Cruisen Part 2

Our second port was at St. Thomas which is part of the U.S. Virgin Islands. It was fun to come here with my dad - he was there after Hurricane Hugo hit. His guard unit was sent over to set up a temp. hospital while they fixed their hospital. Dad has always wanted to go back so it was fun to be there as a family. We got off the boat and found a taxi that would take all 10 of us to Cochi Beach. What a gorgeous beach!! The weather was really nice. We spent a few hours soaking up the sun and snorkeling. The water was very clear and we were able to see some beautiful life. After we left the beach we got back on the boat for a little lunch, then back off to do a little shopping. All the shops were pretty much the same with the usual tourist souvenirs, but we did manage to find a fun pirate shirt and hat for Beau and a cute island dress with a dolly attached for Bailey. Overall, it was a wonderful day!Our last port was St. Maarten, also part of the Virgin Islands, but not U.S. This is where we were suppose to do our 2 open water SCUBA dives. We took a boat out to our dive site. The visibility was not very good, but our instructor wanted to at least try. We got all our gear on and learned how to "walk" off the boat. Once we were all in the water the first instructor went down, then Clay and I, then Jeanna and Jeremy, then our other instructor. The visibility was so bad that I didn't see a submarine wreckage until I cut my leg on it. Unfortunately the instructor had to call the dive off. Now we just need to find somewhere that we can finish our certification. We were all disappointed, then to make matters worse, the boat broke down taking us back to the dock. So we had to bob up and down in the ocean for an hour until another boat came out and got us. I was quite sea sick by this time, so I was glad to get on land again. After getting all our gear taken care of, we had lunch on the boat and went out to see the island. Another beautiful island with more shopping than St. Thomas. Clay and I just wandered around the shops and toured the island. Even though we didn't get to SCUBA dive, we had another nice day.We had two days at sea, getting back to Miami. I relaxed a lot with a good book. The guys were really into the surfing on the boat. They were pretty ticked that they could only stay up for about 30 seconds. By the last day they were finally getting the hang of it though. I played a game of miniature golf with the Hansens and Dad and Kathie - I got the highest score like usual :) The guys also got to play a game of dodge ball against some crew members, they were killed! I think the best part was hitting the poolside ice cream machine a few times a day. Clay and I were lucky to get an invite from the captain to tour the bridge. I can't believe all the technology that goes into driving the ship. I really enjoyed the captain, he was a very friendly man. We had a really great week on the ship, but were ready to get off to solid land again (we were all just glad that we were heading to a different hotel this time).