Ehmann Family: USVI

With rollover of last-year's must-use vacation time burning a whole in our pockets, we booked a half-week trip to the USVI in early August. Late summer trips to the Caribbean trade fewer crowds and cheaper lodging for hot temps and the risk of tropical storms. For us this tradeoff played out as expected.

A negative test was required for entry and with the mask mandate, COVID rates were reasonably low

We flew direct to St. Thomas and then taxied across the island to the ferry for St. John. This map from the 1700s showing how extensive sugar plantations were even on an inhospitable island like St. John. Sugar was such a driving economic force behind slavery in the Caribbean. And remember, when they lost the colonies in the Revolution, many British thought that the island sugar plantations were a better investment.

We rented an SUV like this one and we had to drive on the left. The roads were very hilly and narrow and full of American tourists driving dangerously. I came within inches of a head-on collision with one yahoo who forgot what side he was on.

Our rental house was in the hills overlooking the east end of the island and further to the BVI.

Much of St. John is National Park and we lugged in snorkel gear for exploring its famous beaches

With an early morning arrival and drizzly conditions we had Trunk Bay all to ourselves

Encased in a saltwater protector, the iPhone XI can be used underwater

St. John is famous for its bar-restaurants that serve painkillers and rum punch

Careful where you wander, wild rooster

Up in Massachusetts I take some pride knowing that we have the lowest ZIP codes in the country, reflecting our ties to the original colonies. But my single-aught 02421 code looks downright sad compared to the double-aught 00830 on St. John. Apparently Puerto Rico has even lower 00 codes. Who knew?

At Maho Bay we realized that there are 2 populations visiting St. John, those with boats and those without. The snorkeling here was phenomenal, but the boat people didn't seem much interested in morning swimming. That was fine with us. Maybe to them the snorkeling in the bay is boring, but for us the highlight of the trip was:

Sea turtles!

There were lots of green sea turtles grazing on the sea grasses. This one has a remora stuck to it and a smaller fish helping clean the shell

I found this stone in the water and by its symmetry and sharpened edges, I thought that it could be an artifact. What to do? I am drilled in NPS stewardship to know that you aren't supposed to remove the artifact from the site, so I hid it in the sand above the high tide line. The next day I showed this pic to a ranger and she said that it would be OK to bring it in. When I got back to the beach (after nearly dying on the road) the "arrowhead" was nowhere to be found.

Tropical Storm Fred grounded us in the house for an entire day with high winds and torrential rain. Perfect excuse to catch up on Junior Ranger books.

I made a big dent in Neal Stephenson's book, REAMDE

We flew from St. Thomas (labeled Charlotte Amalie here) down to St. Croix (labeled USVI). You can see that St. Thomas is closer to Puerto Rico (on the left) than St. Croix

St. Croix has 3 park sites, Buck Island Reef National Monument, Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve, and this one, Christiansted NHS, containing structures dating back to the Danish colonial era. Trivia question: when and how did the US obtain the USVI from Denmark?

The fort has the prison where Alexander Hamilton's mom was imprisoned for 6 months in the 1740s for having an affair. Upon release she moved to St. Kitts and Nevis, met James Hamilton, and gave birth to a musical sensation.

Trivia answer: the US bought the islands from Denmark in 1917 for $25 million in gold

Within Salt River Bay NHP&EP is a bioluminescent bay that we toured in cool pedal-powered double kayaks. My phone couldn't capture the sparkling of the luciferin-containing dinoflagellates, but it was magical.