Saturday, January 29, 2011

Day 2, St. Thomas and Water Island


Our first stop was the island of St. Thomas. Julie and I decided not to book an excursions on the cruise ship and do all of our exploring on our own.

So, we took a taxi to Crown Bay Marina, where we then took a water taxi to "Water Island".  A small island, 10 minutes away by boat, with a population of 161 people and a BEAUTIFUL beach.

When we arrived at Water Island...we noticed this open air building.  It serves as a post office and library, and is officially the "Federal Building" on the island.


 The islanders get around the island on golf carts, and a guy stopped and offered us a ride up to the top of the hill.  This was the view of Honeymoon Bay from the top of the hill.
Heading down the hill to Honeymoon beach where we spent the majority of our day!

 We spotted this iguana basking in the sun on our way down to the beach.

Walking onto the white sand beach..... absolutely beautiful and there were only 4 other people on the beach for the first few hours.  THEN, a group that paid $80 + for an excursion to the same beach arrived.  Our  paying $10 round trip for our water taxi, made our own trip priceless :)
Our beach day in paradise....crystal clear waters, warm sand and water, and plenty of palm trees.

Heading back down the hill to catch the water taxi back to St. Thomas.  

 We spent the rest of our afternoon touring the shops in St. Thomas.  Photo above is an alleyway with shops.
 A little sitting area in one of the alleyways, between shops
The walls are filled with all kinds of various stones, rocks, bricks etc.  The photo doesn't really do it justice.
Back on the ship in the evening, Julie and I put on our Oregon Duck attire and prepared to watch the BCS bowl....which didn't begin until almost 10pm Carribean time.... it was a LATE night!!!

 The sports bar where we watched the BCS bowl...... Good game DUCKS!!!  Better luck next year!!!
Back in our room at 3 am, we found our first towel animal -- an elephant
Julie and I with our elephant!

No comments: