Flirty Thirties, Sporty Forties

St Thomas, USVI St Thomas, USVI St Thomas USVI was where we woke up the next day. We found our tour after breakfast, one with shopping, island tour, and beaches. In retrospect, I wish I would have given myself more time for shopping, but oh well. The town of Charlotte Amalie has tons of stores with jewelry, jewelry and more jewelry, plus liquor - particularly rum. We did some shopping, picked up souvenirs, and headed back to the van for the island tour. One highlight was the Great House , which was a gorgeous estate. They have botanical gardens there and an event center, but of particular interest this hot, muggy day, were their Banana Daiquiris! Oh man, I could have drank them all day!!! There's a secret ingredient in there (we got them without alcohol so that wasn't it) and oh boy was it good!!! From the Great House, we went to an overlook where we were able to see the house that Bill Clinton stayed in while president and this supposedly famous picture was taken We saw...

Caribbean Cruise, Part 3 Day 5 - Grenada Grenada I went for a run the next morning and the fitness center is at the very front of the boat on the 17th level, so you're way up high, and it looked like I was going to run right off the treadmill all the way into St. George's, Grenada! It was fun looking over all the people outside who were watching as we got closer to the island. Velva signed us up for a tour for "Highlights of Grenada" at the last minute and I'm glad she did. We learned a lot from the guide, Henry, and I gained a new appreciation for spices and this island. My thoughts: #1. Thank goodness this van is air conditioned! #2. Thank goodness Mom isn't here #3. Thank goodness I wasn't driving! They drive on the left and as long as they think they can squeeze by with a millimeter or two to spare... perrrrrrfect! Our guide, Henry, was a fascinating guy - part Scottish, part East Indian, as well as a mix of other stuff. Apparently that's not ...

Caribbean Cruise Part 2 Day 3 - Aruba Aruba I woke up and looked outside at the beautiful turquoise water of Aruba! Hello, Caribbean!! It was great! I hurried and went to have breakfast and then came back and grabbed my scuba gear and headed down to get off the boat and get to the meeting place. Of note - the previous afternoon at lunch, we'd heard this man talking and talking and talking with the most unpleasant voice! I'm not sure what it was, maybe it was because it was so high, but it just was harsh on the ears! I noticed he had a scuba shirt on and sure enough, he was there in that group the next morning! I ran into him several times and he was quite nice after all, not just when diving, but oh, that voice!! So at 8:30 AM, we found out that scuba in Aruba was cancelled due to poor visibility. :-( Guess I won't get to see the Antilla wreck this time! I picked up my stuff and headed back to the boat to go wake Velva up. She wanted breakfast so that took a littl...

I'm not very smart sometimes! Why, exactly, did I come home from vacation?!! Thank you, Odhett, for pointing that out! haha Aaah, the cruise and vacation ... divine! Velva and I flew out on Nov 6th, a lovely day of course, and now that I've done so, I don't recommend taking an overnight flight on the night we turn our clocks forwards or backwards! It's quite confusing when you land! Oh yeah, US Airways deserved their ranking as the least friendly airlines. We were a little late landing in Puerto Rico because of a thunderstorm that was going over the airport but we got a fabulous view of some of the island and surrounding ocean. Once we landed in Puerto Rico, we grabbed our bags (we each checked one and carried one) and got a taxi and went straight to the Pan American pier in San Juan. It was a confusing mess of people, with lines going this way and that, some long, some short, some clearly meant for the other huge ship that was docked there. We definitely didn...

Diving in Bonaire

Diving video from Dominica.