Sunset on St. John

We're back from our special vacation on St. John- both of us celebrating one of those birthdays that ends in a "0" plus a big anniversary too.  So this year, it was time to splurge.  We don't normally take much time off, unless it relates to family or ties into work, so this was a big deal for us.  And boy, was it worth it!

We snorkeled every day.  I was hoping to see some cool fish, but we were lucky and swam with sea turtles, stingrays, jelly fish, and lots of gorgeous fish.  Every day after snorkeling, I'd go back to my guide to see what it was that I had seen.

And of course, no Lamberson vacation occurs without a little bit of adventure.  The first day, we hadn't checked our guides thoroughly and snorkeled too far.  It was really hard fighting some of the undertow, but we made it back.  Unfortunately, between the slippery rocks and the strong tow, I did accidentally step on a spiny urchin.  Yikes! my foot still isn't back to normal.  We also had to climb up a small cliff after that swim to get back where we needed to be.  Lol, we were lucky to find an area with exposed tree roots to use as hand and foot holds.  I was pretty tired after that one.

But the rest of our adventures were a lot more tame after that.  The sea turtles were fascinating to watch.  I would spend long periods of time watching them eat and surface.  They swim so gracefully.  I look forward to making them in glass.

This is the view from our room.  Can you imagine that about 30 steps our your door brings you to this each morning?

These three were all on our hotel property too.  There is a herd of white donkeys who are the resident lawn mowers (and fertilizers) and a few cool iguanas are known around there too.  This seagull was quite persistent in hoping for a handout.  (as much of a softie as I am, I didn't feed it.  Seems that would make it even peskier for the next person)

And this was a view from a different beach.  We went to the British Virgin Islands for a day trip and visited 4 islands.  One of them, Virgin Gorda has a large network of rock caves, called The Baths, which we explored.  It was easy to imagine pirates from hundreds of years ago storing their loot in them.

We also stopped at Jost Van Dyke island home of the Soggy Dollar Bar.  I guess there is a Kenny Chesney song that makes that area famous, and there is a drink they invented called the Painkiller, that is made throughout the islands.  It is called Soggy Dollar, because there is no dock, and you anchor your boat and swim in to shore to the bar.  We swam, we had a libation, and it was a gorgeous day.

So vacation is over, inspiration is filed in my mind, along with a lot of wonderful memories.  Now back to the torch.  If you are on Facebook, I will be starting a trunk show tonight for about 48 hours on Glass Open Market.  Please join me if you have time.