Saint Thomas

Saint Thomas is a lot like Saint Maarten, which we visited (it was a "work" trip for me, but my brother boss let me bring Jim) back in 2015 (has it been that long???): hilly with lots of vacation homes dotting said hills.

I have no pictures from breakfast, but it was kind of memorable because it was Pam's birthday. We had agreed to meet Pam and Tim for breakfast at one of the dining rooms so we could order brekky. Jim and I arrived at the agreed upon time and we were ready to go. Pam and Tim weren't there, but we waited and waited. I tried texting Pam, and finally calling, but no answer. Finally 20 minutes later, and we had already ordered and had started eating, she texted back, saying they had missed an alarm and would be down shortly. I won't go into their excuses and argument between the two of them but I was a bit taken aback. I did excuse myself to run up to our room to grab the card I had brought to give to Pam but when I had returned to the table, she had gone back up to her room. We left the card with Tim and debarked to wait for the excursion (Tim and Pam had booked the same excursion).

Such a nice view from our balcony!

So nice that I posted the same view again.

Jim and his fancy banana shirt! He looks like a proper tourist.

We met Tim and Pam in line for the excursion. When we finally got underway, Tim was very disappointment to learn that we had a ways to walk. He complained the whole time. He felt we shouldn't have had to walk, and was going to complain to Princess about it. Pam put up with it and I tried keeping a conversation between the two of us. It was kind of a long walk mostly because we didn't know where we were going. I get that back, hips and knees are subject to pain, especially with older folks and believe me, my hips and back were tiring and I'm sure Tim was in some pain, but we all made it there and onto the tour boat so obviously he wasn't dying.

Our tour took us to Turtle Cove on a little unnamed (as far as I can tell), uninhabited island for some snorkeling. The island is a wildlife refuge and humans are not allowed even on the beach, which was fine with me. I was there to hopefully see a sea turtle and try snorkeling again. I was just the tiniest bit apprehensive because I've been snorkeling TWICE in my life and I tend to start off by panicking. But when the time came to get in the water, I was OK. The flippers were difficult to keep on; they got loose in the water. I did manage to tighten mine up, but Jim had the same problem and was unable to fix it and ended up losing one of his flippers to the deep (well, 20 feet of it). He tried to swim back to the boat but that proved almost too much for him. I think he was getting tired and just a little bit panicky himself. He doesn't care too much for swimming. He did make it back to the boat and I asked him if he was ok to stay there and he said he was and I could go off snorkeling. I was relieved to be able to enjoy snorkeling without having to worry about him. So I headed off to meet up with Pam, who was with a group of snorkelers looking at a sea turtle. We joined the group and I had a great time. Snorkeling feels a little like slow flying once my body got the motions down. I didn't panic like I thought I would. I did eventually lose contact with Pam and the group, but I didn't need a group to look at the bottom of the cove. I knew where the boat was and wasn't going to get lost. The cove was home to a little coral reef and I could see many colorful fish and corals. I wish I had more time to spend looking at the reef because the little fishies were so cute and energetic. Soon enough though I heard the blast of the horn from our boat and I needed to head back. As I was going back to the boat, I kept my head under and I saw a sting ray! What a treat to see! I eventually made it back to the boat, although removing my flippers while in the water was enough to nearly drown me, my body kept wanting to roll over in the water. And getting up the ladder on the side of the boat took me a few tries. Hoisting one's self out of the water is a poor end to the whole snorkeling experience, but I'd do it again just to spend more time watching the fish, turtles, and stingray. Truly the best time for me on the whole trip! I didn't take any pictures of the marine life I saw because I didn't trust my phone case underwater, but Jim got some pictures of me from his perch on the boat.

After Turtle cove, we headed over to Honeymoon bay on Water Island for lunch and beach time. During lunch I got texts from Jake saying that he was taking mom to the ER because of pain she had been experiencing. It was a weird afternoon--to be in a relaxing environment while also having to deal with the stress of potential hospital stay for mom. She was admitted to the hospital and they found a tendon tear in her "groinal" region (as Jake put it). [After we returned from the cruise, mom was moved to a care facility for rehab and will be released to home tomorrow, Jan 24]

Lunch under the canopy

local fowl on the prowl

We didn't feel the need to get in the water. It was relaxing enough to look at it.

The food was meh, but I wasn't there to eat fabulously, I was there to be on a beach. We ate merely for the calories so our bellies wouldn't make noise and ruin the conversation with Tim and Pam. Besides, a nice view is reward in itself.

After the excursion was over and on our way back to the ship, Jim and I stopped in a little shop and bought a few souvenirs and postcards, which I promptly wrote on and gave to Jim to mail because there was a little post office right there on the walk back.