Monday, May 5, 2008

St Thomas Virgin Islands

We arrived at 7 am. So beautiful a definite Kodak moment. We went on a little tour bus to the Coral World. It’s like a mini aquarium kind of place but you can go down and view the fishing and coral around it. There’s a sea turtle tank, ray tank, conch tank, shark tank. We went on a mini-sub to view the coral. There were about 20 of us. I didn’t know about (or maybe I did but don’t remember) the changes to color from light or lack thereof undersea. So I have a picture of me and Glenn blue ---- LOL

We saw numerous reef fish, a number of beautiful corals, a sea turtle, sea anemone, sea urchin, sea cucumber, conch….it was great. The way you sat straddling the sea with your face against the glass gave you maximum viewing. They had a diver come with food to feed the fish so it brought over even more fish.

I also learned about parrotfish…they eat the coral and poop it out like sand! That’s where their white beach sand comes from.

The woman who lead the trip did a wonderful job. She was funny with her pirate jokes. What is a pirate’s favorite letter? RRRRRRRRgggg She had tons of them. She was saying that a couple of years ago the ocean got to 90 degrees and the coral bleached out. They thought it was the end of them, however, the coral is coming back which is a good thing.

After the tour, it dropped us off to a shopping center near the dock. There are 7 buildings of places to shop…mostly jewelry stores. I bought something for my Mom (for Mother’s Day) and Jackie there. Then I got something for my brother. At the Coral place I got something for Mom & Dad, Joey & Katie….. We were back to the ship by 1:30. It leaves at 4 pm. I was beat. All this walking is pooping me out big time. I’m getting smarter. Typing my blog and then copy & pasting it. It was costing a fortune for me to do it on the internet……it’s so expensive but worth it to be able to share it with you.

I’m sitting on my balcony typing this, looking over the aqua blue water at a fort and pirate ship. A small – I mean tiny—island of rocks is in front of me and birds are coming and going from it. Gulls are laughing hysterically. Clouds are big white puffs on a bright blue sky. St Thomas is still full of forested areas. This place is certainly paradise. I could easily jump ship and live here forever…I can speak the language, they take dollars (with no exchange—woo hoo), and they have a subway (sandwiches), Kmart, payless shoes, beautiful white beaches, 80 degree temps, a cool breeze and happy people – yo maaaa’n how ya dooo-in?…what else does anyone want.

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