Our third day on the island was filled with more adventures and laughter. It was a slower start than we expected but we had breakfast at the hotel, and decided to go to St John for the day. Unfortunately we missed the 1:00 ferry by minutes but it gave us a little time to shop in Red Hook. We caught the next ferry, shopped for a few hours in Cruz Bay. Went to some of my favorite shops in Mongoose Junction and we all bought something. We had lunch at an outdoor cafe and had some delicious salads. Then we took a taxi ride around the island. We drove passed Caneel Bay, Hawks nest, Cinnamon Bay, Trunk Bay, Francis and others. It was a gorgeous drive with the sun beginning to set. Even though the temperature was dropping, it was lovely for me, others were chilly. Our guide, Avery was fabulous. He provided island history, stopped and described the vegetation. He gave us a broad leaf called pain killer and the noni fruit, a bay leaf and leaf of life. Talia had a back spasm and put the leaf on her back, and eventually it stopped but we’re it sure it was the leaf.

We stopped at the Annaberg Plantation this once-working sugar plantation (circa 1870) was the site of boiling molasses and hardworking slaves harvesting sugarcane. We saw the slave quarters, windmill and surrounding buildings. Avery even picked us some cotton that was in the area.

Our drive back to the ferry area was filled with more switchback turns as it got darker when we finally came up with our song of the day, ‘You don’t know me,’ a slight twist on the song you don’t own me. We ate dinner in Cruz Bay, and caught the 9:00 ferry back to St Thomas. We sung, laughed, messed with each other. We’re thinking about coming back to St John to enjoy the beaches the next time.

86 degrees and sunny. No snow day for us.