We started the day by heading back to Deadman's beach. Ben made a valiant effort to teach Nayeli how to snorkel, but when he finally got her to put her face into the water, she released her mouthpiece and came up sputtering salt water and screaming. Baby steps I guess.
Snorkeling buddies
Teddy crashed on my chest and we decided to take a nap together in the shade. I love how you can see his face just covered in sand.
I love this lobster-chest man of mine. Really. He's the best.
We then sailed to the island Virgin Gorda to see a famous attraction called the Baths. It's an area with massive granite boulders piled one on top of another, and the hike to the beach is reminiscent of southern Utah. We had to swim the kids and all our equipment to shore and poor Sam offered to carry Teddy, who proceeded to scream in his ear the whole time.
My fashionista girl
Hiking through the Baths
There were some steep and hairy areas, but everyone helped with the kids and we took it slow
What a good looking group, huh?
Right after the above picture was taken, I began to hike down the rock but slipped on some moss and fell backward. I was holding Teddy, who thankfully landed on my chest, but my head hit the rock with a loud crack. Everyone rushed over to inspect the damage. They helped me up, but I was so worried about Teddy that I didn't care about my own head. Teddy was shaken, but perfectly fine. As for me, there weren't any injuries and we concluded that my bun was in the perfect spot to have taken most of the impact. It's funny because I had thought to put my bun up higher before we left the boat, but ultimately decided against it. I think my injury could have been much worse had my bun been in a different spot.
What made the loud cracking sound? It seemed to have been my head hitting the rock, since we couldn't attribute the loud sound to anything else. But if it was my head, it was incredible that I later had no headache or neck pain. Nothing. Could that be called a lucky coincidence that my bun was in just the right spot or that my head didn't seem to hurt the way it should have after a fall like that? Maybe, but I don't think so. I sincerely feel that angels were watching over me and Teddy as well, who could have also fallen. I think angels protects us more often than we realize. Heavenly Father is so good.
Ben, Bonnie, Sam and Chelsea all climbed onto this rock and jumped off.
It was great that Ben had a GoPro to capture the action.
After the Baths we sailed to Marina Cay, a small island north of Tortola. We enjoyed dinner together, then had an impromptu dance party. Ben had put a playlist of fun songs on his phone, including a few songs for Nayeli. She was in heaven singing and dancing to "Let It Go" with everyone.
This group had some serious moves!
Sandy Island
Bubbly Pond
Day 7: Marina Cay to Road Town Harbor, Tortola
This morning was the most memorable one, thanks to little Teddy. He woke early but since Ben and I were both tired, I put him next to me on the bed and gave him my cell phone to play with. I dozed, and when I woke up I was horrified to find that Teddy had had a blowout of his diaper, discovered it, and taken artistic liberty to "paint" around himself. I awoke Ben frantically and put him in charge of getting Teddy cleaned off while I cleaned up the cabin. It was a huge job since Teddy had gotten it on the walls, bed and my phone, and it took quite awhile to clean up. With limited resources I used soap, water and the rags we use to give the kids baths. Once everything was clean, I threw the dirty rags into the sink of our bathroom and we went about our day.
Later that night Ben showered the kids while I began packing (we were leaving the next day). After they were bathed and I went to pack up the bathroom, I looked down to see that the rags I had used in the morning, the poopy ones, had been moved. When I asked Ben what rags he had used to bathe the kids, he confirmed my worst suspicions. Both kids had been sponge bathed with the poopy rags! I was horrified and only now is it funny. In fact, the only consolation at the time was that Ben didn't use the rags to clean their faces. Oh the things you experience when you have kids!
Anyway, on to our adventures for the day. We visited a few small, uninhabited islands. The first was Sandy Island, another donation of the Rockefeller family. It was only thirteen square miles but had a lot of fun ashore. We did a small hike there and found it to be crawling, literally, with hermit crabs. There were thousands of all shapes, sizes and colors and Nayeli was loving it. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures because we had left the camera on the boat, but I did get a picture of the island from the boat. The water and sand were just stunningly beautiful.
The next island was Green Cay and it was even smaller than Sandy Island. In fact Chelsea calls it the "4 Minute Island" because it only took four minutes to walk all the way around it. We swam to shore for this one so the camera didn't go with us this time either, however we did find some great shells. These are the shells I brought home. I plan to arrange them in a shadow box, hopefully soon.
After Green Cay we went to Jost Van Dyke Island (shout out to my Dutch ancestors). We did a hike to a place called Bubbly Pond- it's like a natural hot tub as the waves crash and bubble in a small cove. Unfortunately we arrived at low tide when there wasn't any bubbling, but we still had fun climbing on the rocks above. Teddy is absent from the photos because he was asleep on the boat with Jane.
There was some interesting vegetation on this island, including poisonous trees. They are black in color and can give you rashes and welts from just brushing up again them. Even if you are sitting under them during a rain storm you can get welts, so we avoided them at all costs. I was familiar with them from my mission, although in Belize they call them "el cheche negro", or something like that. When I was the nurse, one of the Elders helped a member haul some wood that had been recently cut. Unfortunately the wood had come from a poison tree and the poor elder got welts all over his arms. Isn't that crazy? I'm just happy they don't grow here in the states.
We also saw beautiful mangrove trees. They filter the salt water to drink fresh water.
The last stop on Jost Van Dyke Island was a famous bar called Foxy's, but by then Nayeli and I were beat so we took a nap while everyone else went ashore. Don't worry, no one went to drink- they have a fun apparel store attached. Ben ended up getting a cool shirt which he was pleased about.
The next day we were all flying home so it was time to return to the marina. It was a fascinating place- there were so many boats and they were owned by people from all over the world.
Cannes, France. Gary told me that some people do sail these catamarans across the Atlantic.
We went out to dinner for the first time of our trip in the marina restaurant. On our way there we got caught in a downpour and arrived at dinner pretty wet.
Rainstorm in the marina
We had a delicious dinner. I ordered a coconut conch curry to be daring and it was really good. I wish we had gotten a picture but dinner was actually pretty crazy. The kids were really tired and throwing food and by the end of it I was frazzled. So no pictures. But it was really fun to be together with everyone and enjoy a yummy meal.
The rest of the night was spent packing. We didn't even stay up late talking because we were all so exhausted. We had to start early the next day so we crashed in bed hoping to get a little sleep before our big day home.
Day 8: Road Town Harbor, Tortola to Wilsonville, Oregon- 4,078 miles in 24 hours
We had to take a taxi at 6am to catch the 7am ferry to St. Thomas so we woke at 5:15 EST. We got ready, woke the kids, and after bidding goodbye to everyone we boarded our taxi. He took us to the harbor of ferries where we waited for the boat that would take us to the other island.
The boat ride was about an hour. We were leaving the British Virgin Islands and entering the US Virgin Islands so we had to go through customs and immigration. After we exited that we were able to explore Charlotte Amalie.
6:45am: The kids playing at the ferry harbor
We had some time before we had to catch our flight so we decided to walk around the city a little. There is a lot of shopping in Charlotte Amalie, but since we were there early we grabbed some breakfast and waited for the shops to open.
Ben and I both noticed that the style of buildings in Charlotte Amalie was very similar to the style seen in New Orleans. We guessed that the Creole influence that ties the two areas together may have something to do with it. Honestly, you could walk down a few of the streets in St. Thomas and think you were in the French Quarter. It was very interesting.
Fun colored buildings with amazing doors.
St. Thomas. Carrying the kids around like we do.
We walked around until our feet and backs ached but we didn't even end up buying anything. I think we were both just so tired and ready to go home that nothing appealed to us. Everything was pretty expensive as well. After a few hours we took a taxi to the airport to wait for our flight.
Think they'd fit in the overhead? ;) Waiting for our flight to New York
The flight to New York actually went really well. We all fell asleep and got good naps. I wish I had a picture of our whole family crashed on the plane- we were exhausted! We had run ourselves ragged for eight days and it had finally caught up to us.
Once we arrived at JFK things got a little hairy. What was supposed to be a 90 minute layover had turned into a four hour layover. We grabbed dinner, bought treats, turned on a movie, and walked the terminal a dozen times to keep the kids busy. By the time we boarded the plane the kids were so exhausted and grouchy.
When flying I throw a few rules out the door- primarily the ones that have to with sweets and screen time. Whatever it takes to keep my kids from having a meltdown. I fed the kids candy after candy to keep them happy. It reached the point however that Teddy wouldn't even take another M&M from me. That's when I knew we were in trouble, but luckily that was when we were nearly home.
Our plane landed in Portland at 12:30am PST/3:30am EST. After getting to our car and driving home, our heads hit the pillow at 2:15am PST/5:15am EST, exactly 24 hours from when we left. Isn't it a modern marvel that we could travel over 4,000 miles in a day? I am always astounded by how airplanes have revolutionized travel.
The next week was an adjustment of getting off eastern standard time (both kids woke up at 5:30am consistently for a few days) and trying to stay steady on our sea legs. We had landsickness so bad- I felt like the world around me was rocking for weeks after. Teddy walked like a drunkard for days. Luckily it is finally starting to settle and the world seems to be much more stable.
The bottom line is that the trip was incredible. We saw and experienced things that few people get to see in a lifetime. I can hardly describe how grateful we feel to Gary and Jane for inviting us on such an amazing getaway. It didn't matter how bad the going or coming was- it was worth any inconvenience we had to encounter to go on that trip. We will never forget it and I know will reflect on it fondly for years to come.
Thanks Athena for the trip pictures and details. What a fun adventure!
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