Day 3, St. Thomas and St. John

In my hours (and hours and hours) of research planning for this trip, I decided that our plan for St. Thomas was to get up early and catch the 8 or 9 am ferry to St. John to spend the day at the beach, arriving in plenty of time to return to St. Thomas on the 2pm ferry. Unfortunately, Rip Van Winkle had other plans - Juliet slept until about 9 am, so by the time we got her up, ready, and fed (which involved a 20 minute wait in line for the buffet), it was 10 o'clock. We made our way out of the pier area and found the "dollar rides" bus which goes to the ferry at Red Hook for just $2 each. We made the 11 am ferry, but even with the short amount of time at the beach it was worth the trek. Here is the little ham on the ferry.












Even the water at the ferry dock on St. Thomas was spectacularly clear and aqua colored. I knew that we would be in for a treat once we got to the beach. This is a view of Trunk Bay from our taxi on St. John (and oh, what a taxi!).

The taxis are converted trucks where the bed is lined with benches and covered with a striped awning to protect from the sun and rain. Once again, there are no seatbelts, so the passengers hang on tight and pray that the driver will squeak by the oncoming traffic (what a wild ride!). The beach we chose, Cinnamon Bay, did not disappoint. I hate to say it, but it puts even the best beaches on Maui to shame. There is just nothing like the color and clarity of that water (sounds like I am talking about diamonds!). This is what I came to the Caribbean for.

We lounged on the beach and swam in the beautiful water, but had to head back long before we were ready. We caught the 2:15 ferry back to Charlotte Amalie (downtown), then a cab to the pier because Mr. lazy bones didn't want to walk back to the ship. If I had it to do over again, I would have grabbed some cheerios for everyone and gotten off of that ship and to the beach as early as possible. Cinnamon Bay has campsites and cabins, so maybe someday we can go stay there for a couple of weeks to make up for our quick departure this time. I cannot live the rest of my life without returning to that beach.