Mt. Pleasant Classical Academy

Finally December 3rd arrived and we flew to St John, USA Virgin Islands,

for 10 days in the sun. Our long anticipated vacation that DH surprised us with way back in April to Maho Bay Camps in St John was here! The flight was uneventful -– we flew from Philadelphia to San Juan to St. Thomas. From the airport we caught a taxi over to Red Hook Ferry — where we were greeted with porters ready and very willing to take all our bags to the ferry. We gladly let them, and enjoyed a short ferry ride from St Thomas to St John. Cruz Bay had just started their Christmas parade celebration and we really didn’t mind since it meant we were stopped in traffic and got a front row seat to watch the parade. Steel drums, excitment, and lots of dancing.

After a 20 minute, very bumpy taxi ride pick-up truck ride we arrived at Maho Bay Camps. The registration desk clerk announced that we were assigned to Cabin E15 just as we requested. Strike One. We didn’t request the E camp area which we soon learned was 1000 (OK DH says it was only 350) steps DOWN to the beach. This was my only complaint about Maho Bay Camps, the long walk to the beach.

Oh how I wish we had really requested a particular cabin in the A or B or C or even D sections. We shared our cabin with geckos who worked on catching all the bugs in the cabin. Our view from the deck and the bay we swam in is the little blue water shown in this photo! See! It was a LONG way down there and we hiked it at least twice a day; down and back, down and back….

Dinner was delicious as was every meal thereafter. I swam enough and climbed enough steps to come back without a weight gain!

The water was crystal clear most everyday. SK, MK and I swam and swam or snorkeled and snorkeled. We spotted sting rays, turtles, angel fish, a rare spotted drum fish, and two 5 to 6′ wide spotted eagle rays —- one day SK and I swam 2 miles to Cinnamon Bay and back; another day we swam over to Cinnamon Bay and continued on to Trunk Bay. MK and DH met us there. Trunk Bay is rated in the Top Ten Beaches in the world. I believe it and the snorkeling was quite fine too. We also snorkeled one day around Waterlemon Cay and another day around Whistling Cay.

One day we left the west side of the island and joined Hamilton Tours for a little trip over to the east side. We stopped at Drunk Beach where folks use the coral to make all sorts of sculptures:

We actually found a photographer to take our family picture there!

and hiked past Salt Pond:

to snorkel in beautiful and protected Salt Pond Bay.

DH did join us a few times to snorkel but spent enough time reading to make it through 3 books. When MK wasn’t snorkeling with us he spent his time hunting sand crabs while SK and I snorkeled and swam.

MK made numerous Origami flowers, birds, boxes, sea horses,…. for all the Maho Bay Camp employees. MK’s mask making class was canceled until the instructor learned that it was MK who had signed up for the class. Deidra then arranged a special class just for MK and spent 2-1/2 hrs instructing him on the entire mask making process. MK also took a glass blowing class and pressed a sun catcher  (it is the green glass piece in the object in the above photo). He insisted that we spend every evening watching the glass blowers and soon got to the point of knowing just what Jake would be doing next.

Too soon we had to return back to the states. Christmas presents need to be purchased. Our Christmas tree is still on a lot somewhere in this area, but DH and I are trying to determine how soon we can return to St John.

Oh, it did rain every night and every day and we saw rainbow after rainbow.