Saint Thomas.

Early on Sunday morning, we reached Saint Thomas, our first port of call. Getting off the ship a couple miles from the main town of Charlotte Amalie, we had our first up-close-and-personal view of the ship.




A lot of the architecture in Charlotte Amalie looks pretty much like the picture I have in my head when when I think "colonial":




Once we got off the boat we took one of the open air taxi/buses:



To the Skyride, a gondola (or closed-in ski lift, if you prefer, or cable car, if it is one, I'm not sure, since there are some specific differences, I think) that takes you to a viewpoint high above Saint Thomas.




It was a bit tight in the cabin:




But the views on the way up and then from the top were very nice. In the second image you can just barely see our cruise ship, towards the left of the picture:






And here are Mom and Dad at the top (not that you can tell that they're high up, but the foliage is nice) :




Later we went shopping, since the US Virgin Islands are supposed to be a good place for good deals because of their tax-free or duty-free status, or something like that. Mark and Mom each ended up buying cameras (after we did the research at an internet cafe on the island, of course!), which we proceeded to spend the afternoon playing with, at one of our favorite tables by the windows in the buffet area.

This is the first picture taken with Mom's camera (notice Dad has not yet perfected the technique necessary for taking a thumbless picture with Mom's camera). Mom is holding Mark's new camera:




And here is Mom with her new camera. I took this with my camera, using its "color accent" mode. I found this mode when I fiddled with my own camera trying not to feel miffy that Mark's new camera was better than mine. I realized that my camera (which is still quite new, to be honest) can do some cool stuff! You've seen this next picture before, but it shows Mom's camera well, since it's bright green, so I thought I would repeat it here. The other image is just another picture in the same mode - it picks up the plastic cup quite nicely, you know:



And then in the evening we set sail for St. Kitts.