USVI - Lili on the Loose

14 05, 2016

Souvenir Saturday: Bones Rum

By Lili|May 14th, 2016|Categories: Drinks, Food & Drink, Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: 2011, bar, Bones Rum, Caribbean, Curzan, Curzan Rum, Pina Colada, rum, St. John, St. John 2011, St. Thomas, USVI|0 Comments

When you exit the St. Thomas airport, you are greeted with a sample of Curzan Rum. Then when you get off the ferry in St. John, you get...another sample of Curzan Rum! Not that I'm complaining at all! But on my second trip to St. John, I was happy to find a new store had opened up. It was a "Pour Your Own Rum Bar" featuring a locally made Rum: Bones Rum! Now usually I'm not a fan of dark rum mainly as its not great on its own, but Bones is smooth and tastes good every way you want to

17 02, 2016

30 at 30: Best Experiences So Far

By Lili|February 17th, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories|Tags: Abu Simbel, Africa, Anaheim, Antigua, Asia, Aswan, Bath, Belize, Belize Barrier Reef, Bent Pyramid, birthday, Bostan, California, camping, Canyon Ranch Spa, castle, Caye Caulker, Cenote, Central America, Champ de Elysee, Chino, chocolate, Christmas Market, CIE, Concert, concert photography, Costa Rica, Dahshur, Dashur, DC, Disneyland, Egypt, England, Epiphany Night, Europe, Ewok, fireworks, Florida, France, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, Germany, golf carts, Great Britan, Guatemala, Harry Potter, haunted, Ik Kil, Ik Kill cenote, Ireland, Island of Adventure, Italy, Japan, Karnak, Lake Placid, Las Vegas, Latin America, lightsaber, Luxor, Massachusetts, memories, Mexico, Middle East, Munich, museum, Nagano Prefecture, Nevada, New York, North America, Orlando, Paris, photography, Playa Del Carmen, Pyramids, racing, Red Pyramid, reef, Rome, San Francisco, sharks, sheep, Sister Cities, snorkeling, Spa, St. John, Star Wars, Suwa, swimming, temples, The Vatican, Tokyo, tombs, tour, Trafalgar, Trajan's Column, travel experiences, trolly, Tucson, UK, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Universal Studios, USA, USVI, Vatican, Vatican City, Washington DC, white water rafting, Wizarding World of Harry Potter, yukata|1 Comment

Today is my birthday, and I've hit the "Big 3-0". I wanted to look back at 30 of my favorite travel memories in my life, in no particular order: Fulfilling my dream of going to Egypt, seeing so many amazing tombs and temples Sitting alone in the temples of Abu Simbel and Karnak Climbing into and on top of a pyramid Wandering the Christmas Markets of Munich Seeing the castles of Germany Taking a haunted trolly/walking tour of Boston graveyards. Seeing as many museums as I could in Washington, DC Swimming with sharks in Belize Racing golf-carts on Caye Caulker Making

18 01, 2016

Travel Missteps: Don’t Look Under the Ledge

By Lili|January 18th, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2010, 2013, beach, Belize, boat, California, Caribbean, Caye Caulker, Central America, fear, fish, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, grouper, island, Little Maho Bay, Maho, Mayan Encounter 2013, Mermaid, Michigan, ocean, paradise, snorkel, snorkeling, St. John, St. John 2010, The Little Mermaid, underwater photography, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site, USVI, water|0 Comments

As a young child, my favorite movie was The Little Mermaid. I loved swimming and spent my childhood on the beaches of California and the Great Lakes of Michigan pretending to be a mermaid. On my first trip to St. John USVI, it was my first time snorkeling in years and I was excited to try out my new equipment and underwater camera. I swam out to a rocky outcropping near Little Maho Bay Beach and got a little snap happy as I hadn't expected the water to be so clear or to see so many fish so close to the

14 09, 2015

Travel Missteps: No See Ums

By Lili|September 14th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps, Travel Tips|Tags: 2010, 2011, beach, bites, bug bites, bugs, Caribbean, itchy, mosquito, no see ums, ocean, paradise, rum, sand, sand flies, snorkel, snorkeling, St. John, St. John 2010, St. John 2011, USVI, vodka|0 Comments

The US Virgin Islands are full of amazingly beautiful sandy beaches. And those beaches are often infested with small biting and blood sucking insects sometimes called No See Ums, Sand Flies, as well as many other names. They are almost invisible but their bites can swell up and look like mosquito bites. They can also carry/transmit diseases. They are also not fast, if you are moving quickly into the water, you'll likely not get bit, but its when you walk back through the sand, sit on a towel, or have stand sticking to you or your shoes that they can hitch

2 07, 2015

Tips for Swimming with Sea Turtles

By Lili|July 2nd, 2015|Categories: Activities, Travel, Travel Tips|Tags: Belize, Belize Barrier Reef, Caribbean, Hawaii, Maui, Mayan Encounter 2013, North America, Sea Turtle, St. John, St. John 2010, St. John 2011, Tips, Travel Thursday, turtle, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site, USVI|1 Comment

A turtle in Belize Sea Turtles are a majestic sight to see when snorkeling. I’ve had the opportunity to see and swim with turtles in Maui, HI, St. John USVI, and the Belize Barrier Reef. But too often swimmers or snorkelers get too close to Sea Turtles and inadvertently end up harassing them. Here are some tips when swimming with Sea Turtles to make sure the experience is good to everyone. Turtle Town Maui First it is important to note in many areas turtles are protected by law. You should not touch, attempt to feed, or

8 03, 2015

The Sounds that Travel with Us

By Lili|March 8th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories|Tags: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, All in the family Italy 2005/2006, Asia, at the heart of it Ireland 2009, Backpacking it in England and Scotland, Belize, BuzzFeed, California, Canada, Caribbean, Central America, Christmas in Germany, christmas music, Costa Rica, drinking song, England, Europe, Germany, Good Food in San Francisco, Guatemala, House of Cards, Ireland, Italy, Japan, ke$ha, kesha, Las Vegas, Linkin Park, Mattafix, Mayan Encounter 2013, memories, Mexico, Nevada, North America, paradise, Robert Post, Sailor Moon, San Diego, San Francisco, Scotland, Sister Cities Japan 2004, song, songs, sound, sounds, St. John, St. John 2010, Toronto, USA, USVI, wild rover, Yea! Sports|0 Comments

BuzzFeed recently had an article about the sounds from Italy that will fill you with Wanderlust. And it reminded me of all the sounds I associate with certain trips. Here are some of my top highlights that will instantly take me back in time: Toronto: Theme from House of Cards Google Play and Amazon had the first episode of House of Cars for free. I figured, sure why not, lets see what the hype is all about. I watched the first episode on my flights out...and got hooked. At night I'd watch House of Card before falling asleep. San Diego:

31 12, 2014

2014 The Year of Changes – Part 3: Travel

By Lili|December 31st, 2014|Categories: Travel, Year in Review|Tags: 2014, 2015, 4th of July, Boston, Boulder, California, changes, Denver, fall, fall leaves, graveyard, Halloween, historical, Massachusetts, museum, San Diego, saving, St. John, USVI, Wayin, work, year in review|0 Comments

This is Part 3 of my 2014 Year in Review. Travel With most of my time and energy for the year being tied up in job hunting, job getting, job starting, putting things into storage, moving, house hunting, and moving again - I didn’t travel much this year and ended up not going on my trip to St. John, USVI. USVI got the axe mainly because I wanted to save money for my new home, and because the trip had originally been scheduled for my first week at Wayin. So instead I focused on experiencing more of downtown Denver. I

31 12, 2014

2014 The Year of Changes – Part 1: Work

By Lili|December 31st, 2014|Categories: Year in Review|Tags: 2013, 2014, changes, Denver, St. John, USA, USVI, Wayin, work, year in review|0 Comments

When I wrote 2013’s Year in Review my only plans for 2014 included another trip to St. John, USVI and work more on the blog. As you can surmised from the blog - neither of those plans happened because I had no idea how different my life would be this year. So instead of doing my favorite travel memories of 2014 I’ll share the big changes that happened this year. And as I started writing, I realized that there were so many changes that I needed to break the 2014 Year in Review into multiple posts. So here is Part

1 01, 2014

2013 Year Highlights and 2014 Upcoming Travel Plans

By Lili|January 1st, 2014|Categories: Travel, Upcoming Travel, Year in Review|Tags: 2013, 2014, Actun Tunichil Muknal, Antigua, Belize, blog posts, Caye Caulker, Central America, CES, chocolate, climb, food, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, golf cart, grandpa, group, Guatemala, highlights, hike, Las Vegas, Mayan, Mayan Encounter 2013, meetup, museum, mythbusters, Panama, Pyramid, racing, rum, savings, shark, Smithsonian, snorkeling, St. John, swim, Tikal, tour group, travel plans, triceratops, upcoming, upcoming travel, upcoming travel plans, USA, USVI, Washington DC, work, year in review|0 Comments

Goodbye 2013! You were a good year. Here are some of the travel highlights: I went to Las Vegas twice for work, and had the opportunity to experience the craziness that is CES first hand. My favorite food experience was learning the history and how to make chocolate in Antigua, Guatemala. There is a 3 way tie for the “I never thought I’d…” Climb to the top of a Mayan Pyramid at Tikal, Guatemala Hike over a mile into the earth and free climb rock formations to see Mayan sacrifices at Actun Tunichil Muknal in Belize. Swim with sharks near

18 03, 2013

Travel Missteps: Stuck in Paradise

By Lili|March 18th, 2013|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2010, Caribbean, eruption, paradise, Snowpocalypse, snowstorm, St. John, St. John 2010, stranded, stuck, USVI, volcano, work|0 Comments

View overlooking Trunk Bay, St. John USVI In February 2010 I visited a paradise known as St. John USVI for the first time. Nearly 3/4th of the island is national park land and it is beautiful. I stayed in an eco cottages (pretty much tents in trees with geckos and frogs as roommates) and snorkeled every day. I didn't want to ever leave this paradise. But as with all trips the end seem to come too soon and it was time to go home. A day before I was supposed to fly out, I started hearing rumors that flights into the USVI had been cancelled and no