st. thomas: day 3 (part 2: st. john's beaches)

After lunch and shopping in Cruz Bay, we got some pamphlets on where we could find the best snorkeling and set out in the Jeep.  We meant to go to Trunk Bay, a pretty famous one with an underwater trail, but it cost $4/person to get on the beach and parking was a nightmare, so we passed it up.  The first beach we did stop at was really beautiful but there wasn't much to see underwater, so after swimming around awhile we got back in the car and headed to a beach where we were sure to find something.  After a .8 mile hike along a rocky trail we ended up on a secluded beach and it was totally worth the walk.  So many great reefs and fish to be seen (got really worn out from swimming though!)

st. thomas: day 3 (part 1: arrival to st. john)

I guess the title of this post is less than accurate, seeing as we spent the day on St. John and not St. Thomas, but I have a title theme going so whatever.  On Tuesday morning, we got up and drove to Red Hook on St. Thomas to catch the car ferry over to nearby St. John.  This is the day from which I have the most pictures (364) so to cover it all it will take a couple of posts.  Here are some photos from the trip over and our time spent wandering around Cruz Bay before taking to the precarious roads in search of good snorkeling.  

st. thomas: day 2 (part 2: coki point beach)

After donning our swimsuits and lathering up with plenty of sunscreen, we piled in the Jeep and headed across the island to our first beach destination: Coki Point Beach.  First, though, we had to make a stop at the Kmart to pick up some snorkel gear.  We finally arrived at our destination, were directed to park by some locals standing in the parking lot, and escorted to the shore past a graveyard and between some beach bars.  We were welcomed to Coki Point and told that it boasted the best snorkeling on the island...or was it in the whole Caribbean?  The locals asked if we wanted to rent any chairs ($5 each) and we settled in a partly shaded spot among some rocks.  After some fuss with getting all the snorkeling stuff out of the plastic packaging, we flopped into the water (so clear and blue--it was my first time being in tropical water like that).  I was armed with my Pentax Optio W90 (waterproof point and shoot) as well as a questionable waterproof housing for my DSLR that had a history of letting water in (but my brother took some silicone to the leaky spot and I hoped for the best).  Swimming with a DSLR in a puffed up plastic bag is a lot of work!

st. thomas: day 2 (part 1: from the deck)

Monday morning I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep.  A few hours later when I finally got out of bed, the sun still wasn't up and I felt like death (if you read my last post, you know that this is because I had a bit too much rum and not enough food the day before).  Evin and I sat on the deck anyway, basking in the warmth of the Caribbean, watching the sun come up over the mountains and the Carnival ship dock at the port.  Instead of feeling better, I continued to feel worse and eventually had to force down a cup of tea, some Emergen-C, and a piece of toast, which helped.  While recovering, I shot some tilt-shift photos off the deck (finally!  a high vantage point to make the lens do what it was made to do) before we put on our swimsuits and headed to the beach.  Of course, there are far too many photos from the beach to include in this post, and I've got some reading to do for class (blech!) so these few photos from the porch will have to do for now.  Slowly but surely I will share my trip--I promise! (and hopefully Blogger starts to cooperate again--I've been having issues with uploading photos and selecting more than one at a time to insert into the post.  When I start getting into longer posts, that's going to get really annoying!)

st. thomas: day 1

Last Sunday before 4am we were awake and headed to the airport to start our spring break adventure.  My parents, brother, boyfriend and I crammed in the car with our bags and headed to the airport.  Our flight left at 6am for Chicago and from there we'd head down to the Caribbean.  My parents had a direct flight and spent considerably less time in transit, but they still had to wake up and take us to our early plane, and they got to St. Thomas ahead of us to pick up the rental car.  They took us to our house for the week--practically a palace compared to the surrounding residences (the place belongs to a friend of a friend of my dad's, who happens to be a pretty wealthy real estate guy.  We got lucky)--and we had a drink before heading out for happy hour/dinner.  After tacos and pineapple and rum drinks, we went back home to swim in the pool or whatever.  I actually ended up drinking more than I should have and getting sick on the first night (I hadn't eaten much all day and they make the drinks stronger there, it turns out) which wasn't pleasant (and neither was the next morning).  Fortunately, I learned my lesson and didn't have that problem again for the rest of the week.
There weren't many great photos from the first day, but there are a few to illustrate the course of events anyway.

I was done with this book shortly into the second flight (I was rereading it anyway).  I followed it up with another Vonnegut book...and another...

quadcam, first roll

Just got to see the scans from the first roll through my quadcam (this post) and they actually sort of exceed my expectations.  Being a toy camera, I wasn't sure of its capabilities in low light, but with 400 film it didn't do too badly!  I look forward to using it during the spring and summer for more color and all that good stuff.  

new england

I read a short story in Kurt Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House last night before falling asleep on the couch that reminded me wonderfully of the days I spent in New England a few summers ago.  The story, entitled Where I Live, was set on Cape Cod.  Although I think I prefer the south, I tend to love all coastal places and today I went through the Facebook album I'd created from my trip up north.  My photography was a bit different then (August 2009), but the photos, especially as a cohesive album, brought me smiles (and further excitement for my trip to a coastal location in a few short days!)