For being in a beautiful tropical environment, little things like dinner served a few minutes late sure set off this segment of the populace. We changed dining tables after the first night. On the way, we saw several wrecked ships on the rocks, snapped trees, houses with blue tarps on the roofs, and other hurricane evidence. Local folks we spoke with had lost their homes. Arriving in St. John, we took a pickup-truck taxi to Trunk Bay, a U.S. National Park.
Trunk bay is a fabulous white crescent of sand set with coconut palm trees.
Huge hermit crabs dined on fallen coconut, as did these scurrying creatures that looked like ferrets. Our main attraction to Trunk Bay was the renowned underwater snorkeling trail, and arriving at 10am, we had the whole thing almost to ourselves. The underwater trail follows a series of three buoys on the surface. We still were able to view a lot of the markers and see some of the fish indicated. The clerks at the store were very friendly in getting a traveler's check approved and even the people in line had a lively conversation with us regarding the hurricane, current state of the island, how we won't be able to tolerate another California beach after visiting Trunk Bay, etc.