Warm Thoughts for a Cold Day:

On the Jeep On the Ferry.  

As I sit here inside on a day of ICE and cold, no one here or awake but me....I think about my life the past year.  I think of how much my life has changed and how much I HAVE changed. And it makes me happy.
On October 10, 2010, I got married to my love in a BEAUTIFUL warm place, St. Thomas, USVI
After our very special private ceremony at 8 in the morning, we took a jeep on a ferry and spent the rest of our wedding day exploring the most beautiful place I have seen thus far in my 42 years, St. John.
St. Thomas is beautiful, yes.  But commercialized and inhabited and in some parts, very poor.

Newlyweds at Hawk's Nest!

Hawk's Nest Bay

St. John is a great deal of park and reserve land so it is NATURAL and beautiful and unspoiled in so many parts.  We bought an Off the Beaten Path book, hopped in the jeep and headed out.
The bays are amazing and the pictures I made of them are untouched and unedited.  The most beautiful places I have ever seen and photographed.  Who knew water could be that color??

Cruz Bay

Trunk Bay.  My favorite picture of the bays.  I have a 24X36 of this print hanging over my FIREPLACE!

Kenny Chesney has the right idea.  Just wish I could have HIS house that we saw to hang out in, ummm...pretty much ALL the time. 
We ate at  one of Kenny's favorite spots--Woody's, some of the best shrimp EVER for our first lunch as a married couple.

As we traveled around the island, we saw lots of bays and ruins as well.  Sugar plantations, rum factory ruins and windmills all exist from the 1700's.  Who knew it was beautiful and historic as well!

Our ferry came in tr Cruz Bay.  We traveled around to Hawksnest, Trunk, Cinnamon, Maho, to Annaberg.   We took a mountain road back to the ferry.  Wow- still so much more to explore.

Peace Hill had some gorgeous views as well as old windmill ruins that were very interesting.It was very peaceful as the name suggests and the trade wins that once turned the windmill were soothing and warm.  What a nice hike up to the spectacular views.

Annaberg Plantation, as of 1780, was one of 25 active sugar producing factories on St. John. The windmill at Annaberg was built possibly between 1810 and 1830, and was one of the largest in the islands.

Thirty four feet in diameter at the base and twenty feet at the top, the mill stands thirty eight feet high. When there was no wind to work the windmill, a horse mill would be used. The horses or mules were plodded in a circular motion; this turned the upright rollers in the center of the platform. Slaves passed cane stalk through the rollers and a box at the bottom caught the juice. The juice ran by gravity through gutters to the factory for processing. Three to five hundred gallons of juice could be produced in an hour.

What was very cool was to see the coral and shells used as "bricks" in the buildings.

We traveled around the island all our wedding day taking hundreds of amazing pictures.  We took a winding mountain road to the very top of the island.   Did I mention there were even WILD donkeys in the mountains on St. John too?  Wow.  Who knew so many things could be found on one little beautiful island???

So we put our little red jeep back on the ferry at the end of a very peaceful, beautiful wedding day to start a peaceful and beautiful life together.
And said goodbye to St. John for now.   For now.