Vacation Vibes Linky Party- St. John U.S.V.I.

Hi Sweet Friends!

I'm struggling to get back into the routine.  It's back to reality today.

My husband and I were so blessed to be able to visit an absolutely AH-MAZING place this past week.  We try to plan a get away trip for just the both of us every couple of years.  I miss my kids terribly by the end of the trip, but the time with just my husband is absolutely precious.  

So this week's vacation vibes is all about St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  BEAUTIFUL!  

I apologize now if  I included too many photos.  My husband and I adore this place. 

This is actually our second trip to St. John's.  A couple of years ago, we took the ferry to visit St. John for the day while vacationing in St. Thomas.  We fell in love with this beautiful island.

In order to get to St. John, we flew into St. Thomas ,and then rented a car.  We then took the car ferry to the island of St. John.  It is approximately a 45 minute ferry ride.  I have to admit the driving can be a bit treacherous.  The roads are filled with STEEP hills and treacherous curves.  Many times we would finally get to the top of a hill only to have to peer over the top of the steering wheel to see which way the road veered.  It was like being on a roller coaster.  My hubs did all the driving.  I just held on for dear life.  It actually wasn't that bad after we were used to it.

St. John is a much less populated island than St. Thomas.  It is more like a state park.  There are some really great local restaurants and shopping at the port.  We love St. John because of its beauty and tranquility.  There are lots of hiking trails in St. John.  Many of these take you to some breathtaking  views and ruins of sugar plantations from the 1700's.

While on St. John, we stayed at a place called Concordia Eco Resort.  It overlooked famous Drunk Bay and the Salt Pond on St. John island.   Here are a few pics of the views from our studio.

Here are just a few pics of the wildlife we saw while on St. John.

There were wild donkeys all over the island.  The donkeys were brought to the island during the time of the sugar plantations to work on the plantations.

My husband and I are early risers.  We loved to visit the beaches early in the morning.  That's when we saw these two sharks swimming at the edge of the beach.

We also saw this stingray on this same beach also.  It was swimming near the sharks.

My husband's favorite were the hermit crabs.  They were everywhere.  While walking along the hiking trails in some places, the ground sounded like the "snap, crackle, and pop" of Rice Krispy cereal from all of the movement of the hermit crabs.

You won't need a passport to visit St. John, but will need to bring one along in case you want to visit the neighboring British Virgin Islands.  I'll just end by showing you some more beautiful pictures of St. John.

This is a view from Cinnamon Bay Beach.  It's one of my favorites.  The water is so crystal clear, and the view is spectacular.  This public beach is located in the Cinnamon Bay Campground.

This is of Annaberg ruins.  It's a sugar plantation that overlooked the British Virgin Islands.  You can see Tortola in the distance.

The pictures below are of Drunk Bay.  

I don't know if you can see, but on the left are several pieces of coral.  Someone had made small dolls/bodies out of the coral and placed them all over this area (Drunk Bay).  It was actually kind of creepy because they looked like voodoo dolls.

Thanks you so much for letting me share this beautiful place with you!   I would love for you to link up and share a place you have visited while on summer vacation or a trip to a local place with your family.  Just grab the linky button above and then link below.