Vacation - Part 4

Okay, where were we...
Friday and Saturday of vacation were our big snorkeling days. We started out at trunk bay at 7:30 in the morning on Friday...even beat the lifeguard there. Also beat the guy who collects the money, so we got to go for free. Trunk Bay is where the cruise ships stop and is the most "touristy" beach with a snack shop, lifeguards, and what not. There is also an underwater snorkel tour. It's pretty short, but kind of cute with little plaques underwater telling you about different kinds of fish and corals. We snorkeled around the tour and also out and around a little island off that beach. We got to see a turtle here as well, and it was beginning to seem you could see a turtle everywhere you went. We chilled at this beach for a while, but we hadn't brought our cooler with us, so once we got hungry we headed back to the car and went down the road to Jumbie Beach. The parking was full here (only like four spots) so we went up the hill and parked at Peace Hill. There's a hill (clever name, right?) you can climb and see some ruins and where there used to be a big Jesus statue. Jesus fell down during a hurricane and the park didn't want to put him back up. We ate lunch up there with a nice view in all directions, and then walked down the hill to Jumbie. I really liked Jumbie....not a very big beach, not fancy, but good snorkeling, not too busy, and a nice view. We saw several turtles at this one and even made a movie with one that seemed very curious about us. After a long day at the beach, we decided to just do some sandwiches and salads from a deli this night for dinner. I got this sandwich called a pink cadillac that was kind of slimy but super tasty. It had cream cheese, salsa, guacamole, turkey, and cheddar cheese on pumpernickel bread. Awesome combo.
Friday we went out to the farthest beach on the North Shore Road where you can swim out to Waterlemon Cay...yes, it's really waterlemon and not watermelon. It was a decent little walk to the beach (at least if you're carrying your beach chairs and cooler), and then from the beach it was a good quarter mile swim or so out to the island with some decent currents. We made it out there and started to swim around the island, and I started to doubt my swimming abilities when I hit some strong current. So I turned back to the little beach on the island and on my way there saw a HUGE tarpon! Seriously, at least five feet long...he was one big guy! But he seemed thoroughly disinterested in me since I was swimming amongst millions and millions of these little silver fish...so many little fish you could hardly see where you were going. So I relaxed on the beach and waited for Brad to make his way around. When he got up to the beach he said it was the best snorkeling he'd ever seen and that the current wasn't too bad once you got to the back side. So off we went for my first lap and Brad's second lap around the island. He was right - the back side was awesome. So many colors of corals, so many fish...it was beautiful. After lap number two, we swam back to the beach, very hungry and ready for lunch. At this point it started pouring and blowing, to the point that I was hiding behind a tree. We scarfed down our sandwiches and packed up, and by the time we were about half way down the trail, the sun was shining again :) We headed over to Francis beach, the next closest beach on the north shore road, and settled in for an afternoon of reading. It was a nice peaceful afternoon...except for the little black bugs that devoured my right arm leaving me with like forty-some bug bites. When we headed back to Lavender Hill to clean up, the rain started up again. The place we were planning for dinner was mostly outside seating, so when we got to the Banana Deck, there was no one else there. They found us a table in the covered part up by the bar and we had a nice quiet dinner watching the rain. We had this awesome chicken quesadilla appetizer and then both had some good ol' american cheeseburgers.