The weather was questionable this morning, so we didn't set out for the beach immediately.
The power went out suddenly, just after 8 AM. In hindsight, there is a suspiciously large quantity of flashlights and candles scattered around the condo. Lauren messaged our VRBO host, who promptly replied that it could be just a few minutes, or a few hours.
Not having much else to do, Rudy and I took a walk along the beach to inspect the conditions.
We walked in the wet sand back towards the Palms at Pelican Cove, where we ate dinner last night, then turned inland and headed back towards home base.
We got back just before 9 AM, at which point it started raining again. The power was back on by the time we got back; I think it was out for about 45 minutes.
Rather than risk getting rained on at the beach, we all walked over to the Palms for a hearty breakfast.
It poured briefly while we were eating, but we were safely under cover. After a leisurely breakfast, we all strolled along the beach some more, farther along the shore that Rudy and I had explored earlier. We got caught in a sudden downpour, and sought shelter in a hurricane-wrecked building.
Once the rain subsided, we returned to the condo via the beach route.
It was around 11:30 AM as we finished our beach wandering, and the weather was finally clearing up.
The beach immediately adjacent to the condos wasn't really suitable for swimming, but we were now all hot and sweaty so we decided to cool off in the pool for awhile.
After a few hours, it turned into a beautiful afternoon, so we regrouped and made plans for the rest of the day.
We decided to take a scenic drive out to Point Udall, which is technically the easternmost part of the United States.
Along the way, we stopped at an overlook above Christiansted, the largest town on the island.
As we drove east, the land became drier, the vegetation became browner, and the roads became steeper. Along the way, we saw a few donkeys and some goats in the vicinity of Goat Hill, as one might expect.
Eventually, we made it out to the east end of the island, to see the Millenium Monument and take in the views.
The trail was fairly easy to negotiate, and was 0.6 miles down to the beach. At the start, we ran into a guy coming back up the trail who told us it was easy going and not too far to the beach.
The view along the trail was spectacular, and we could hear the booming of the waves crashing on the shore below.
At the end of the trail, a set of stairs leads down to the beach at Isaac Bay.
It was about 3:45 PM when we hit the sand, but that gave me about an hour to do some snorkeling.
Much of the coral was bleached and dying, but there were still plenty of fish to follow around.
The visibility was decent, although the current churned up the bottom in some areas.
This coral was about a yard across.
Mostly, I weaved around a maze of these huge corals that reached almost all the way to the surface. I had to poke my head up a few times to get my bearings, as I kept getting lost.
Not wanting to drive back along the scenic route in the dark, we hiked back up to the car around 5 PM, and headed into town to find some dinner.
We managed to find the only Italian restaurant on the island, I think, and had a wonderful early dinner at Un Amore, next to the auto parts store.
After dinner, we hit the nearby grocery store for a few essentials, then returned to the condo to plan the next few days.
Tomorrow, there will definitely be more beach and probably more snorkeling, because I only need about 20 minutes in the sun to get my daily vitamin D.
The weather forecast looks perfect, but that's always subject to change around here.
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