Journeys›Photograph

A Few Days Overlooking Cruz Bay

·Charlotte Amalie, United States Virgin Islands·#travel#summer#tropical#ocean view#island
Panoramic view of a tropical bay with green hills, blue ocean, white boat trails, palm trees, and a red-roofed building.

We're a few days into a stay on the hillside here, in a blue-railed place with a balcony that looks straight out over the water. Across Pillsbury Sound is Cruz Bay on St. John — its main port of entry, the ferries running between there and Red Hook and Charlotte Amalie all day. That's most of what the traffic on the water is: white wakes cutting across the bay every little while, some of them still hanging on the surface long after the boat is gone.

A flamboyant tree is in full bloom just below the rail, orange-red against everything else, and it leans right into the view of the beach. Below that, the red tin roof of the building downhill, palms bending in the wind between us and the sand.

Late in the day we went over to the pool, which sits on a deck above the road with Charlotte Amalie's harbor showing through the trees behind it. Kids in the water with a yellow pineapple float, chairs pulled around the edge, towels on everything. Back on the balcony after, two Adirondack chairs and the same wakes still crossing the bay.

A scenic view from above a red roof looking out over a bay with green hills, palm trees, and a boat on blue water.Tropical bay view from a balcony overlooking a red roof, with green hills, palm trees, and a boat on the water.Expansive ocean view with lush green islands, a beach, and foreground trees including one with orange flowers.A vast blue ocean stretches between green islands under a partly cloudy sky, with flowering trees in the foreground.A swimming pool with people and floats on a deck overlooks a tropical bay, lush green hills, and palm trees.A balcony with two chairs overlooks a blue ocean, a sandy beach, red flowering trees, and distant green islands.Balcony view of a tropical bay with green islands, bright blue water, and lush trees with orange flowers.View from a balcony of a tropical bay with a green island, blue sea, and a vibrant red-orange flowering tree.

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