Vacation

Kenan and I went on vacation to the U.S. Virgin Islands (St. John, to be specific). Here are some pictures from our wonderful getaway:

This is the view from our hotel room - it's right on the beach

A view of Great Cruz bay

At the beach-side cafe enjoying our first day in the sun

Kenan enjoying the beach - as you can see, it was white sand and blue water that you could see down at least 20 feet, as we discovered on our snorkeling cruise

So here's the deal with the native wildlife: there are wild iguanas, cats, and chickens all over the island, but the local government requests that you not feed them because there are centers specifically designed to do this and keep the population under control. There are lots of iguanas in particular on the Westin property because there's so much vegetation. Hotel employees feed them every day at 3 and invite guests to come watch because so many show up. I'd say we saw about 30 at once when it was chow time. 

Feeding frenzy

Kenan wanted a picture of me with them but this was as close as I would get

Relaxing - notice the Kindle. I brought it and never touched a paper book the entire time. I really love it.

On the boat headed out to snorkel (both above and below)

Relaxing on the beach some more :)

So a funny thing happened - we went on a fishing trip that was tons of fun, but the way that you find the fish is to follow the water birds, so we did - and once we hooked one. It ate the bait fish attached to one of the poles and we had to reel it in to free it. Our guide (Jay) did a great job and was totally casual about it - happens all the time

He flew away and was fine, but he didn't learn much because he kept coming back

A 25-pound snapper

A "hound fish" - the Caribbean version of a gar

The biggest fish I've ever caught - a jack. I just want to point out that the gloves are NOT because I wouldn't touch the fish - they were because he has sharp fins, thank you very much

A couple of lucky nurse sharks got the leftover bait fish after our fishing trip was finished. What was funny is that they showed up out of nowhere right where the boat was docked - about fifty yards from where we had been swimming all week :)

With Jay, our hilarious fishing guide

It was a great vacation! Monday means work again but I'm trying not to think about it...