I believe I left off on March 10th.

Friday (11th) my parents flew into town. It still being part of spring break, I didn't have much to do all day until they came in around 3:00. I met them at the airport and was there to give them a big ole hug when they got off the plane. They rented a car for the week, but unfortunately the car rentals aren't at the airport, they are two miles into town. I got to show them how to catch a safari and we made our way to Avis. The VRBO they rented for the week was a condo on Bolongo Bay, and I regrettably didn't take any pictures of it. It was a nice place on the south side in an area I had never been before. The only thing around it was a few restaurants, bars, and other condos. The first night we ate at one of the bars on the beach.

On Saturday Joseph flew in because it was the start of his spring break. The airport is right beside Brewer's so I got to show off the turtles to mom and dad before he landed. We even had time to eat and go explore the west end of the island a little. I hadn't done that before because safaris don't go over there, so I'm happy mom and dad decided to rent a car. After we picked up Joe at 4ish we ate dinner at the cafeteria since we were right there and it was free with my meal plan. Then we went to the grocery store and headed home to watch UNC play in the ACC tournament. Also, I believe this night was when the time sprang forward. We don't do that here in the islands, so now I'm on the same time as my friends and family back home!

Sunday we had a lazy morning and mom cooked breakfast. We packed a lunch and headed to Magens Bay where we spent most of our time not on the beach at all. Most of y'all know my parents are big into the outdoors, so we mainly walked through the arboretum and hiked the nature trail as they tried to look at all the local trees and plants. When we actually got tho the beach the weather was bad and it was raining so we packed up and left. It was funny watching them stare at different things trying to name them. From Magens we drove up the mountain and back down, pulling off every now and then to see the views. We went home and mom and dad grilled burgers. That was really exciting. Also, mom made my favorite cookies so I got to snack on them and drink milk and watch TV and that's something I haven't done in forever. It was awesome.


Monday wasn't spring break anymore. I had 4 classes spread all throughout the day so my parents dropped me off at 11am and picked me up at 10pm. They went to Coki Beach and snorkeled and fed the fish, then went back home and just hung out while I was in class. I believe they ate dinner somewhere called the Lobster Gille. At night sometimes dad would go out with his flash light and UV light to look for tarantulas and scorpions in the brush on the banks of the road. It was fun to tag along.

Haulover

Eating lunch on the side
of the road

Car ferry to St. John

Those rocks are where
the snorkeling trail was

Tuesday morning we woke up super early to go to St. John. We found that it would be cheaper to take the car ferry than the regular ferry so we did that. This allowed us to explore the island which I also hadn't done before. The rental car was a Toyota Camry and there were some hills I thought we were never going to make it up. I'm talking pedal on the floor only going 15 mph because the hills were so steep. It was kind of scary at times. At the peak of the hills it would drop so quickly that you couldn't see the road in font of the car. Anyway, we eventually made our way past Coral Bay, past some donkeys on the side of the road, and into the very east tip to a place called South Haulover Beach. This was the prettiest and most secluded place I've been to yet. You couldn't hear anything but birds, wind, and the waves lapping on the rocks. That was the only problem, there were rocks instead of sand, but this made the snorkeling incredible. It all looked untouched, above and below the water like a hidden gem. It was so remote I probably could have played a game of chess in the middle of the road and not interfered with any traffic for the entire game. We were all happy. After about an hour of snorkeling we came back to the car and ate the lunch we packed right there on the side the road. Then we packed up and headed to Trunk Bay, probably the most famous beach in the VIs, known for its underwater snorkeling trail. Yes, underwater. They had informational and navigational signs on the floor of the ocean that lead you through the reef. I had high hopes for it, and so did mom, but we both agreed it wasn't as nice as Haulover and it was super crowded. So crowded it took about 45 minutes to decided what to do about finding a parking space. After Trunk we went into town to and explored a little before getting the 4:00 ferry so I could make it to my class at 6:00. I had class till 8:30, and while I was gone I believe my family all went and checked out this festival thing at Havensight. Tuesday night consisted of more TV, cookies, and scorpion/tarantula hunting.

Lindquist

The crazy man

On Wednesday I just had two classes from 11-4 so while I was at class mom and dad did a historic walk through Charlotte Amalie and toured some fort/church/jail thing. Joe decided to stay in and sleep. That night dad made pasta, which is another one of my favorites, and mom made salad, which is one of my least favorites (but it turned out to be pretty good). At 8:00 there was a Carnival performance on the beach where we were staying. There was a guy, I believe named Moca Jumbo, who walked on 20ft stilts and interacted with the audience. After his performance there was this crazy man, probably on drugs, who danced around, walked on glass, jumped on glass, jumped on burning glass, blew fire, touched fire, put the fire stick out with his mouth, and did the limbo under a burning rod. It was a blast to cheer him on.

Mom waiting for shrimp

Dad waiting for shrimp 

Me waiting for shrimp

Thursday after my 1 hour class we went to a beach I had never been to before called Lindquist. It was super pretty, but they all are here. What set it apart was that it also had turtles! Not many get to boast that. And even cooler than that was that we saw a spotted eagle ray in the water. We didn't have snorkel gear, but it let us get close enough to tell what it was. We even got to see it jump out of the water! Other than that we kinda just walked along the beach and explored it a lot. We left around 5:30 because we had to get back and get showered for our dinner reservations at Mims, one of the restaurants previously mentioned that was right beside our condo at Bolongo Bay. On Thursday nights they do an all you can eat shrimp and fries special, and although very slow, they were good and Joe and I made sure we got our money's worth.

Friday they all had to leave, so the day was spend packing want waiting for planes. I ended up with a lot of food to bring back to my dorm.

Joe waiting for shrimp