Home » BLOG » st. john

Tag: st. john

Cinnamon Bay Estate Ruins

st john with wiley-4

After visiting the Annaberg Sugar Plantation with Peter’s Dad, Wiley, we continued our tour around the island of St. John.

In Cruz Bay, we stopped for fresh fruit smoothies.

st john with wiley-2

These handsome gentlemen were telling jokes all day long, making us all laugh :)

st john with wiley-3

The view of Cruz Bay, Great St. James Island and the Eastern tip of St. Thomas is breathtaking.

st john with wiley-5

We stopped at several of the postcard-worthy beaches…

 

…and we even got to see the wild donkeys along the roadside!

The Cinnamon Bay Estate was one of the most prosperous sugar cane operations on the island in the 1700’s. Situation on the North side of the island, ruins from the factory can be found along the Cinnamon Bay Loop Trail, preserved by the National Park Service.

We walked through the majestic forest and saw where the inner bark of the trees had been scraped off. This bark is dried to make raw cinnamon.

At the end of the trail we walked across the street to see what Cinnamon Bay looks like from the campground. We are used to looking in from the mooring field, never from land, so it was fun to see a new perspective.

 

Back at our boat we finished off the day with a gorgeous double rainbow! :)

DCIM101GOPROGOPR0006.

This post contains photo gallery features not visible from the post notification emails. For optimum viewing experience, please make sure you are visiting this post on the web: http://wp.me/p41bpr-1zC

Annaberg Sugar Mill

I can hardly believe how the time flies. You might think we are lounging around with our feet propped up, drinking fruity drinks and basking in the sun all day, however that is far from the truth!! I honestly don’t know where the time goes. One minute we are tackling a project on the never-ending list of repairs and maintenance. Other times we are just keeping up with household chores like cooking meals, doing dishes, hiking to the Laundromat, or grooming Betsy.

Since there’s not much time in the day for relaxing on the beach, I usually have to sneak in a little bit of computer-time for blog posts and editing photos. We have just a few days before Peter’s Dad, Wiley, arrives to visit again and I’ve just realized I haven’t even posted all the photos from his last visit!!

Last time Wiley was here, he brought his sister, Emma. One of our adventures was to show them a tour of St. John. Our buddy Yisrael drove us in his taxi-van, taking the small car ferry from St. Thomas to St. John. It was a very strange movement, quite different from the way our boat moves through the waves, and also different from the way a passenger ferry feels. After a tipsy ride, we arrived at the West end of the island near Cruz Bay and set out to see the Annaberg Sugar Plantation.

Constructed between 1797 and 1805, the Annaberg Plantation spanned 1,300 acres and was operated by 662 enslaved workers.

The sugar mill ruins were officially turned over to the Virgin Islands National Park in 1956. We spent quite a bit of time talking to the National Park Service volunteers during our visit and really enjoyed learning about the history of this beautiful island. For anyone else visiting the US Virgin Islands, this stop is a great alternative if watersports aren’t your cup of tea!


This post contains photo gallery features not visible from the post notification emails. For optimum viewing experience, please make sure you are visiting this post on the web: http://wp.me/p41bpr-1xd

The Windtraveler Twins Turn ONE!

You probably know by now that Brittany and Scott have returned to Asante with Isla and the twins to pick up where they left off cruising around the Caribbean. It’s even more awesome that just a few days ago the Windtraveler twins, Mira and Haven, turned ONE! Can you believe it?Haven and Mira First Birthday-3

We had sailed over to Maho Bay, St. John earlier in the week for Genevieve’s super fun surprise party on a local floating bar, Angel’s Rest. I still can’t believe Genevieve and Brittany got me to jump ;) Be sure to check out all the shenanigans >>here<<.

For the twins’ first birthday, March 6th, we got everyone together again on shore for a little celebration which turned out to be a picture perfect location for this very special event. With Arias and Ellia (SV Necesse) and Isla, Haven and Mira (SV Asante) the beach was overflowing with cuteness!

It’s pretty obvious from the photos, but these darling babies really are THIS happy in person! Their little personalities are bigger than life and so different from one another. Hats off to Brittany and Scott for living on a boat with three under three and making it look so easy!

I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to capture all these gorgeous photos on such a special day, though it was so hard to choose my favorite photos. There are dozens more, but these are the ones I couldn’t wait to share…

Haven and Mira First Birthday-11 Haven and Mira First Birthday-13 Haven and Mira First Birthday-16 Haven and Mira First Birthday-18 Haven and Mira First Birthday-20 Haven and Mira First Birthday-21 Haven and Mira First Birthday-25 Haven and Mira First Birthday-26 Haven and Mira First Birthday-28 Haven and Mira First Birthday-30 Haven and Mira First Birthday-31 Haven and Mira First Birthday-32 Haven and Mira First Birthday-33 Haven and Mira First Birthday-37 Haven and Mira First Birthday-43 Haven and Mira First Birthday-50 Haven and Mira First Birthday-55 Haven and Mira First Birthday-67 Haven and Mira First Birthday-70 Haven and Mira First Birthday-81 Haven and Mira First Birthday-86 Haven and Mira First Birthday-87 Haven and Mira First Birthday-90 Haven and Mira First Birthday-94 Haven and Mira First Birthday-96 Haven and Mira First Birthday-101 Haven and Mira First Birthday-108 Haven and Mira First Birthday-109 Haven and Mira First Birthday-114 Haven and Mira First Birthday-118 Haven and Mira First Birthday-119 Haven and Mira First Birthday-122 Haven and Mira First Birthday-128 Haven and Mira First Birthday-130 Haven and Mira First Birthday-131 Haven and Mira First Birthday-132 Haven and Mira First Birthday-138 Haven and Mira First Birthday-141 Haven and Mira First Birthday-142 Haven and Mira First Birthday-145 Haven and Mira First Birthday-148 Haven and Mira First Birthday-150