Overlooking that beach is a town cemetery where all the burial sites are above ground. These people were laid to rest with some beautiful views!
We have to include a picture taken the night before, that is evidence of the stiff winds that this city endured in the hurricanes of 2017. The directional signs are no longer straight, so its hard to know what direction they are really pointing.
On Blake and Claire's last trip, they saw lots of iguanas. But we didn't find any until our last morning when we drove in the hills right above town. We think that the hurricanes drove these huge lizards up to higher ground, and they decided to stay up there.
Our other wildlife sighting of the day came as we checked out of our villa. This six-inch caterpillar was making his way across the tile by the pool.
This guy and his friends can strip the leaves from a large frangipani tree overnight. You can see one in the bottom of the picture below, munching on those large leaves.
We had a 12:00 appointment on the car ferry, where Mark had to back up that steep ramp for our return trip to St. Thomas. We were on board with a couple cement trucks, as everything has to be ferried onto the island of St. John.
We took pictures on the ferry boat as we crossed between the islands. Denisa has been noticing this week that Mark and Blake are exactly the same size.
Blake is a carbon copy of his Father. They're the same height, they wear the same size clothes, and they even have the same sense of humor.
It was a beautiful weather day as we drew closer to the shallow water surrounding St. Thomas and got a glimpse of the turquoise water that we have come to love.
On the ferry ride, Claire was still feeling good as we watched the speedier boats cross our path.
But by the time we returned our rental car and got to the St. Thomas airport, she was beginning to run a fever. We knew we were in a very small airport, when the first thing we saw with wings was not an airplane--it was this little island bird flitting around the waiting area.
Our airline was great to find seats together in the very back where Claire would be most comfortable as her temperature soared. It was during this first flight that Claire's Mother also started running a fever. Uh-oh! What's going on?
Two flights and two time zones later, we came in for a night-time landing at the Oklahoma City airport.
As soon as we gathered luggage, we made the drive across the city to Blake and Claire's house. While four of us felt great, Claire and her Mother were feeling lousy. The thermometer told the story. Claire's temperature was 104.3 by the time we got to their house! She and her Mother both went to their doctors' offices the next day, and both tested negative for the flu. Based on their high temperature and body aches, it looks like they came home from St. John with a case of dengue (pronounced dang-ee) fever, transmitted from a mosquito bite. It was several days before they got relief from the fever and aches, and the rest of us waited for symptoms to develop. Denisa had a day of head ache and some light muscle aches, but nothing like the severity of the usual dengue fever. Mark came home with a plugged ear that took a doctor's visit to clear. So our vacation in paradise wasn't without its perils. After our experience, next time we would be more diligent in wearing bug spray along with our sun screen. Because it's no fun to end a vacation saying, "Dang! We got dengue fever!"
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