Vacation pics - part 3

Remember, this is part three - the two previous entries are of the previous days of our cruise. Scroll down to start at the beginning...

And on to St. Thomas. St. Thomas is part of the U.S. Virgin Islands. It's a pretty island and isn't large at all. For the cruise - it also was the biggest shopping port. However, we scheduled a super fun excursion for the morning, so all our shopping was done in a couple of hours in the afternoon.

Welcoming us off the ship were more iguanas. They were just lounging on the rocks, soaking up some sun.

Here's some of the hillside views. It's a pretty island and there are more people there than our next two stops. This picture is of the big waterfront section of the island. Most cruise ships dock right there, but we were a 20 minute cab ride from there at Crown Bay since two other ships were also in port. Here's the beginning of our underwater adventure.

We anchored out in the little cove that offered a lot of different sea life - including a barracuda named Fluffy - and a shipwreck, seen below.

Here's me doing some snorkeling...

And my sweetie snorkeling...

This is a sea turtle we came across. He didn't swim too close, but it was amazing to see even if from far away.

And here's the real reason we took this excursion. These are Boss underwater scooters. Yes, that's right. Motorized scooters you tour with underwater.

Here we are on our scooters. The optical illusion of the bubble helmets make our heads look SOOOO tiny, but it was pretty much one of the most fun things I've done in my life so far.

Here's me close up...

And my sweetie...

And another couple shot with some fish.

And after all that, we did some more snorkeling.

After all that, it was time to take in some of the shops. The crazy part was that the electricity was out in many of the shops, so some weren't operating at full shopping speed, but there were plenty people still sell, sell, selling. You could spend some serious money here if you wanted to. However, we did get some goodies for us and I (of course) had to get a new piece of jewelry to add to my growing collection - a tanzanite ring. Below are some of the shops.

We also stopped at a local place for some lunch. It was a rather warm day, so a cold frosty drink was just what I needed. Pretty!

Here I am about to dive into some jerk seasoned chicken and rice& beans. It was the best jerk chicken I'd had since our trip to Jamaica two summers ago!

Here's my sweetheart there by the clear waters before we headed back to the ship.

This is part of the local market and what looked like a fort behind it.

And these are the local taxis in St. Thomas. Pickup trucks with a bench remake for the bed. They were everywhere and all the drivers asked us if we wanted a ride. In St. Thomas, you don't hail a taxi - they hail you.

And that's it for St. Thomas.