Thursday, October 25, 2012

Island Days

We visited three Caribbean Islands during the cruise.  The first was St. Maarten.  We took a quick tour around the island starting from the Dutch side, traveling through the French side and back to the Dutch side.    Some of these photos were taken by Ted--thanks!
Looking out over the Dutch community, Philipsburg. 

Ms. Kennedy is as free as a bird walking the stone wall at the overlook.
We were stopped to do some shopping at an outdoor market.
Where we indulged in some fresh fruity beverages.  I am drinking coconut water right out of the coconut!
We ate lunch at a great local restaurant near the harbor.  We sat inside to get out of the sun but still enjoyed the fresh air thanks to all the open doors. 
Jackson was having too much fun in Dad's hat.  
Rory pointing out some fish in the water to Reagan.
Happy retirement to Ted!  What a great way to celebrate!
After lunch we took a walk over to the beach and played in the ocean for a bit.



The water felt just as good as it looks!
Anna and the kids building a sand castle.

We had some great chicken fights in the water and I was pretty impressed that Andrew, Reagan, and I managed to pull this one off!  What a fun day!
The guys indulged in some Cuban cigars.
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Next we visited St. Thomas which is part of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
We rode in one of these neat open-air shuttles over to a wildlife/coral reef park.

Really cool flower at the entrance to the park.
I liked how they used sea conchs in their stone walls.
Wild iguanas were everywhere.  And, apparently, they get fed by visitors and employees.  They will bite, I found out.


Shark tank
The girls checking out the starfish, sea urchins, and sea anemones. 
We were able to go inside a bird atrium and feed nectar to lorikeets. 



This lorikeet had obviously over preened himself.
Tortoise (I forget which kind)
Out in the water they had a structure that took you down below the water surface so you could see the coral reefs and fish in their natural habitat. 
They had several sea turtles.
Feeding time for the iguanas.

They drive on the opposite side of the road in St. Thomas.
Before heading back to the ship, our driver took us up to a nice overlook.
Group photo 
(Ted was taking the picture and Andrew stayed back on the ship because he wasn't feeling well)
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Our last day of the trip was spent on Castaway Cay, a private Disney island.

It was a fun-filled and relaxing day!
What a fun trip!  Great company and great weather!  Thanks so much to Sherry and Anna for making all the plans!  And a HUGE thanks to Ted and Sherry for bringing us along!!!

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