Heading home

Night view of Frenchman's cove and resort from my balcony.
More pictures to come when I get home.

I leave St. Thomas in a few hours to head home.

So, today will be another full day of airports and airplanes.

I will be happy to see my house, my cats, my family and, of course, the manfriend.

It is always disappointing when a great vacation has to end, but in this case, I think I am ready to come home.

Most of my vacations are exhausting because I spend so much time walking around cities, walking around museums, walking around parks or plazas or, in the case of Tuscany years back, walking around a mountain.

This vacation was exhausting because I spent so much time in the water. Diving seems so zen and peaceful when you are 50 feet down looking at the pretty, pretty fish. But it is deceptively tiring.
I also did a kayak and snorkel trip that was fun but work a good part of the time.
And don't even get me started on the humidity here.

Not that I am complaining. I had a blast doing all those things. And lord knows I can use the exercise to counter the rum drinks.

But yeah, I will be happy to get home.

Even more so since reading that the coming week on the island will be full of stormy days.

First dive day, St. Thomas

Here are some shots from the first dive excursion.
More to follow as Internet access permits, including some of the coral and the wreck we dove.

Right now you get fish.

Thursday's dives were scrubbed due to weather and other conditions.
Apparently the volcano on Montserrat erupted sending a large ash plume into the air. When that comes down, it can muck up the water.

I may try to go tomorrow, the last day here. After today was canceled, I was doubly glad I went yesterday.

Anyway, I am new to this diving stuff and not up on all my fish names. So mostly I won't know what these are, but if I do, I will label them.

On the way to Buck Island, passing Frenchman's Bay.

Yellow fin snapper.

Seargent Major fish guarding its eggs (the purple patches).

Parrot fish, me thinks.

Wrasse.

Seargent Major, again.

Blue tang.

Parrot fish.

Wrasse. I really liked these guys. They were
on the small side. Nice colors, though.

Not a fish. Dive master Steve.

Southern sting ray.

Same ray, different angle. He was pretty tolerant.

Not a fish. Me, self-portrait style.

All that diving can work up the appetite.

Mmmmmm... sushi...

That's not wrong, is it?

Spicy crab roll, eel roll and yellowtail roll.
I ordered and was trying to take it easy on the sushi novices.

As I said, more to come at a later date.

This was an awesome way to start my diving here.

Island style Internet

I wanted to update the blog while I am here in St. Thomas.

I have pictures on land and underwater.

But the Wi-Fi here is quite wonky.

So I will be happy to get in just this little post to say that I am having a great time.

So far I have been diving twice (four dives total). I have one more trip tomorrow with two dives.

I have been fishing, as well as kayaking and snorkeling in a mangrove preserve.

I've seen lots of colorful fish, large and small. The first dive day I saw a couple of rays (pictures to come later) and a turtle (sorry, it was either see the turtle as is swam away or get a picture. so no picture.)

Today the camera batteries went dead toward the end of the first dive. Which was a bummer. Right after that I saw a barracuda and on the second dive I saw a 4-5 foot long nurse shark.

I was quite proud of myself since I was the one who spotted it and got to point it out to everyone by using the little shark hand signal. Awesome!

Other than that, I have been enjoying the local sights (beaches and more beaches) and sounds (steel drums) and flavors (rum and rum and great Carib food).

And I may be addicted to a drink called a bushwhacker.

OK. More to come as I have time and Internet access. Pictures to come when I get home.

Oh, and yeah, I brought my laptop. I know it seems odd to bring a computer to a tropical vacation. But it was a great help when looking for dive companies and fishing boats and restaurants. So it was worth lugging it for sure.