St. John Vacation - Day 2!

On Thursday morning we checked out of the Marriott and took a taxi to Red Hook, which is where the ferry leaves for St. John. Once we arrived we gave a quick wave to our friends and family on the webcam and then headed into the market for some lunch.
We then picked up our rental car, a white Jeep Wrangler who Kyle later named as "the white donkey". Then we were off to find some beaches! Of course we got to see these views along the way...
The first beach we stopped at was Jumbie Bay. This is a small cut out right next to Trunk Bay (pictured above) where you don't have to pay to go in. We inflated our rafts and went out to soak in some sun! (Those rafts were the best $1.50 I've ever spent... SO worth it!)
The view from Jumbie:
We drove around a little bit and then decided to check into the Maho Bay Eco Camps where we would be staying for the next 2 nights. Here is our "tree house":
Now unfortunately this is where the mosquitoes come into play. By the time I had gotten out of the car I had 20 buzzing around me and 6 bites already... it was horrible! (St. John had gotten 3 straight weeks of rain so there was a lot of standing water which are breeding grounds for mosquitoes!) We quickly checked in and basically ran up the 300 stairs to our "tent". Below is the front desk and the drinking water fountain we had to get all of our water from.
Our tent was truly a tree house, with a little view of the ocean. It was definitely 'roughing it' as we had lots of lizards and other insects in there with us, but for the most part the mosquitoes stayed out! It came with a little kitchen, sofa, 2 twin beds and a porch. We ended up sliding the twins together to make a bigger bed and that worked perfectly. Oh and if you were wondering, there is no AC and the bathrooms are communal. Thank heavens for that box fan that was in the room... because IT.WAS.HOT.
From Maho there is a hiking trail down to Little Maho Bay. We snorkeled there until the sun went down, then decided to head up for dinner.
On campus is a "mess hall" where most everyone eats dinner. This picture is pretty blurry but it's a nice open pavilion with a beautiful view of the ocean.
It was also movie night so we watched a little of Star Wars then decided to head back up to bed! And that was Day #2!