Day 9: Happy 4th of July!!!

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Today is the 4th... the big Carnival Festival in St. John. Today was a BIG day on St. John - the day of the Carnival Parade and Festival (they celebrate freedom as well as freedom from slavery). Even with the excitement of Cruz Bay and the festival, I STILL didn't get very many pictures, because the camera battery died (I didn't charge it because I didn't think I'd used enough over the last two days... sigh). Here's the scoop... It was quite an adventure! Here was our plan: Get up and leave by 9:30 to head to Cruz Bay for the 11:00 parade. Leave after the parade and do a small hike to Caneel Bay (Honeymoon Beach and Caneel Bay Beach). Then go home, shower and cook dinner (spaghetti) and then head back to town for the fireworks at nine. Let's just say it was a good lesson in PLANNING and ACCEPTING WHAT COMES YOUR WAY. We got to Cruz Bay as expected and got what we thought was a decent spot for the parade - we were seated at 10:20. One our way in, we saw the folks from GA that we'd met the other day at Miss Vie's Beach - their spot was just around the corner from us. It was neat to run into them again - Maddie and Ally were especially happy to see each other. 11:00 comes and goes... nothing. The parade finally got started at noon (we reminded the kids that everything funs on 'island time' - the smoothie and the shaved ice helped). THEN we heard from other bystanders that the 'parade' lasts until 5. Yes... 5 PM. This is no parade - it's a big street party. We stayed in our spot long enough to see all the queens and princesses come through followed by a large percussion band (very cool), and then we walked around for a better spot - we found one near the 'bandstands' where they acts stop and do their 'routine' - we say the majorettes and a jumprope team. This thing was crazy - people were walking into the parade getting their pictures made with some of the characters (like a ginormous guy on stilts) and so forth. We were moving about and got caught up in the fray - it was nuts! We had decided to leave: AFTER Matthew wanted to but way BEFORE Maddie wanted to... our life story. We left at two - and the parade was only 1/4 of the way done! We'd also heard that the fireworks on the beach are complete with plenty of pot, so we opted out of that too... much to Maddie's dismay. This day didn't go at all as planned. However, despite the tears, it ended up fabulously. We couldn't do the Caneel Bay hike because the road to get to it was closed for the festival, so we decided to do the Reef Bay Trail... however, upon parking we learned that the hike down was an hour and a half... so we decided to tackle that on a day when everyone was in a GOOD mood. We decided to keep driving, and Maddie recovered and apologized as we drove over to the east end of the island to explore a new beach. It seemed like such a waste to have packed our hiking bags and then NOT do a hike! We hiked to Brown Bay, and I was so sad my camera battery was dead. We hiked for about thirty minutes and ended up at a very unique beach. For about 20 feet out, the water was only 3-4 inches deep, full of seagrass and LOADED with conchs. It was incredible! I stood in one spot and counted 26 conchs... and the water was crystal clear. CRAZY. It was very windy, and once you got out into the deeper water, it wash't as clear, so we decided not to snorkel, but the experience was well worth the hike. As we got ready to hike back to the car, it started raining...and then, for the first time since we've been here, it THUNDERED. I was so proud of Maddie - she hiked along and never lost her cool. Matthew, well, I was also proud of him, because he only lost his cool momentarily. He yelled once, and I explained to him that panicking at this point wouldn't do any good... we just had to hike back to the car. He agreed, and then I heard him: "Dear God, please, PLEASE have mercy on us and DON'T let us get struck by lightening." He said it several times... and I prayed the same prayer. Of course I was a little nervous, too... and I know Maddie was... but God had mercy and we DID make it back safely. Matthew managed the 30 minute hike with a good attitude and even managed some conversation... definitely a triumph. When we got back in the car from the hike, it was 3:49... and Maddie (who wanted to stay at the parade until it's conclusion because she'd been looking forward to it sooooo much and wanted to see all the cool costumes (which were probably the last 10 of the FIFTY parade entries) said, oh my gosh - you're right! I WOULD be bored if we were still there at the parade! I'm sorry I didn't trust you! I explained that it's hard to do when you're nine, but you have to really try to remember that Mommy and Daddy see the bigger picture and she needs to trust that we can see things she can't see. Then I added that's it the same way with God... and it's hard even for adults. Sometimes he closes a door and we get mad... but ultimately he knows what's best for us. It was a cool conversation. One of the great things about today: we realized that we still have more time LEFT on this trip than our WHOLE trip two years ago. WOW.............UNBELIEVABLE. I'm so glad - because there's still so much we want to do!!