I Took a Vacation. No Seriously, I Did. A Virgin Islands Adventure.

I'm sure it's hard to believe, but the long delay in posting (ok, not that long, but longer than my promise to post once a week minimum) is because I was on vacation in lovely, sunny, humid, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. St. Thomas is a beautiful island and it was really nice to get away from the hubbub of life in the DC area, relax, and see family. Yes, it's such a difficult trip to be forced to go to the Caribbean to see family. I don't know how I survive.

Storm clouds ahead of a setting sun on St. Thomas

In any case, this was my second trip to the US Virgin Islands. When I last went about 15 months ago, I took a day trip to St. John, which is predominantly a very green and very mountainous national park. This time, the excursion away from St. Thomas was to the British Virgin Islands. I know they say each island has its own personality, but that seems like a ridiculous thing to say. After all, there are only so many personalities to be had, and with these islands all so close to one another, they have to share that, at least. I, however, admit that I was wrong. Although I have yet to visit St. Croix, the rest of the US Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands are all very distinct. Which is a good thing.

Some of the rocks on the outskirts of the Baths

The day trip to the British Virgin Islands started off awfully early from St. Thomas, where we boarded our boat. We cruised to St. John to pick up a few more passengers, and then went on our way to Virgin Gorda to check in with British immigration and customs. Yay new stamp in passport! After a short walk around the Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour (with a "u" to designate its Britishness, because otherwise the people there have American accents and use the US dollar...), we returned to our catamaran and sailed down the coast of Virgin Gorda to the world-famous baths. Spectacular. Breathtaking. Amazing. Those are the words that come to mind to describe the rock formations and the pools. I unfortunately don't have any photos since it was a 70-yard swim from the boat to the beach, and then a 60-yard swim back, and I didn't want my camera getting wet.

Snorkeling

We then went to Scrub Island where we had lunch, got to play in a pool, and go down a water slide. But that was the boring part. Our next adventure was a short hop to Great Camanoe Island to go snorkeling. It was my first time snorkeling, but once I got the hang of how to breathe and not panic, it was super fun. The coral was massive and stunning. We also saw a couple of moon jellyfish (prompting our guide to say: "I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy." Finding Nemo if you didn't catch the reference). The guide caught one of the jellies--they're harmless, and this one was old and lacking tentacles--and I got to touch it. Squishy and slimy are the two best descriptors I can come up with, but how often does one intentionally touch a jellyfish without getting stung?

There were also brilliant fish, some massive, around the area. Near the surface swam a group of thin fish with very pointy noises that looked like they could skewer me if they wanted to, but thankfully they didn't. There was also a line of squid that reminded me the underwater worlds in the Mario games where you try to avoid them as you sail through. The squid just swam back and forth in perfect rhythm. I was astounded by just how well the different schools of fish interacted. They swam through, above, below, near, etc. each other, but each school had its own mission and it seemed as if nothing would take them off that mission.

We ended the day at the popular Jost Van Dyke, home of the Soggy Dollar Bar. Another great location, but not much more to tell than that. We returned to St. John and then headed back to St. Thomas, where the day was done. It was an amazing adventure in a short vacation, but I'm glad I got the chance to see a few more islands and their all very different personalities.

A spectacular view from Jost Van Dyke, just because:

And a song that I can't seem to get out of my head caps off this post. I have a lot of other things running through my mind, so there might (no promises!) be a series of rapid-fire posts coming up!