St. John, USVI Getaway, Part 3

Friday we went a bit more laid back and didn't travel far in our car, but rather caught a 3/4 day trip on a boat near to our rental house.  It was on a 55 foot catamaran which took us to Christmas Cove off St. Thomas for some snorkeling and a pizza from a food boat (instead of a food truck).  It was so neat to call and order the pizza, then someone hopped in a dingy to pick it up after we were done snorkeling.  We saw some amazing fish and reef at this stop.  We spent the rest of our time sailing around the bay and exploring some of the cays.  Our last stop was Honeymoon Beach where we saw a few more sea turtles and splashed in the waves.  It was an awesome experience, but I think it is safe to say that our Maine family was not really made to be able to withstand the sun or heat of the Caribbean.  Everyone is looking forward to a bit of time out to the sun tomorrow;)

Saturday was a demanded "do nothing day" by the kids. Some of them were a bit disappointed to realized that this did not equal a time to watch television (despite the 5 in this house!), but they quickly recovered and settled in to playing pool, cards, and reading books.  This has been an awesome vacation for book reading with our crew.  They spent their Christmas gift certificates to our local bookstore before we left, but they had to save their books for this trip.  It has worked out so well that they are all sharing them, reading to each other, and seem to just really be enjoying this downtime.

As the day wore on we were able to convince them to try out a beach we hadn't been to yet and with the promise of no snorkeling and just playing in the sand they were sold.  We spent a few hours exploring Hawksnest Beach this afternoon.  It was really a perfect spot with some shade, some waves, great sand, and plenty of coral to explore for those who chose to.

We wrapped up our relaxing day with time in the pool and the dinner Ben prepared of chicken fingers and cucumbers.  On a funny side note, the oven in our rental house doesn't work, but we didn't realize this until after we had grocery shopped.  So, we have become experts at using the grill as an oven.  So far we have cooked frozen french fries, chicken fingers, and even cookies... only the best gourmet for when we are on vacation;)