Virgin Islands National Park

Now that I have been to all 50 states, I've turned my attention to additional challenges*.  Among them is visiting all 59 of our national parks.  I've only been to 22 so far, and getting to all of them will be a tall order.  (There's at least one in Alaska that is so remote it has no roads in or to the park- you have to take a bush plane!  But it does have bears so I think it'll be worth checking out.)  (There's also one in American Samoa.  Hmm. That could be tough.)

Today I got to cross a big one off the list, though, as we went to Virgin Islands National Park. 

As you can see, our selfie game at the park headquarters was not on point.  It was blindingly sunny, hence the sunglasses, but the glasses made it impossible to see the phone screen.  Also, my mom's hair...

Virgin Islands National Park is located on St. John, one of the three main US Virgin Islands.  (We are staying on St. Thomas; the third is St. Croix which unfortunately we won't have time to visit this trip**.)  To get there we took a pleasant half hour car ferry ride across Pillsbury Sound.  Looking back as we crossed, we got a nice view of the condo we are staying at.

Upon arrival in St. John, we took the above terrible selfie and chatted with the park rangers to get their suggestions for the day.  Also did a little shopping at park headquarters but I really feel that those purchases support a good cause so it's fine that I bought three different things.  Maybe four***.

Next we drove along the north shore of the island, and stopped at the scenic vistas along the way, each more picturesque than the last.  Here I am at the overlook of Maho Bay.

I mean, seriously.

We continued driving, and made our way to the ruins of the Annaberg Sugar Mill.  The buildings were cool and the views were great, but the best part is that there was an interpreter there sharing traditional food and drink!  Though there's a slight possibility that the methods of preparation they used might not have been completely authentic to the 1700s.

The "local drink" was delicious and tasted like Kool-Aid.  Oh.  Yeah.

After a brief stop for lunch, we returned to Maho Bay, this time to the beach.  There were several snorkelers in the water, so after setting up our towels and chairs, we waded into the water to see what the fuss was all about.  And it was a pretty sweet fuss- there were several sea turtles out swimming around!!!  I probably saw at least four different ones, at distances of 15 yards away to as close as a couple of feet!  It was truly incredible.

The day concluded with some more relaxing on the beach.  I will now watch this video whenever I am having a stressful day, and would encourage you to do likewise.

*Others include seeing each MLB team play a game at their home stadium (19/30), and visiting all of the Big Ten campuses (11/14).  Can I interest anyone in a trip to Tampa, Oakland, Houston, Arlington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Denver, Phoenix, San Diego, LA, San Francisco, Iowa City, East Lansing, or Piscataway???

**Even more so because they have the rum factories, and we all know how much I love factory tours.  And rum.

***To be fair, the fourth item was lip balm with SPF 20 rating because I might have left mine at Mom's house, or it might have fallen out on the plan, who can know for sure.  And sunburnt lips are the worst.  And probably unhealthy.  And the lip balm tastes like coconut.