(Cruise Day #7) Take One Down, Pass it Around....

We are in the Virgin Islands!

This is our last port and last real day of vacation....sad sad. I can't think of a better way to spend it, then us all together visiting some gorgeous beaches and swimming with sea turtles!

We had the royal treatment at breakfast....just look at our waiter!

Let's fuel up for a day of fun!

We met down on the quayside to climb aboard a pirate looking ship called 'Bones'. We had the pleasure of spending the day with the three crew members (whose names I can't remember of course!) that had more energy than a classroom of second graders hyped up on Mountain Dew!

They set the mood with fun beachy tunes, fun historical run down and assurance that we were going to have the time of our lives!

One of the things that we were all looking forward to was the chance to swim with sea turtles right near a ship wreck. The water was crystal clear! We got our snorkel stuff on and dove in to try and catch a glimpse of these beautiful creatures. It was such a surreal experience to be just swimming along, and there would emerge this huge turtle going along on it's merry way! They were amazing! We took pictures with our underwater camera that hasn't gotten developed quite yet, but I'll throw those pics up when we get them back. Sawyer was a little hesitant about getting his face wet, but faced his fears and jumped in....enjoyed it for a bit but then was ready to get back on the boat.

After sea turtling, they broke out the Rum Punch.....now we had some version of Rum Punch while we were in Dominica......but nothing in comparison to Rum Punch in St. Thomas! It was this perfect blend of orange juice, coconut water and rum.......oh my goodness......D-Lish! They made sure that you never had an empty cup-EVER!

So after we had about seven pitchers of Rum Punch, we anchored at Honeymoon beach and bailed off the side of the boat into the water and bobbled over to the shore like beached whales..... It was so picturesque! Just off of a calendar beautiful! White sand, palm trees, aqua water, beautiful sunshine........mmmmm.........we had a wonderful BBQ lunch waiting for us when we arrived with ribs, chicken, salads and of course-more Rum Punch!

I can't tell you just how pleasant it was to sit on this picture perfect beach with family, eat great food, use Ron's shirt as a communal napkin and just enjoy the moment!

Sawyer spend the afternoon perfecting a drip castle and working on his tan! :)

After an intense game of beach volleyball, we hung out in the water-that of course was the perfect temperature! If you are wondering what they are doing, we all got 'bones' tattoos from the crew on our boat and they are proudly displaying them!

After 18 pitchers (literally!) of Rum punch, this was the mood :) It was wonderful*

Ahh Paradise!

(Side Note: After we had gotten off our little boat and were heading back to the cruise ship, I noticed that my memory card wasn't in my camera! I had been taking pictures ALL day, so I knew that I had had it earlier in the day. It wasn't like it would have just fallen out of the camera either....and I was SO SO SO bummed! We had ALL of our cruise pictures on that card! So after I spent our last evening, including dinner at Portofinos in a crabby mood.....I went down to the Guest Services desk to see if by chance it was there......(drum roll please) and it WAS!!! One of the couples that was on the boat with us had found it on the pier, popped it into their lap top, realized it was ours and put it in an envelope labeled, "Sawyer' Parent's"! Can you believe it! I cried at guest services.)