Cruise 2009 part 2

Tuesday evening was formal night here we are all dressed up

St. Thomas we did some great shopping. MaryLynn and I hit the jewelry stores and had a great time. I got a new blue diamond ring and they had to size it for me. Whitt was chomping at the bit because we were booked on a high speed motor boat ride and we were running close to time. I have some pictures of the "screaming eagle" it was a great ride and we did get very wet. The guy driving the boat did a great job. He stopped every once in a while and gave us some information about the area. One being a fantastic house (huge) right on the side of the hill over looking the water and said that the lady who lived in it it was a mothers day gift and her name in Mrs. Jordan. What a mothers day gift. It was beautiful there and we really enjoyed our day there.

This is a great story. In St. Maarten we bought these matching outfits to wear for "Tropical Island Night". Well MaryLynn and Larry both got motion sickness and didn't really feel like going to dinner so we scrapped getting dressed up and just stayed in our shorts. t-shirts and sandals and played cards in the Explores Lounge and listened to music. Well the next night we didn't want to waste our outfits so we dressed up in them and went to dinner. Of course we were the only ones dressed this way since they had all done that the night before. When we were headed back up to our rooms to change I saw this photographer and asked her to take our picture. When would you ever do this again. It was pretty funny and everyone around us thought it was funny as well. She really had us do some weird poses but we bought the most traditional one.

Grand Turk

Our last port on Friday, This island is very tiny only 7 miles long and 1.5 miles wide.

Princes Cays

We took a banana boat ride behind a ski boat. It was so fun. There was one other couple and a couple of young girls. The boat driver tried hard to dump us off but only one of the young girls actually went in the water. We laughed and laughed it was really a great start to our trip

St. Maarten has a total area of 37 square miles. 16 square miles on the Dutch side and 21 square miles on the French side. We took the Butterfly Farm & Island Tour. It was very interesting and we had a great guide who gave lots of fun and interesting information about the island as well as the people.

Me with a beautiful butterfly I really didn't know much about butterflies but I learned a lot and it was very interesting and informative

Whitt & I on the beach at St. Maarten

Do we look like tourists or what?

Grand Turk

There were 2 cruise ships in this day and the shops were very crowded. We spent just a few minutes down on the beach before our snorkel tour. Our ship is one of those in the background

We are ready to go snorkeling. I really don't like to snorkel but I try to be a good sport. When we first got in the water I am saying to myself I really hate this. I don't know why I always say I will do it. (If anyone reading this doesn't know me I am one who holds my breath in the shower ). I finally got used to it and really was a little bit disappointed when they said it was time to stop. Our tour was the Reef Snorkel and Stingray Safari. So after we snorkeled we took a short boat ride to where the "friendly Stingrays" were. I got some pictures on the water camera but I haven't taken them to be developed. It was really fun and yes I did hold a very large stingray.

Whitt & Larry

Shannon & MaryLynn

Water does so much for natural curly hair!!!!

Here we are at Jimmy Buffett's Margarita ville
I was tempted to get a t-shirt that says "it's five o'clock somewhere" but I didn't want to put off the wrong impression. We really were not into drinking margaritas

This little island would be fun to visit again when you have more time.

Our trip ended all too soon. We got off the ship Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. Our flight wasn't until 5 p.m. so we took the Fort Lauderdale by Land & Sea tour. We took a bus tour around the town then got on a paddle-wheeled "Carrie B" and took a cruise along the inter coastal waterway. It is amazing all of the homes along these waterways. They are large and beautiful. The guy who was giving the tour was very funny and had a lot of interesting information. He showed us the home of Lee Majors and told us that he sold that home because it had an extra "faucet" well if any of you remember he had a girl friend named Fara "Faucet". He sold that home for 16 million and he and his x wife split it 8 million each. Oh and by the way I still am a very loyal fan of Royal Caribbean. Princess was nice and we really didn't have too many complaints but there are just a few extras that I really like on Royal Caribbean so that will be our curise ship of choice.