1776 United Spotted in the US Virgin Islands!

I had the great privilege this past week to spend time with my beautiful girlfriend and my mom and dad in the paradise that is the United States Virgin Islands. We stayed in a pretty rustic villa on the island of St. John, which is the smallest and least populated of the three US virgin islands, the other two being St. Thomas and St. Croix.

St. John is almost all National Park land, which was dedicated to the US Government by Laurance Rockefeller in the 1950s. The beaches are world-class, the wildlife is abundant, and the culture and customs of the island are laidback to say the least. Feral donkeys, goats, cows and chickens roam the streets, where you drive a 4-wheel drive rental Jeep on the left side of the road. It's an experience unlike an all-inclusive resort, one that many might not find relaxing. There are jungle trails, snorkeling trails, rugged hikes and lush peaks. There is even odd wildlife that isn't naturally-occurring on the island, such as mongoose. Mongoose were imported years back to deal with the rat population, but because rats are mostly nocturnal and mongoose are not, they ate all of the snakes instead. The mongoose population still thrives there today--we even got a video of one attacking an iguana:

I'll stop with the encyclopedia of the island and get to the pictures, but needless to say, if you haven't been you should definitely think about making the trip! We had an awesome time and made sure to get some 1776 United photo ops while we wandered around drinking rum. 

We thought this was a pretty good spot for a logo sticker!

Another one at Salt Pond. 

Overlooking the beautiful turquoise waters of Leinster Bay, from the Annaberg Ruins in St. John. Absolutely top-notch snorkeling here at Leinster.

I picked up some green bottle beer like a local. This is the view from our balcony, overlooking Hurricane Hole in St. John. Cheers to an incredible trip!