Epic Vacation: St. Thomas

Our ship left San Juan at 11:00 pm on the 1st of May, and when we woke up in the morning, we were nestled into a beautiful bay on the island of St. Thomas. Kevin and I took the opportunity to check things out via a short run along the beach. The island was beautiful, enchanting, and clean.

After we got back and showered, we headed into town to meet mom and dad for some shopping. (St. Thomas is well known for having the best shopping around. Some people take cruises there just to buy the diamonds they sell!)

By the time we reached her, she had already found some fantastic deals and was quite pleased with herself :)

She even managed to hook us up with Roy, who is the number one tour guide on the island (he showed us the newspaper article to prove it) and was the only one who could get us in to see Blue Beards Castle!

He loaded us, and about 20 other tourists, into his modified truck and we were on our way! It was quite terrifying actually. The roads were very small and looked like they were built for one and a half cars only. Roy drove on them like he was on a 6 lane freeway. I even got whipped by some tree branches once and several times I saw the other tourists duck simultaneously or flash some white knuckles from holding on so tight. But it totally made the adventure all the more fun!

Roy took us up to the castle and told us all about the feud between Black Beard and Blue Beard, and then proceeded to tell us what a womanizing criminal Blue Beard really was. The amazing thing to me was that honeymoon couples pay $1,000 a night to sleep in the castle where Blue Beard use to kill his abused wives. Yuck!

When we left the castle, Roy took us around the whole island, telling us about the culture, economy, history, etc. It was very interesting and the island was SUPER beautiful!

At the end of the tour Roy dropped us off at a peaceful little beach with the promise of picking us up in a few hours (a promise that he thankfully kept.) The ocean water was as warm as a bathtub! I loved relaxing on the beach and in the waves, and as you can see, Kevin loved showing off and monkeying around!

When we were done with the beach, Roy took us back to the ship where we showered and dressed for our first formal dinner, and let me tell you...

BEST. NIGHT. EVER!!! The meal (as well as every meal that followed) was 5 courses of delicious, gooey, wonderful goodness! (Insert drooling here.) I stuffed my guts, finished all 5 courses, returned to my room, watched a movie, ordered pizza... yeah I'm disgusting, and then fell asleep anticipating our morning arrival in Antigua!

To be continued...