Being back in the USVI for a second season means time to find new favorite spots and of course sharing them with friends and family. There is so much to explore and do in St. Thomas, St. Johns and St. Croix. One of our favorite new areas of St. Johns is Coral Bay on the southeast end of the island.

We love visiting Limeout the floating taco bar and getting pizza at the Salty Mongoose. Then we spend the night in Hansen Bay, where we have great snorkeling and keep some very high class company…

This end of the island has some great hiking. We made our way to salt pond and then on to Rams Head.

Another chill place we discovered and went back to many times this spring was Cannel Beach, very close to ZoZos.

And of course we spent more time in Maho Bay. Turtles galore.

We got to meet and spent time with Kathy’s sister, Barb and husband Jeff. Music teacher, Kathy taught us to play Cups.

Time to move

Time to Chill

Took Addie to Dinghy’s Beach Bar to get her french fry fix!

Then we met Parker!! Our friends on Dreamcatcher have a new crew member! Parker is a Portuguese Water Dog (same as Caper and Chance). These boys are smitten with each other. We got to babysit him one day and I was truly surprised they got him back.

Parker loved Addie. Even helped her with her school work.

Having Parker over wore Chancey out!!

Early March we got the opportunity to get vaccinated and we jumped on it. It was super easy. They were giving the shots at the University which was only a five minute walk from Brewer’s Bay.

Addie began collecting sea treasures and started making jewelry.

The dogs love to dry off with us after a swim.

Our dogs truly think they are people, as they practice their driving skills.

Our new batteries finally arrive!! YEAH!! A week in the marina to get them installed was well worth it. Aventis is much happier and Shannon can finally sleep through the night. No more alarms in the middle of the night.

Time to celebrate and enjoy the sunset.

Really cool learning thing happened while at the marina, dock hands were cutting coconuts out of the trees. They showed us how they open them to drink the water and then eat the inside. We are ready for Survivor!!

This is an uncommon sight in the USVI right now, a deserted beach bar with picnic tables and beach chairs. This little slice of heaven is located just outside of the main cruise ship bay for St. Thomas and we were lucky enough to have it all to ourselves on this particular day.

Time for another trip around St. Johns. This time we hiked to the petroglyphs with Kent and Kathy.

New batteries working beautifully!!!

Second vaccine, wiped Ashley out for a day! Addie and Shannon fared much better.

We had been talking about going to Chicken’n Bowlin since we got to the VI last spring. It was finally safe to go! The wings and fries were yummy and the bowling was super fun!

April got here and we were super excited to have Don and Mel back for another visit.

Mel celebrated her birthday with us. This is a tradition for us. We have been friends for 25 years and have celebrated all but a handful of her birthdays together.

We snorkeled and beach it.

Sailed around to Maho Bay and Sunchilled in Ashley’s new toy.

We visited body beach.

Shannon and Don hiked to Ram’s Head.

We all hiked to the sugar plantation and the petroglyphs.

We all four got a tattoo of the petroglyphs!

We showed them some of our other favorite spots. Sunset Grille at Secret Harbor Resort.

Duffy’s Love Shack

Taphus Bar

It was a really fun and memorable visit!!

The dogs agree.

With a few days between visitors we decided to head to St. Croix. We had one week to check things out.

We anchored by the pier in Frederiksted. If the cruise ships were coming, we could not be this close. Water is crystal clear and the sea life under the pier is amazing. We scuba dove the pier by going right off the back of our boat. Super cool!

Amazing sunsets over the water.

Ready to explore St. Croix! Aventis is directly behind us.

Visited Fort Frederik and found a sea glass museum.

Very neat art made with sea glass and chainey(broken pottery found in the sea).

Moko Jumbies

Addie pretending to be 18 so we could be at the Fred for a pool day.

Sun dial east end of the island.

Botanical Gardens

And of course a visit to the original Leatherback Brewery!

One last sunset

A proper turtle island farewell!

And off we go headed back to St. Thomas. This drone footage is courtesy of a gentleman on St. Croix who happen to be taking video of a boat near by and got this image of us.

And just like that we are back in Long Bay after a peaceful 7 hour sail.

Ready for round two of Chicken’n Bowlin.

Stocked and Ready! School is out and Makenzie, Gavin(boyfriend), Anna and Alex are headed our way for a week of fun in the USVI!!

First stop: No Passports Required for adult slushies

The gang is here!!

Second stop: straight into the water!

Next day we made our way to Maho Bay on St. John’s for some turtle spotting, sun chilling and sunset cruising.

From there, Limeout for drinks and tacos!

More water fun! If the sun chill is out, Caper is in it.

So many smiles and laughs…

Life is Good!!

So many fun things to explore above and below the water.

What an awesome week! We were sad to say goodbye to Gavin, Anna and Alex, but so glad we got to have this time together!!

The dogs are pooped from all the fun.

But then they perked up because Ella got here! This week is all about some family time!

Luckiest mom in the world getting to spend Mother’s Day with all three of her beautiful daughters!!

As part of our new tradition when the girls visit during the month of May we celebrate all the upcoming birthdays and Father’s Day.

Happy 21st Mak!

Happy 19th Ella!

We explored St. Thomas from a whole new perspective. Taking the Skyride up to Paradise Point.

Aventis is down there in the bay, close to the front of course.

Happy Father’s Day!

This was cute! Chance loves his toys and he carries them all over the boat to play with them. On this afternoon not sure exactly how it happened but this toy got knocked into the water. Chance never, ever jumps off the boat into the water, but today he was seriously thinking about it. The current was moving pretty good, so Capt. Shannon saved the day by taking the dinghy to get the toy.

We sadly said goodbye to Mak

And enjoyed a few extra days with just Ella.

We said goodbye to Ella!

And welcomed our friends Lisa and Lenny Cottom.

We day cruised around St. Johns by boat visiting Hawksnest Beach, Cannel Bay, Maho Bay, Hansen Bay and even got a bonus sail from the east end back to the west end of the island. We did lots of chilling.

Best memory was of the hike the we tried to take to Rams Head during what seemed like a tropical storm. This was something we knew we wanted to do with Lisa and Lenny so we did not let a little light rain stop us. No joke we stood under the trees half way up for the good part of an hour while it poured rain and the wind picked up. Rained all morning. At some point we gave in and tried to keep going, but it was really not safe, so we headed back. Got over 2 inches of rain while we were out there.

Consumed just a “few” beverages at the Beach Bar in Cruz Bay.

On one of our visits to the Beach Bar Mak was celebrating her birthday with family back in Boone.

Lisa, Henry and Jack are looking at the us on the web cam from the Beach Bar.

Happy 21st birthday Mak!!

We said goodbye to Lisa and Lenny and headed back to St Thomas.

We got to have a fun reunion with our friends Jake and Stephanie (Dreamcathcer) as well as David and Shirley (Maeva). Was super fun to catch up with David and Shirley as we had not seen them since Grenada.

Very exciting night for the three of us! Our first movie in 2 years. Movie was good but popcorn was amazing!!

Goodbye for now to St. Thomas, we are headed to the Spanish Virgin Islands when the sun comes up.

First stop is Culebra. Interesting place, very green, town was a little disappointing because not much was open. We did manage to find a place, just had to wait until they opened at 2pm to eat lunch.

Neat remains can be seen on Flamenco Beach from when the US Navy used Culebra for bombing practice. This lasted until the residents of Culebra protested and the Navy left the island in 1975. You can see from the picture too how bad the sargassum is right now.

But then we found a whole other side to Culebra and it became my favorite place we have been so far. On the northwest side, we grabbed a mooring ball and we found a little beach called, Carlos Risario. Most people would not come here by car it is a boat only beach. We could jump in the water and dive or snorkel this amazing reef that was right under the boat. The dogs had the run of the beach. For the first three days we were the only ones and then the day boats started to show up each day about 10 and stay until 4 or so. No big deal we just started our day drinking earlier!

Made a new friend. He came and swam with us most most mornings.

Had a great time meeting and hanging out with Kathy’s sister Susan and her husband Robert.

Completed our circle around the island and got back to the much smaller island of Culebrita. Beautiful spot with amazing water and a white sandy beach. Spent two nights here swimming and hiking around the island.

A nice welcome back to Long Bay, St. Thomas. Time to get the dogs checked by the vet, grab some provisions and ready the boat for the 3 day passage to Bonaire.

But at last it is Father’s Day and we got to enjoy such a nice celebration at brunch with our friends Kent, Kathy as well as Ron and Patti from No Passports.

Finally time to crash!!

Goodbye for now USVI!! See you soon Bonaire!