Virgin Islands

Welcome to Thanksgiving, Virgin Islands style. For the past few years I have made it a tradition to head down to St John for a week of being very thankful for beautiful islands and snorkeling. Last year I went down with some of my dearest friends (and sister) for a truly lovely week. Ben and I wanted to take advantage of (a) living on the East Coast, (b) having flexible schedules, and (c) not having kids yet, so we decided to skip the turkey and instead bask in the sun.

Above is the view from Concordia, which is an eco-friendly vacationing spot on the southern tip of St John. It is a small complex of condos, with a restaurant, pool, and convenience store. I've been to this side of the island before, but not stayed there, so it was a nice change. The view was incredible. And since we had a kitchen, I brought an entire backpack of food, which might sound crazy to some people to fly with a bunch of food. But when we were eating brie with fresh french bread and pears for dinner while watching the sunset, I bet you were jealous. Most of our meals we ate in the condo, which made it that much easier to upgrade to a nicer room after our first one needed some repairs.

After a few bumps in the road (having to get another rental car since our first one couldn't go to St John and driving across St John in the dark), we eventually found Concordia. As a remnant of the Colonial past, you drive on the left side of the road in the Virgin Islands, which makes for some pretty fun/crazy driving. Ben did a terrific job at navigating the windy roads and also keeping us from bottoming out.

Driving on the left side of the road. Notice how the vegetation kind of takes over.

Our favorite switch back. This picture doesn't do justice to just how crazy this turn was. The best strategy of not dying: honk and then proceed with caution.

Each morning we would wake up to complete silence (after falling asleep to the surprisingly loud noise of tree frogs, the silence of them stopping actually wakes you up). It as wonderful to wake up to the bright sun and get to relax for a few more hours before hitting the beach. Most morning we would read on our wrap around porch while enjoying the sun. We would then head out to the beach around 10 for a few hours of snorkeling and then head back for lunch before round two of snorkeling. We had amazing weather and visibility all week.

Our condo was a two-story loft that had a porch that wrapped around, so we could see 180 degrees ocean view.

The main floor.

The vaulted, wooded ceiling. On the left side you can see the loft where our bedroom was.

The view from our porch. I spent most mornings and evenings out here just enjoying the view.

Some other fun aspects of the condo were:
1. Two sides of the shower were slats that you could open up and see the jungle. Really great for the exhibitionist in me, but also rather alarming to hear people outside walking around.
2. The condo was the highest up on the hill, so we had the best view.
3. The bedroom was upstairs, but the stairs were on the exterior. Not a big deal if you are heading up to grab something, but kind of strange to hop out of the shower and streak up the stairs so no one sees you.
4. We were about a 15 minute walk from our condo to Salt Pond Bay, which is were we did a lot of our snorkeling. It was fun to go a small hike and emerge from the jungle at the beach.
5. Humming birds were everywhere. Every few minutes one would fly by me as I sat outside.