Day 3 in Paradise

On Day 3 we were headed to Lindquist Beach when we saw the sign for a place called Coral World. We decided to check it out, not expecting to very impressed, but it was totally rad! After you've been to the Monterey Bay, Ca Aquarium, it is difficult to be very impressed with other venues of a similar theme. But this place was great, because everything was hands on. You could pet sting rays and sea turtles, and there were a bunch of great coral reef aquarium tanks with rooms in the middle that you could walk in to see. We also went out on this section that was built out over the water. The view was great from above, and you could climb down some submarine-esque staircases to a room sitting on the ocean floor and look through huge windows at the reefs where they do SCUBA diving tours. It was really cool. (I might have been a little claustrophobic) While we were watching some sea turtles in another part of the park, we had some unexpected visitors. (I know. By this point it is really sort of embarassing that we kept getting surprised by the iguanas, but believe me, they are super sneaky creatures!) Aaron told me to stand closer for the picture (can you see him over on the left side, waiting to attack me?) no way! This was as close as I would get, and he was bobbing his head and whipping his tail around aggresively. A few minutes later, he and his pals wandered up to the food court and cleared the entire picnic area---and it was full of locals! They were running around, screaming, and the iguanas took off with the spilled food. That was when Aaron said that karma was after us for letting that raccon we trapped die. The wildlife was after us for revenge! hahaha! We really did have some encounter with a wacky creature every day of our vacation.

My favorite thing was feeding the Lorikeets. (huh. Maybe I am a bird lover)

"the suit? Well thanks. I like yours, too."

After Coral World, we hit the beach. We found a nice spot under some gigantic mangrove trees (only later did we actually look UP and realize the branches were FULL of iguanas! ahhh!)

Cheers! Aaron thought it was really funny that I took my grape Crush in the water with me, like the people that float their buckets of beer bottles. But remember that Corona Christmas Commercial? This is the beach where it was filmed. I had to celebrate that we actually found it--especially with the hidden dirt road that the locals sent us on a search for. It's the only access to this beach, and when we got to the bottom of the hill, we found a couple more locals sitting in front of the parking area charging for entrance. I am 100% sure they did not work for the local park system and we paid a $5 bribe to go to the beach. Worth it.

This beach was great! The water was really shallow and there were hardly any waves, so I could get my float on. It was wonderful. I could have fallen asleep right there. Here I am rockin' the ocean on my classy inflatable pool floatie. Don't knock the floatie, man. It was quite comfortable.
Aaron loved how mellow the waves were and spent a lot of time swimming and snorkeling.

He found some cool stuff (that I wanted to keep, but decided to leave in the ocean for others do enjoy....and you know, so they would stay alive.)

I enjoyed every minute. People keep asking us what we DID in the Virgin Islands. Uh NOTHING and it was just what we needed.

Did I mention that there are chickens ALL OVER the islands? They're everywhere, and they usually have a couple of baby chicks following them across the busy busy roads or down to the water to hop around in the sand. It is interesting to me that I had to put so much effort into our chicken coop, just so the hens wouldn't be eaten and or killed by the wildlife. Yet, in St Thomas, the chickens can just live on the beach, in the trees, or behind some trash cans and be just fine. I wanted to smuggle one of the chicks home and raise it with my hens, and seriously considered how we might get a tiny chick through customs, before leaving.

Sadly, we went back to our beach empty handed. Dinner was on the beach at the Ritz Carlton Resort. We took a drive around the island and ended up in some pretty shady neighborhoods. The locals along the sides of the roads (read: dirt cliffs with no shoulder) just glared at us like they were saying, "turn around. you are lost." We eventually did turn around, but not before we saw a funny road sign that said "BUMP" and someone had spray painted the word "responsibly" below it. Awesome. If only all graffiti could be that entertaining.