Our time is getting short here on St. John. We've been spending the last week exploring beaches, snorkeling, and swimming.
A few days ago we went to Trunk Bay, which is beautiful, but a little more crowded than we like.
I know it doesn't look crowded in this picture, but it was actually crowded (for St. John).
We've seen some iguanas:
And went for a hike on the east end. There were gorgeous views but a very precarious trail (if you could even call it that). We ended up at a small little bay that seems to have at one time been a construction site (although nothing was built as far as we could tell). The place was full of trash, which the children were delighted with, and coconuts, which they tried desperately (and futilely) to open. It was like watching Castaway starring my children instead of Tom Hanks.
Yesterday we went to Waterlemon Bay, which has a cay in it (a very small island just off shore, usually with good snorkeling). You have to hike to Waterlemon Bay, but it's a beautiful, flat hike which follows the water line. Waterlemon Bay is a rocky beach, but the snorkeling was gorgeous! Z and Nathan went out to the Cay and saw lots of great fish and color. Eden and I stayed closer to shore, but still saw so many different fish of all sorts of colors and sizes and shapes. It was amazing!
Walking the trail to Waterlemon Bay
The view alongside the trail. Breathtaking!
Panoramic of the view from the trail, with Z on the left and Nathan on the right.
That's the Cay.
These little red bugs were everywhere. Eden spotted this pile up.
Today we stumbled across the Catherineberg Ruins. They are the ruins of the Catherineberg sugar plantation and mill, built around 1718. This plantation had the only windmill on the island and became the headquarters for some of the leaders of the 1733 slave rebellion on St. John. (Incidentally, we had just been at the library and I found a book by Scott O'Dell called My Name Is Not Angelica, which is about the 1733 slave rebellion. The kids and I are going to read it together.) We've never seen these ruins before, and they are in fantastic condition, so it was a great find! The kids loved scampering all over the old buildings, and it's incredible to imagine the lives that centered on this little plot of land over the centuries.
The remains of the windmill
The windmill
A storage bin
Underneath the windmill. I'm having trouble finding good information about these ruins, so I'm not exactly sure what happened here. I assume it was the mill -- the windmill above turned some apparatus to crush the sugar cane (maybe?).
Z underneath the windmill
Eden inside the body of the windmill
Stairs going up into the body of the windmill
Looking up out of the windmill
Inside the body of the windmill. I don't know what those grooves are about.
Our first family picture of the vacation!
Brain coral used in the construction of the walls.
A panoramic of the windmill and the structure underneath it.
These ruins are just down the hill from the windmill. They look like the plantation house, although there were no signs, so I'm just guessing.
