St. Croix - Nov. 6-13, 2021

The owner of Aquatic Adventures invited us on her birthday trip to St. Croix. We got two houses, which looked very close on a map, but were really far on the hilly, pot-holed roads of St. Croix.

Mark and I rented a car, which we took down to the dive shop each morning with Wendy to jump on the boat for our two morning dives a day. Besides the day we did a night dive at the pier, we got to explore the city a bit. 

On Monday, we did a night dive at the pier with the Aquatic Adventures group.

On Wednesday, we explored the fort and the market.

On Thursday, we did the pier by ourselves and found a seahorse! (But no frogfish for Mark.)

On Friday, we explored the island - starting with a lunch with "drunken" pigs, a commune/farm where Snow Bear greeted us (and we really hit the max of potholes with the car), and a ruined estate.

Saturday, as we checked out and headed to the airport, we stopped by the botanical gardens, and then swung by a geocache. 

Turks and Caicos - June 19-26, 2021

Mark, Alisa, and I signed up for a dive vacation to Turks and Caicos, pretty sure we'd be fully vaccinated in time (and thankfully, we were right - mid-May was when Mark and I were 2 weeks after our second shot of Moderna).

We flew in with a bunch of dive friends from Aquatic Adventures, hopped on the boat and met Jay and Jo, our guides.

Though technically Alisa and I had done a liveaboard in Thailand, this was much more luxiorious, even for a boat. Mark and I were in bunks down the hall from Alisa and Wendy.

The boat had this fun way of doing a figure 8 in the water when it was moored. One night dive, Mark decided to drink so JJ and I were buddies - and though we were with Jay, we didn't make it back to the boat, so the little Zodiac came and got us.

A day in, Alisa learned that Jo had volunteered at a dog shelter on the island. She hurriedly submitted her application, and the day we left the boat, we took a look at some puppies. One had just gotten its medical papers to travel, so little Josie came home with Alisa!