St Croix 14 day 8

Today we got up early and went for a hike to the eastern most edge of the United States.  Adrian and his dog Diego joined us today as we helped Ty celebrate his birthday.  Ty led us on a hike about 1.5 miles up Goat hill to get the most beautiful views of the beaches and water.  

It was a scorcher of a day but totally worth the climb!  Even with all the sharp Kasha (aka the acacia) plants ripping at us no one complained.  We have the most positive spirited kids ever! We stopped to eat our bagged lunches near a beach at the bottom of the hill and even got to see some hatched turtle eggs.  We then hiked over to a different beach to go snorkeling.  By that point we were all dying to get in the water.  We are all such experienced snorkelers by now we couldn't wait to see the long reef.  We split into 2 groups and headed out.  

Here is a summary of what we saw: 

A huge Queen conk, some new healthy Stag horn coral (which is exciting because it is endangered.) we saw conks galore, sand dollars, and even a mysterious head shield sea slug.  Some saw a Morley eel, mantis shrimp, and Barracuda.  Probably our favorite highlight was when Jacob found a nurse shark!  We all got to swim down and see it hiding under some coral which was very cool.

We hiked back out and came back to DG for some needed down time.  Everyone gave a record # of shout outs at circle up time tonight.  Everyone enjoyed talking on the trail today and helping each other out along the way.  What a great group of kids and leaders.  We are so lucky to be getting these experiences together.