Beach Day! | Hotel on the Cay | Castaways [St. Croix 2018]

When Roody & I woke up, we couldn’t really believe that we were really in St. Croix. We slept really well, and Liz made us some breakfast. One of the pluses of staying at Serenity at Solitude B&B is the fact that they have a whole section of beach items for you can borrow. Like beach towels, sun hats, sunglasses, bug spray, sun tan lotion… so we packed up a few of them joints and headed out.

This lizard greeted us on our way out. I remember when I used to pull off lizards’ tails when I was a little girl. I was such a tomboy. And then I’d be amazed when I would see the same lizard a couple days later with a new tail stub.

Liz is the one who told us about Hotel on the Cay, by the way. We told her we wanted to go snorkeling, and that was one of her many suggestions. We parked in a [free] lot that we found in the Christiansted Historic District, because Downtown was packed and there was no street parking. The lot closed at 4:30, so we made a mental note of that. I snapped some photos of the architecture as we walked to the ferry docking, which was at King Christian Hotel.

The ferry ride was only $5/person, and it was really quick.

We paid when we got off the boat, and we also rented some beach chairs and a small cabana as well. We found a nice little area under a tree and set up there. Then we whipped out the tripod to take some photos together.

I hadn’t worn a two-piece bikini since September 2011. So I felt extremely self-conscious, but that was mostly because of my mommy gut. But I kept telling myself [and I’m still telling myself] that it’s ok to not have a perfect body. I’ve NEVER had a perfect body. I’ve been sucking in my gut since I was 7. It’s just always been big, and no amount of diet or exercise can help me, apparently. So I have to work with what I have and learn to love myself :)

Moving on: Roody was the first to go all the way into the water. It wasn’t very cold, but we were still big chickens.

Since Roody did it, I felt like I could do it, too!

You know what I had never seen in person before? An iguana.

I tried to get a tiny bit closer to this one to take a better photo, and it took off running like a dinosaur!

So I didn’t know this, but you’re not supposed to get too close to them. Roody told me that when they jump on you, you need help taking them off because they dig their claws into you. And the bartender saw me taking photos of this guy and told me to “watch my finger.”

So fear suddenly took over me, and I was scared stiff. HAHA! That’s what I get.

Anyway, we went to the bar to buy a $10 burger. It came with some chips. We were STARVING and ate that joint off in .2 seconds. Then we went back to the beach to get our last swim in. The guy on the grill told us that the woman in charge of renting out the snorkels didn’t show up for work. So no snorkeling for us, but that was fine. I was just happy to be swimming in island water again.

I was quite pleased with myself. I can’t swim. You hear me? But for some reason, I took a dip into that St. Croix water and felt all the confidence I needed. I swam until my right big toe and my hips hurt.

I was really proud of myself, and I couldn’t wait to go to another one of St. Croix’s 31 beaches to try swimming again :)

For dinner, we wanted to get the $5 tacos from Ziggy’s down the street from the B&B, but we went too late. They stopped serving at 5 PM, and it was after 8 PM. So they suggested “Castaways” which was just right next door.

No exaggeration: my wrap was THE BEST wrap I’d ever eaten in my life. And Roody really enjoyed his cold noodles. I saved half of my wrap for lunch the next day. Even though it was soggy, it was still the best wrap in the whole world.

We made sure to get a photo of us together every single night. We drove home quietly because we were both so tired from the day’s adventures. It was such a good day :)