St. John Day 2: "Truly a gift from God" (June 27)

Those were Maddie's words at the end of the day today as we were driving back to "our" house... still in awe that we have friends who think enough of us to give us this amazing, awe-inspiring opportunity with us.

We started out the day with breakfast on the patio and our morning swim (Maddie still gets in as soon after waking up as possible).  We have been pleasantly surprised with the LACK of mosquitoes so far - it's incredible!  Other critters have made familiar appearances though... the goats at the pool (Petunia, the mom, and two babies:  Fudge and BaaBaa (all named by Maddie)), the donkeys, goats and chickens in and along the roads, and SOMETHING that's eating our bananas in the kitchen.  LOL.

After a slow, relaxing morning around the house, we loaded up and headed to Maho Bay... another one of our favorite haunts from last time (I probably say that for every beach - they're all so amazing!).  We found shade on sort of a rocky spot, but most of the beach was sandy.  :-)  We all swam down the shoreline together just with goggles and we saw so many huge conchs and even a beautiful starfish!  THEN we saw a school of rays coming in to feed on the sea grass... and do you think I had the camera with me??  Lesson learned:  ALWAYS, ALWAYS swim with the camera.  When we swam back to our spot, I put on my flippers and snorkel mask and went back with the camera.  I found the conchs and the star fish, but no rays.  After chilling on the beach for a bit, we all took a walk along the shore, and then Maddie and I decided to go snorkeling again.  Boy, did that decision pay off!!!  It was the swim of a lifetime, as the pictures will show.  SEA TURTLES!!!!

From there, we went to dinner at one of our favorite spots from before - Skinny Legs (on our side of the island).  They have great burgers and a very comfortable atmosphere.  We finished off the night with an evening dip in the pool and a movie:  "Judy Moody and the NOT So Bummer Summer" (only because we couldn't get our digital copy of the Deathly Hallows part 2 to play.  rrrrr.)

Here's a slideshow of pictures from today...
 
25 pictures
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