The ship docked at St. Thomas around 7am today. Mom and I were up and getting ready for breakfast when this happened. Before we headed out, judiang knocked on the door & informed us that elsaf wouldn’t be joining us today – not feeling well. So mom & I went to breakfast. I went with the Egg McMikey sans Mikey, hash browns, bacon, bread & butter pudding, milk and apple juice.
I made it to the ferry on time, however, and sat with Judi (until the spray got too much for her and she headed into the bowels of the boat). Took a little over 45 minutes to get us to St. John where we were met by our tour guide, Alex. He guided us on our hike through the woods to Honeymoon Beach. The hike was a LOT easier than the one yesterday! Although it was hot & humid, I did just fine on the walk. (Thanks, in part, to the $2 bottle of water… Alex needs to get a clue from our St. Maarten tour guide & provide the water!)
The spray from the ferry ride produced an intermittent rainbow.
I attempted to get a butt shot of Judi, but she turned around just as I snapped the photo!
We paused at Lind Point to take photos. Alex told us lots of info about the flora and fauna of St. John (lots of the plants & critters were introduced by colonists), even introducing us to a tarantula (briefly – it didn’t like the light, so I missed getting its photo). I also saw a lizard on a tree, funny egg-shaped mushrooms, and lots of other stuff.
Judi and I pose at Lind Point.
Our guide, Alex.
When we arrived at Honeymoon beach, we stripped down to our swimsuits and went into the ocean. It was warm (almost as warm as the pool on the ship). Judi was just sitting in the sand at the surf edge, but I coaxed her farther into the water. I was proud of her coming into water that was up to her shoulders.
Honeymoon Beach.
My beach!
We spent most of our allotted 45 minutes in the water, but eventually dried off and met at the rendezvous. Then Alex took us to some ruins from a sugar can refinery from the 1700s. Finally, a bus took us back to the ferry, and we returned to St. Thomas.
The sugar cane refinery.
The shrubs en route to the ruins were gorgeous! (Plumeria or frangipani, depending on your name preference.)
Sugar cane vats in the ruins.
A view from the ferry ride back.
As Judi and I were heading back to the ship, we spied a familiar face – Elsa was on shore taking photos/videos. We walked back to the ship with her and then I sought out mom. Alas, I arrived in the room to find her quarantined! She’d spent all morning in the room, watching TV and looking out the window. Bummer. She was just finishing her lunch of boring ol’ boiled chicken and rice w/ miso soup.
Since we were in the US Virgin Islands, I had cell phone service again. I called dad, but he wasn’t home so we both left a message for him. (Earlier in the day I had sent him an e-mail, which cost around $9, but almost $4 of it was just the account creation charge.)
I met up with the girls and we went to lunch at the Horizon Cafe. I tried cock-a-leekie soup, which I discovered I didn’t care for. But also had a half of a lamb, feta, and romaine sandwich, half of a triple decker sandwich (both with crusts cut off, and not by me!), pineapple, pasta salad, a fruit tart, another fruit desert thing in a meringue cup, and a brownie. Tasty lunch. I then stole a fruit tart and a coconut roll (think dessert, not bread) for mom.
After leaving mom access to my netbook and getting the desserts to her, I met the girls back on the 5th deck for a discussion on what to do next. It may come as no surprise that we decided on pool & spa. So I returned to the room and got ready for the afternoon. I started at the pool, swimming then sunning. I joined the girls to watch the ship leave St. Thomas (it had to swing around to starboard before heading forward), then sunned more. Finally, I went to the spa, this time with my music in tow. It was very relaxing.
When I returned to the room, I showered, then changed for dinner (our second formal night). I then got mom’s excursion ticket stamped for reimbursement. Mom repolished my nails, this time the same as my toenail color. Then I sat for what seemed like HOURS before my nails were dry. (It might not have been hours). A little before 7pm, I knocked on the girls’ door and we headed to the Da Vinci for supper.
Alas, with mom gone, we lost our magic number. So we wound up sharing with two couples: one from Holland, the other from Idaho. We had a pleasant dinner (albeit with slow service) of mom’s favorite things: lobster, shrimp, and asparagus! (If there is a god, she’s a mean bitch!) They even had a peach & mango smoothie as one of the choices for a course, so of course I ordered it. For dessert I had the chocolate pudding pie with tangy cream. Very dense & rich chocolate pudding. Yum!
I returned to the room and found mom watching Sherlock Holmes on the ship’s main channel. I got captured by it and watched it with her. (I had started the movie on my iPod when we were at the airport). But then it was nearly time for the magician/comedian to perform, so I headed there. Thankfully, he’s performing again tomorrow night, so mom can see him. It was quite entertaining!
One of the things mom wanted to see tonight was the London Pub Night at 11:45pm. She may or may not have been released from prison to watch it. I’ll never say one way or the other. It was silly (and raunchy) fun. Tomorrow night at midnight, the magician has an adult show that he’ll perform. I definitely want to see that!
Anyhoo, its almost 2am and I should get some sleep. With the ship not docking until 1pm, we can sleep in. Though I suspect we’ll get a phone call from the infirmary in the morning checking on mom. Hopefully they’ll lift her off quarantine and she can go back to having mucho fun! We wanna snorkel tomorrow!