amalie and climbed the 99 steps to Blackbeard's Castle. Don visited it when he was in the Navy back in the 1950s. I'm pretty sure he climbed those 99 steps a lot faster back then.
The next day we took the ferry to St. John's to visit the National Parks Visitor Center for the U.S. Virgin Islands National Park and the Coral Reef National Monument. About 90% of St. John's is part of the National Park while the Coral Reef National Monument protects much of the surrounding ocean. The waters are amazingly clear and turquoise blue and are teeming with exotic tropical fish and beautiful coral. We visited Trunk Bay where I snorkeled for quite a while following its underwater trail. Beautiful day.
On Wednesday we took a day trip on the Breakaway, with skipper Lindsey and first mate Hillary, and 19 other travelers. After a bouncy trip from St. Thomas to Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands, we hiked to 'the Baths' where huge boulders frame the beaches and form hidden pools and hideaways. It was very unusual and lots of fun.Returning to the boat, we went to Marina Cay for a delicious lunch at Pusser's, a small resturant on a very small island. We then spent a bit of time snorkeling on Diamond Reef. There were a lot of fish - some people saw a 4-foot shark - and lots of beautiful and colorful coral. I think it is the prettiest coral formations I have ever seen while snorkeling.
Our last stop was on the small island of Jost Van Dyke where we had to swim to shore to enjoy a drink at the Soggy Dollar Bar which got its name, of course, from the wet dollars we all had after our swim in. It was a wonderful day, highlight of our trip.
On our last full day, Don played golf at Mahogany Run and only lost two balls on its famous 'Devil's Triangle' challenging holes. I spent the day snorkeling in Secret Harbor; although I didn't encounter any sea turtles, I did see a bright green eel and a small school of cuttlefish which I had never seen in previous snorkeling trips.
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