St. Thomas and Halloween Oct 28th

Our second port stop was the Island of St. Thomas. We decided to let Henry get off the boat in this port and took him in the morning to the Butterfly Farm. We don't think Henry really got much out of this outing as he was not too interested in the butterflies. That and it was HOT! Now, I know that I live in Phoenix, but 90 degrees with really high humidity is brutal! Henry was very pink cheeked and hot basically once we got there. We didn't stay too long, but we got some really nice pictures. Plus we learned about the difference between Butterflies and Moths. We found out that the Lantanas we have planted all over our yard is why we attract so many butterflies!

In the afternoon, Andrew and I headed out once again Henry-Free. We were supposed to go scuba diving. All of our stuff was packed, but in our frantic un-pack/re-pack two days I forgot to grab our Certification Cards. No Cert card = No dive. I hemmed and hawed about it and I was all for not doing anything in the water, but Andrew talked me into going snorkeling. Which when all is said and done, I like just as much as diving. We have a fabulous time. The site we went to was a small island off St. Thomas called Buck Island. The first drop site was right in the middle of a grassy patch which housed tons of sea turtles. It was SO fun to see so many! Plus they were use to snorkelers so they came up for air about 5 feet from where you were. The second site was a shipwreck and reef. They had lots of fish and even a few barracudas.

Now, I have always thought that the cruise lines tell people that they will leave them if they are not on the boat by a certain time, but would never do it. I thought there would be some kind of immigration laws that state that you can't leave people. Now, I know that St. Thomas is a US Virgin Island, but this was the first time I have actually seen people almost left behind. First the crew paged the people not on the boat to call if they were in fact on the boat. Then about 15 minutes later we slowly pulled away from the pier. About 30 seconds after that a family hops out of a taxi and leisurely walks to the security (My theory is that they had the wrong time). Only to get through security to stand their gawking at the fact that the boat was about 30 feet away from the pier. Lucky we have a very nice crew because we pulled back to the pier picked them up (to an ovation to all those people with Port side verandas) before we headed on our way. So please make a mental note...cruise ships will actually leave you...who would have known.

That night on the ship they had a Trick-Or-Treat party for the kids. You basically had to walk around the entire boat and got a tootsie roll or smarties at each station, but it was Henry's first time Trick-or-Treating. It didn't go so well. He refused to walk for most of it. Didn't want to hold his bag, he just wanted to see what was in it, and could not say "Trick or Treat". Plus he is still a little shy around strangers...so it was an experience. Hopefully next year will be better.

Andrew and I had an "adult night out" on the ship and saw the movie G-Force in 3-D. Was a cute Disney movie. Then we went to the Piano bar and enjoyed some adult conversation and some drinks. I think from now on Grandma will have to come on all of our trips. It was SO nice to finally relax!