ST. CROIX

In August, Justin and I went to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands for our 10th anniversary!! It was so much fun and so beautiful. What a trip. It's a pretty small island and isn't extra touristy, so we were able to see just about everything and still have a great time.

We got to the island at about 10 o'clock at night and had to drive our rental car to our hotel on the other side of the island in the dark. That was quite and adventure in itself.

The next morning we got up early and headed out on a sailboat to Buck Island. We snorkeled in the reef out there, which is so beautiful that it is a national park. The hurricane winds had come through just before we got there so most of the exciting fish had been scared off, but we did see a barracuda and some lobsters.

Most of the pictures Justin took are on video, so this is all I have of snapshots.

This is a look at St. Croix from our sailboat on our way back from Buck Island.
While at the island, we hiked to the top to this lookout point. It was beautiful and and extremely hot, so we were pretty excited to get back down in to the water.

That night we went on a night kayak tour. It was so amazing to see the bioluminescence in the water, but so scary being on the ocean in a kayak in the dark!

We had the neatest kayaks that we paddled with our feet and Justin steered with a little rudder in the back. Quite the workout, too!

The next day we took a drive through the rain forest and found these amazing trees. We think they were mahogany, but we're not sure.

Later we headed to Christiansted to do some souvenir shopping and had lunch at the best place. Angry Nate's had the best lime and a coconut and southwest blackbean soup!! Topped off by some tasty truffles from the candy shop!

After shopping we drove around the island and headed to Point Udall, which is the easternmost point of the united states. Justin thought it was so interesting.

We found a branch to attend church while we were there and met some couple missionaries who were from Malad and knew Justin's grandma. I think they were pretty excited to see someone from Idaho!

After church we headed Scuba diving. Probably the scariest thing I've ever done, but definitely worth it! We only saw an octopus and a really big jellyfish, but I was just glad that I finally passed off all of my certification to get in the water.

And last, but not least, I have to show our hotel. It was amazing. These pictures really don't do it justice. It was what I had always imagined staying in at a tropical location!! Beautiful!

This is the view from our room

This is just outside our room

This is the walkway from the front desk to the restaurants and beach at the resort

We had a Jeep Wrangler for our rental car so we drove to the top of the mountain above our hotel to find a tide pool that is supposed to be up there, but got a little lost. This is a view of our resort from the top of the mountain! So beautiful and so much fun!!!