Honeymoon: St. Thomas

8.27.11

St. Thomas was our last island to visit.  We picked out a shore excursion to do here as well because we really wanted to go to a beach and relax as well as see the island.  We packed our bags and headed out bright and early.  We got into a really crazy looking vehicle that they called a "safari".  It was a Ford F250 with the bed modified to hold rows of benches.  I had to hold on to Stewart to keep from sliding all over the place!  What a good husband :-)  Our first stop was a scenic overlook of St. Thomas.  St. Thomas became one of my favorite islands because of how lush and green it was.  It's why I liked St. Lucia so much too.

Apparently, we didn't take any scenic
pictures when we were there.

From there we headed to Megan's Bay which is reported to be on the Top 10 list of most beautiful beaches but no one ever explained which Top 10 list.  After seeing the beach though, Stewart and I agree.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  Neither of us have ever seen water so clear and tranquil.  If we had more time, we would have spent more time at the beach doing paddle boarding or kayaking so that we could go out further and see turtles and larger fish.  We lathered up with our SPF 100 sunscreen and headed into the water.  There were so many fish of different sizes.  I guess they're just your typical close to shore fish ranging from 2" - 8".  BUT.  Then I saw what I consider to be a very big fish (could be because of my fear of all things in the water).  There was a very thin, long fish swimming along parallel to the shore.  Because the water was so clear, I wasn't scared of it at all because I could keep my eyes on it at all times.  It was actually pretty cool.  Stewart and I spent a good amount of time in the water but then decided that we wanted to be dry for the rest of our day so we got out and walked along the shore.  We could still see the fish swimming along the shoreline and at one point - a big jellyfish!

 Our next stop along our journey was Blackbeard's Castle.  I guess when I think castle, I think of massive fortified structures with moats and turrets.  I may have been slightly disappointed to find out it was only the tower to the left.  The windy stairs that led to the top did afford us an impressive view of the island.  We were told on a cloudless day, we would have been able to see the island of Puerto Rico.  I thought that was pretty cool.  While we were there, we (as in Stewart) got to sample some free rum in many different flavors.  The guide explained how rum was made and let us all smell some rum that had been in a 300 year old vat for 18 months.  That stuff smelled like cleaning supplies!  Apparently, Blackbeard the Pirate drank his rum much stronger than what you get today.

 After looking around Blackbeard's Castle, we got to finish the rest of the walking tour at our own pace.  They had several statues along the way of famous pirates from back in their heyday.  And apparently another famous pirate - Captain Jack Sparrow.  Yes, there are statues of Johnny Depp on St. Thomas proclaiming him as a pirate.  I found this amusing as the rest of the statues are all real pirates and not fictional ones portrayed by actors.  Of course along the way, Stewart and I had to do the fun touristy pictures.

 Two of the stops after Blackbeard's Castle where to tour old manor homes still decorated in the style of their time period.  This is where I learned that Stewart is just like me and has a hard time telling people "no, thank you".  The first house we get to involved us being greeted by a very friendly guide who was very excited about giving us a tour of the house while speaking very quickly.  We were the only ones so he just jumped right in, and we went along.  During our tour, other people would drift into the house and look around.  Our guide would tell them to join our group and they wouldn't.  He did take a nice picture of us on the deck of the house though.  The wood is humidity resistant and termite resistant!  This was a theme of a lot of the furniture in the house - made out of wood that was humidity and termite resistant.  At the second house, we showed ourselves around.

After we finished our tour, we asked some of the locals where they recommended we go for lunch.  Several people suggested Gloria's Cafe which was tucked away in an alleyway.  Almost a blink and you miss it kind of spot.  We started our meal with some fresh made guacamole and home made nachos.  Pretty tasty.  Our lunches were good too.  I had a jerk mahi mahi sandwich.  Yum.  Then we headed back to the ship.  On our way, we saw all sorts of iguanas which just roam the island freely.  We decided to walk back to the ship honestly thinking it was a shorter walk than it ended up being.  But we enjoyed the sights walking along the shore and the hubbub of the small island.

How did I get so lucky?

We had our final dinner that night and headed back to our room to pack. We had such a great time on our cruise and were glad to be able to check some countries off of our visit list.  When planning our honeymoon, we had decided to have a day in Puerto Rico on both ends of the cruise so we could enjoy the island.  We had talked about the forts there and were looking forward to exploring them the next day.

Our heart that Ketut made
on our last night.