More from St. John

Some more pictures from St. John:

B has in recent months become quite the little swimmer. This was exclusively pool swimming (not much open water to be done in NH in winter!). In the last two weeks before St. John, she had mustered the courage and excitement to hold her nose and duck all the way under the water with her goggles. We were hoping that this would mean that, even if she didn't snorkel exactly, she could at least have glimpses of what's under the waves. Alas, try as we might to cajole her (see image above), I think she wore her goggles all of once during the whole trip. (Also, does anyone else find the Land's End children's swimwear cut a little indecently?)

St John, and particularly the eastern end where we were staying, is actually a relatively arid place. To my surprise, cacti are pretty abundant, so are little lizards and geckos. This fellow has found himself a perfect hiding spot.


Us four in the middle-generation made a hike late one afternoon towards Ram's Head, the last bit of a spit of land extending south into the ocean.

As we crossed the beach at Saltpond Bay, we saw a gorgeous rainbow brought on the by the afternoon sun and a downpour than swept over us about ten seconds after this picture was taken.

Blue cobblestone beach, the next quiet inlet south of saltpond bay. There are a couple of moorings here for boats. The rush of the waves in and out of the beach, which really is made of baseball-sized cobblestones, was really something, like ten thousand babbling brooks. Ram's Head itself is the bump in the center background.

Just past blue cobblestone beach is a cleft in the land that allows the easterly wind to come whipping through at ferocious speed. We had at least one hat fly off.

Although our timing was perfect for sunset views at Ram's head, the weather that passed over us earlier obscured the sun and horizon as it marched westward.

On the way back down we noticed that some of the Turk's Head cacti, in addition to some lovely pink flowers, had tiny little pods, too. As it turns out, these are edible, and some folks harvest them to make a sort of jam. The inside, slightly sour, is filled with tiny black seeds. This particular pod is about an inch long.

Wilson!