snorkeling | Peaches Prattlings

{January 6, 2025} Brrrr…who turned up the AC?!

Two days ago we were on the beach, snorkeling, swimming with honu and today…I was using a snow thrower to clear off the driveway! What?!

We left the Big Island on Saturday night, it was a balmy 80 degrees out, we flew through Phoenix, 45 degrees! as we walked through the jet bridge. We landed in Newark, it was about 30 when dad picked us up! What?! Brrrrr…drove home, it was about 23 when we pulled into the driveway at home. Seriously?! A lot of people on our flights were worried if they would make their connections, the winter weather heading in.

This morning…woke up to a covered backyard, house, street, it was white out and it kept coming…it wasn’t too bad when PSM left for work, then about 1130a, I decided to go out and throw a little snow! If you recall, last year, we bought a snow thrower, not a snow blower, it literally throws the snow, very cool! Well, I put on my cuddle dud layer, fleece on top, snow boots, ski jacket, and headed to the barn to blow the 4 inches of snow so it would not be difficult when PSM came home or when I went to get the dogs.

I made a first pass, took about 40 minutes, not too shabby, then I put the snow thrower away, turned around, and there was a new layer of snow on top of what I just did! Oh brother! But… it wasn’t too bad, even if it left another layer, we were in a good place.

Later, I looked out the window and the area near the barn, you couldn’t tell it had snowed! All melted from the ground, what?! The driveway still had some snow. We were in business.

Then…it started snowing again…it wasn’t bad when I went to pick the pups up, but definitely not top down weather, sorry Ruby! Easy driving and PSM took it easy going to the office and coming home. And… guess what…it’s still going! Looks like I have a morning activity tomorrow!

Walking in a winter wonderland…may I just have the sand instead?!

{January 31, 2024} St Thomas Day 5: Do it all Snorkel

Sounds like a fine offer, ok we will! Let’s Do It…All! Snorkel!

The days started beautifully with a beautiful sunrise, not setting an alarm, yeah, I’d say beautiful! We had our next snorkel trip booked for 1pm, so we decided to head down to Charlotte Amalie first thing, to see what we could see and we saw!

We were looking for a place for breakfast, specifically at the moment, some decaf coffee for PSM, someone recommended the Parley Cafe and when we found it, we were very glad we did! It was cozy, bright, tropical, everything it should be, and…smelling y u m! We got tea and coffee and two home made pastries, oh yeah!

I texted my dad and my sister, who were in London at the time, what are the odds, I’m on an island in the Caribbean and in the cafe I walked in to, Paddington Bear is on the tv and they’re in London, maybe close to Paddington station!

After a light breakfast, we walked around Charlotte Amalie, a few more people, still not crowded, but the shops were open, the nice thing, not crazy busy since there weren’t any cruise ships in this morning. As with all our trips, we always look for a motorcycle dealership to get a t-shirt. The Harley Davidson dealership, which was a store, was closed, but their merchandise was being sold right around the corner, of course we had to go!

We picked up a shirt or two, I got a magnet and a sticker, and we both got water bottles and some stickers for the bottles so we could bring water with us wherever we went. We have a serious metal water bottle collection, but….we buy them where we travel, it’s a great memento of our trip and they usually have the logo of where we’ve been. I’ll show you our collection some time! Oh brother! We walked around, enjoyed the sights and sounds and then headed back towards Red Hook, we had a boat to catch!

We made our way to Red Hook to Ocean Surfari where we booked the Do it all Snorkel trip! We checked in, got our tickets, and waited for the go-ahead to head to the boat. And now it’s time! We got down to the dock, relinquished our shoes, handed in our tickets, and boarded the boat, the Reef Safari. We got the lowdown from the captain and first mates and we were off! They offered water, soft drinks, juice, no alcohol until we did our first snorkel, so they could tell what type of swimmers we were like and if we were different after a drink! ha ha. They had these cool cups that turned blue if the drink was cold! yes, we took a few, they said we could!

We headed over to Cruz Bay on St John pick some folks up, Ocean Surfari has locations on both islands, then it was off to our first stop. We geared up and got ready to jump in the water. It’s funny, you never know what the temperature of the water is going to be when you jump in, even if you were just in the water earlier, or know that the water is perfect where you are. But nothing to fear, jumped in and ahhhhh… the water was perfect temperature, it was clear in some places, cloudy in others, but just being in the water is enough for me!

I love my GoPro, but I don’t know if I get the most out of it! [I have a GoPro saga for you in another post!]. But I’m so happy not to have to deal with or worry about using my phone under water, no matter how waterproof my waterproof case is!

Back on the boat, off to the next location. We get about 45 minutes to an hour in the water in each place, not too shabby! PSM and I swim together, separate, come back together, swim, point things out to each other, just explore and love being in the water! There weren’t a lot of fish, it was mostly coral, but the coral was stunning, I’m just happy being around Mother Nature and Trident, what more can I say!

Back on the boat, the rum punch and painkillers were flowing as we headed back towards St John, but first…lunch at Pizza Pi VI in Christmas Cove of Great St. James. This was a floating pizza restaurant and it was great! You can see they have seating tied off the boat and we were stopped and the pizza was delivered to the boat! We had plain cheese and pepperoni and the pizza was pretty good! Yes, I ate it, when in Rome and all!

After lunch, we made our way back to St John to drop folks off, then back to St Thomas as the sun was setting, it was so beautiful, we had rain on one side and sunshine on the other, a very rare occurance indeed. The sun took her time setting and it was so worth it, the captain played music and told stories about the area.

One of the things I love about island life is the holidays, people light up their palm trees and boats, just imagine being on the water, after dark and people have their boats trimmed in different holiday lights, what could be better to put you in the holiday spirit?!

All in all, a great day, what more could you ask for? And now…I’m going to go to bed and dream about the ocean, pizza, coral, fish, boats. Mmmmm night!

{January 18, 2024} St Thomas Day 3: Boat Trip, Snorkeling, Margaritaville, Jeep, Mexican and Tequila

It’s day 3 in St Thomas for us, December 24th, Christmas Eve, and our first excursion! It’s a jammed packed day, ya ready?

This was the first excursion we booked, don’t even remember the company, but we were supposed to go on the snorkel cat catamaran, but it turns out the catamaran was only going to two stops, so we opted for 3 and ended up the Breakaway. I’m wrong, just looked it up, and it’s New Horizons! The trip left from Margaritaville, we got a taxi up to the resort, found the launch point, got checked in and took a look around. A beautiful property, but, shhh…we thought our beach was better! We spent a bit watching the pelicans flying and dive bombing into the water, what a site to see!

And now we’re off, have our snorkel gear in hand, one of the things we always travel with when we’re going somewhere we know we’re going to swim. The great thing is we pack so little clothing, everything fits in our travel backpacks. We LOVE the ones we have from eBags, they are the Mother Lode Travel Backpack, I need to do an entire post on the eBags we have, I might sell you on some! The reason I mention them is we can fit all our clothes for the two or three weeks we’re traveling and our snorkel gear, which includes mask, snorkel, fins, waterproof bag, and travel towel. I’ll talk some time about how we pack, apologies for the digression!

We were on the boat, I took my Dramamine when we were taking off, they recommend about 30 minutes to an hour before you go, I take it when we take off. I don’t have a problem being on boats, I live for it, what I have a problem with is the not moving and just rocking, even ever so gently, I do not do well with that, I’ll tell you about that another time! But…I was set. The ones I bought were chewable, ick! They did not have the sweet, orange flavor they boasted. Needed to be washed down with something!

As we took off, we were offered a light breakfast, juice, water, pastries, and fruit, nothing too heavy before we were going to get in the water. The sky was crystal clear, we were even treated to a rainbow, can’t beat that! We sped along, good crew got us up to speed on what we needed to know when we arrived and the music was terrific.

First stop the water was clear, in some places, and not so clear in others, but it was so amazing to be in the water again. I missed this so much! It’s been about two years since we were in the water, and snorkeling, can’t wait this long again! Not a huge amount of fish where we were, but the coral and sea life that was there was terrific!

Back on the boat and a bit of lunch and the drinks started flowing. They said they wait to give us drinks until after the first stop, so they can see what kind of swimmers we are! And if we swim differently after a beverage or two! Second stop was great! There were honu, the Hawai’ian word for sea turtle. All of the honu had passengers! Remoras, I thought they were baby sharks, but not to be! Sorry some of my pics underwater aren’t the clearest, it all depends on where you are and if it’s sunny or cloudy what you’re going to get.

After another beautiful stop, and oh my the water temp was just perfect, you know that feeling you get when you’re just not sure how it’s going to feel and then you jump in and all is right with the world. Well…let’s just say…every time we swam, all was right with the world!

After the last stop, it was back to shore and Margaritaville. We thanked our crew, in voice and cash, then went to change. The one thing I’m not always a fan of is riding back in my wet bathingsuit, only because later in the day it does get chilly and you’re brrrrr a little. We changed into dry things and went into the bar/restaurant to wait until our rental car from 360 Car Rental, really beautiful blue 2023 Jeep Wrangler, was delivered. Can you beat this view? This was the window at the restaurant looking out onto the lagoon/beach. If I didn’t take the picture, I would have sworn it wasn’t real!

We ended up talking to two nice couples, very different individuals. One couple was older and a little limited in their mobility, but ready for adventure, he was a former airforce pilot and she was a huge movie buff like me! the other couple were bikers, PSM had lots to chat with them about!

Once we got the car we headed out and went down to Red Hook for dinner, at Agave, Tequila Bar & Mexican Kitchen. We sat at the bar, which is where we tend to sit at most places. There’s usually availability, the bartenders are pretty cool, and sometimes we get to chat with people hanging out like us. We had two outta three, worked for us. The bartender was great and helped PSM find some things he enjoyed. They had a deep conversation about tequila, whiskey, bourbon, and some other things, he concocted a new drink and had PSM try it, too cool. He also gave him a to-go cup for whatever he was drinking when we were leaving, gotta love that!

It was one of the better meals we had while we were there, I have to say! The gucamole and salsa were both made in house and a real treat. PSM had fish tacos and I had veggie tacos, both were really good and a pleasant way to cap the evening.

After dinner, we walked around Red Hook, then headed back to the hotel to shower and collapse. It was quite the day, not sure we could have fit more into the day! Not sure what’s going to be available tomorrow because it’s Christmas day, but we’ll definitely enjoy whatever it is we end up doing! Happy Christmas Eve everyone!

{January 12, 2024} St Thomas Day 2: Red Hook and a Snorkel

I don’t think I ever got tired of that view! The only thing I wish our room had was a screen door to the balcony so we could have slept with the door open and had the sea air and breeze, sometimes, coming through the room. I do so love the sleeping with the windows open! Especially at the beach!

Waking up on our own with the sun, maybe even a little before…eventually got motivated and went down to the beach to put our feet in the sand and the sea, feel the water on my toes. I may have mentioned, our goal at every beach is to get our feet in the water and get a picture! I think I only missed doing that on one beach! I got pictures of the beach and in the water, but not our feet in the water.

What’s that song by Zac Brown, Toes? Yup, I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand. Not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand. Life is good today. For me, all except for the beer, spot on! I just put that song on and now I’m staring longingly at the window and the rain on it imagining its waves gently laping at the window! Sorry, back to you!

We went down to Sangria’s and got some breakfast, quite tasty actually, and not horribly expensive. It was the view that beat all! And with that view, what more could you want?! And one of my favorite parts of being at the beach and on an island, you can go almost anywhere barefoot! I am a barefoot baby, aside from being a beach baby, and if I can go barefoot, I’m doing it! And..having sand on your feet, what a great way to scratch your feet if there’s an itch! Win-win!

After breakfast we went to talk to the concierge and booked our first boat excursion for the next day! We picked up a calendar and some ideas on things to do, asked the hotel to get us a taxi to take us into Red Hook to get some groceries. I apologize, I don’t have any pictures of Red Hook except what I shared from the Tap & Still.

We went to Moe’s Fresh Market to pick up supplies. Turns out Moe’s, where they say “Welcome to Moe’s”! I couldn’t believe it!, is one of the pricier markets on the island, go figure! We did go to another market later in the week that was definitely cheaper, but we’re in a touristy area, so… but…what Moe’s does have is an amazing wine cellar, with not just wine, but hard alcohols, rum from the islands, of course. The food, it’s a gourmet market, was stupid expensive, you have to remember, everything has to be shipped in, think Whole Foods, but more expensive! But their wine cellar had some of the best alcohol prices on the island.

This was also when we found out, no Uber on the island, just taxis, and they charge not per trip, but per person, and it’s more expensive if you’re travling solo! We’re supporting local economy…If you do take taxis, be sure you have exact change, or at least singles, you won’t always get change back if your ride was $7 per person, were you going to give a $6 tip on a 5 minute ride? Just a piece of travel advice. The taxi drivers are all very nice and some will give you tips on local flavor, some try to send you to the very touristy spots, it’s a mixed bag, and adds to the experience.

After Moe’s we crossed the street to Ocean Surfari who would become some of our new best friends! They set us up with our next two ocean excursions! Tuesday will be our Do It All Snorkel, I can’t tell you about it now, but it involves water, a boat, snorkeling, alcohol, and pizza! More next time on that! And they also set us up with a day trip to Jost Van Dyke, British VI, more on that later!

Almost everything in the store was BOGO [buy one-get one free]! You cannot beat that! And…if you spend $50, you got a $10 off coupon. We spent, we got, we spent, we got! We ended up with some fun treats, a hat and swim trunks for PSM and I got a swim shirt and sweater/sweatshirt. And you could tell almost everyone on the island, tourist and local, went to their place! The island was a walking advertisement for this place! I also picked something up that I’m super excited about, but I’ll tell you another time!

After Red Hook, we went back to the hotel, it was time for water! We changed into a beach gear, grabbed our snorkel gear, headed to the hotel lobby to get beach towels, a short walk and we were at our beach. It really was a nice beach. We both got in the water, the snorkeling wasn’t great, turns out we needed to go past the swimming area to see stuff, we’ll know for next time.

After snorkeling, PSM went to rest on the beach, I put up my gear and went back to swim and stand in the water, I was just happy. A few days later PSM said it was almost impossible to get me out of the water! And? ha ha

As I was in the water I started talking to some people, you just randomly talk to people at the beach, especially when you’re at a resort, people are more chatty, it’s nice. I ended up talking to a woman about traveling and told her about PSM’s Bourbon Trail Ride, I’ll tell you about that another time! And we became friends, I even sent her the itinerary I built for PSM. Now, speaking of meeting people, almost everyone we met while we were there, I say almost everyone, was either from Massachusettes or Pennsylvania, not far from where we live, some southern connection, and Jewish. What are the odds on that one?!

I got out a little while later, PSM was happy on the beach talking to a guy, with a drink in his hand. We were both hungry so I went to Sangria’s and put some snacks on his open tab, and another rum, works for me! We ate and chatted with the family, I talked to my dad, sat in the sun, went in the water…it was like a wash, rinse, repeat for the holidays!

We stayed on the beach until the sun went down. Why do I hear The Cars song You Might Think…could be the line “But you kept it going, till the sun fell down, You kept it, going. Now you see how my brain works sometimes!
We kept moving from one spot to the next on the beach because the sun would set over here, but not over there, so we moved over there, then that would become over here, and the sun would set over here, but not over there. It was a vicisous cycle! You definitely do not hear me complaining!

For the life of me, I cannot remember what we did for dinner that night! It’s all good because the next day was great, and the next day, and the next. How could it be wrong in paradise.

More tomorrow!

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