Last summer, Chris and I decided that we needed to take a vacation, just the two of us, to someplace warm this winter. After researching various places to go, we booked our tickets and rented a condo in sunny St. Croix!! Thank God for credit cards that allow you to earn airline miles, because that's the main way we were able to afford this. Our parents are splitting the time staying at our house with Boo and the dogs while we've been gone and, so far, it sounds like they've had a great time together. We are so thankful that they were able to arrange their schedules to help us out. I will admit, it was H-A-R-D to leave our sweet boy, especially the day after he had his tooth pulled last week! In the 20 months since he's been home, I have only been away from him for four nights total, and two of those nights, Chris was with him. Talk about withdrawal!! We have been looking at our own blog almost daily to see pictures of him as well as video that's on here...jeesh...do ya think we miss him much?!?! (So if you've had a hit on your blog from the Virgin Islands, that was me. :) )
Anyways, back to our trip. After spending an entire day traveling to get down here, we picked up our rental car and found our condo...with only one wrong turn to get here. Pretty good, considering it was dark, the roads are very curvy, we're driving up and down hills, and you have to drive on the left side of the road! We've spent a lot of time just relaxing at a few beaches and the pool at our condo complex. We have a great view of the Caribbean from our balcony and the beach is pretty much just out our front door...amazing!! (This was one of three places we looked at on-line to rent and are so glad we chose it. We have driven or walked past the other two and definitely made the best choice as far as location, facilities, and up-keep of the place.) Besides soaking up the sun, we've also taken a snorkel trip to Buck Island, driven to Point Udall which is the easternmost point of the United States, done some shopping, gone on a tour of the Cruzan Rum factory (with free taste testing afterwards...yum!), and Chris got to go SCUBA diving as well. We haven't really taken all that many pictures, but here are a few of our good ones:
the view from our balcony
Chris relaxing on our first morning
at Point Udall (it's been pretty windy the entire time we've been here)
up close of the iguanas joining us at the pool
our two iguana friends
On our way to the snorkeling area at Buck Island, a school(?) of dolphins was swimming around the boat. The lady captain stopped and asked if anyone wanted to get in and swim with them...Chris was so excited, he couldn't get his gear on fast enough! That was fun to watch. And the crew got some underwater video of the dolphins that they said they would email us; if they do, I'll get it put up here to watch, I promise.
a beach we stopped at briefly before going on to the other side of Buck Island
boats...Chris loves boats. period.
Chris (in the yellow) going for his first of his two-tank dive at a place called "The Wall" off of Cane Bay Beach. This is unique because instead of having to take a boat out, they just walk out from the beach and eventually get to a point where the sea floor drops away. He really enjoyed it and got to see a few things he's never seen before: a frogfish, garden eels, and a reef shark, among other things.
an example of what they mean when they say you're "on island time" when you're here!!
Today is our last day here and, wouldn't you know, we woke up to cloudy skies and rain. But after going through the rum factory tour and getting lunch, the sun came out and we are now enjoying our last afternoon at the pool before packing up our belongings and spending tomorrow traveling home. I will say, on all our other vacations, it's been pretty hard having to leave. But this time, there is an extra-special reason for looking forward to getting home...that little boy waiting there with his Grandma and who calls us "mama" and "dada."
See you soon, Boo...but not soon enough!!
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