Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Wednesday - St Thomas




We reached St Thomas around 9AM. The water was so beautiful. Half of us went shopping and the other half went snorkeling at Buck Island. It was a great day for snorkeling, and I promise to post some photos when we get the underwater camera photos back.


Our room:






dinner photo of Grammy and Aunt Mary....

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Thursday (Thanksgiving!) in St Maarten






I think that's how you spell St Maarten? Josh, Paige, Lindsay, Andrew and Laurel took a water taxi to a cute little plaza with shopping, but since there was promise of sun we jumped in a taxi and went to the French side of the island, to Orient Beach.
We approached from a high, winding road, and the descent to the beach was gorgeous. This beach was in a really nice part of the island...beautiful homes nestled in lush green hills, overlooking pristine aqua water.






Josh and Andrew really enjoyed the water. Vendors were kind of annoying though -- they kept approaching our blanket and trying to sell us stuff. We came up with a solution...whenever one of us spotted a vendor, they gave the warning, and we all suddenly preteneded we were sleeping. HAHA - it worked! :)

We left the beach around 3, and headed back to the shopping area near the pier. We found a vendor selling cold beers for a buck!

Did a bit of souvenier shopping and headed back to the ship.



   

Gram had a good idea to meet before dinner in a lounge for a Thanksgiving drink.


 
The menu that night did in fact have turkey! The maitre'd sat all ten of us together for the holiday, which was really nice.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Friday - a relaxing day at sea


Early Friday morning, around 7AM, Josh and Laurel found Grammy at breakfast. Afterwards they relaxed on Laurel/Josh's deck, waiting to round up everyone for a game of scrabble at sea.

Aunt Jane was brilliant, and won the first game. I don't know who won the second, as I joined a few others for lunch.


The rest of the day was spent playing cards and games, reading on the deck or snoozing on a lounge chair.
The second formal night was on Friday. We met before dinner again for drinks and photos. That night Aunt Jane, Lindsay and Paige enjoyed a few luxuries at the Carnival Spa. Later that night, the five "kids" all piled on to Josh and Laurel's bed and watched movies on tv.



Friday, November 25, 2005

Saturday - Last Day at Sea!




Our last day at sea was gorgeous -- sunny blue skies allllll day. It was truly a day to soak in the sun and enjoy one last day of paradise before heading back to the chilly forecast back home. We had fun on the waterslide - Josh, Andrew, Lindsay, Paige, Aunt Mary and Laurel all participated, with a few spectators (Gram and Aunt Jane).



There was a chocolate feast at lunch! After "lunch" (which was fun because somehow all ten of us ended up randomly sitting together) we hung out around the pools, played cards, read our books....
After dinner Josh, Andrew, Paige, Laurel and Lindsay headed out for a night on the town. Well, a night on deck 5, where there are about 6 bars, a casino and a video/game room (guess where Andrew and Josh spent several hours). The girls tried out each bar, which was fun because half of them had live music, and then finally dragged the boys out of the video room (which was full of preteens and two balding guys in their late 20's) into the Two Step dance club. need to get those photos from Paige - it was sooo fun!!

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Sunday - Home