Take 3. Dang....I just had the best write up and spent 2 hours loading the photos and moving them around to the proper spot and WHAM! Microsoft Error that wiped everything away *sob*
I have so many awesome photos from St Thomas. It is hard to pick just a couple to share. It is going to be even harder to pick photos to scrapbook! So here is my latest attempt to finish off this post.
We arrived into St Thomas to a beautiful morning. This is a view from our room. I was sitting on our couch and looked out the balcony doors to see this.
Linda and I headed out to the shopping area beside the pier. We toodled around the area and bought some souveniers when Linda found this postcard wtih all these buildings. We asked the lady where this was and she said downtown.....off we sped by cab to downtown to take photos. We ran like mad women around since we had to be back at the ship to meet our tour to Coral World and around the isldand. We saw a totally different side of St Thomas downtown. Beautiful buildings, lots of history, crazy drivers. We were both in St Thomas years ago on cruises and neither of us really liked the island - I can safely say that it is a favourite now!
After downtown, we rushed back to the ship, dropped off our souveniers, went to Deck 9 to fill our waterbottles. On our way down, we ran into Diana at the Beach Blanket buffet. She is from Turks and Caicos and is so funny and sweet.
So off we went down to meet our tour.................wait.............no one was there...............ummm OOPS! I read the wrong ticket! We missed the pick up! Off to guest services we ran to see what we could do. They were wonderful and the guy helped us by contacting the tour operator. He came back and said that we may have missed the island tour part, but we could take a cab to Coral World to catch up with them. So off we ran out of the ship and to the cabs. Linda told the guy we needed one with a heavy foot.....goodness did we get one! As we turned corners, we were flying from one side of the cab to the other. We held on tight! LOL When we arrived at Coral World, we talked to the girls who told us we could wait for a bit for the group. We sat in the shade and enjoyed the view for a bit and then we decided to go ini and walk around while we waited. The group showed up about an hour later! We are so glad we went in early and enjoyed the quietness of the park before they all arrived!
If you are ever in St Thomas and are looking for a nice afternoon thing to do, check out Coral World. It was so awesome!!! It is an aquarium built (rebuilt after a hurricane) a few years ago. They use sea water piped in through miles of pipes from the ocean to the tanks so that the fish and plants are in a "natural" environment and not stressed. Dont expect Sea World, but it was a great place to spend time - especially if you like aquariums :) So here are some shots from around Coral World.
They have these touch pools around which are totally cool...if you like to touch things in the water lol I dont, but Linda was all into it. I have it figured out though - she is a mother, she is ok with icky, slimey, things lol Here is Linda and the star fish and the touch pool.
The main site at Coral World is the Underwater Observatory. They built this into the water and it allows guests to decend 15 feet below the surface and see the reef and the fish in their natural habitat. So they have this huge circular room down there with 15 windows to look out of. It was very interesting to go down there and see the fish. They also have pictures on the pillars of what you may see there with descriptions and explainations. It was so hot down there though with the humidity and the heat of the day (It was high 90s that day). Since I cant snorkel or dive and Linda doesnt swim, this was perfect for us both. So in the following photos, you see the observatory in the water and then the pictures I got through the windows.
They have 2 airconditioned buildings on the grounds. These were *my* favourite places to hang out! hehe The first is this huge 250,000 gallon circle tank. They built an observation room in the center of the circle (the AC'd room lol) and it has huge windows all around the circle. It was so interesing and cool (no pun intended) to see the fish, rays and stuff all living together. We went earlier when no one was around and then again when the group arrived as it was feeding time. The diver jumped in and went around to every window for everyone to see and fed the rays and fish. It was so cute to watch them follow her.
The other building was like a fish store actually lol They had these large aquariums set into the wall and each one had a different species or plant. One had seahorses, one had lobster like things, one had puffer fish (really!). You arent supposed to use your flash in there but I had to to get decent shots! Shhhhhhh dont tell anyone! I am sure the fish are still tramatised!
Oh and they have these pools for sharks, turtles and rays. Check out the face of this turtle. Could he or she be any cuter???? I totally just lucked out on these guys. Linda walked by and I turned the corner and there they were - along with all the iguanas!
and my friend the turtles........how can you not love this face?
And they have this walking trail along the edge of the grounds. They have tortises there which I went for a quick little jaunt to find. We didnt do the entire trail as it was too hot. But the most hilarious thing happened here. I was by the tortoises taking pictures of them and their houses and Linda continued to walk on to see what was going on. All of a sudden she says "its raining" I was like no it isnt! She looks up to see an iguana in the tree who is peeing! EWWWWWWWW It it didnt hit her outright but you can bet your bottom dollar I laughed my ass off at her!!!!!!
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