2010 Cruise Day 5

Today was St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. It wasn't at all what I expected. The islands are very hilly, almost moutainous. But it was beautiful and so rich with history. I wasn't crazy about how commercial it was along the shore, but that seems to be the way of life at most of these tropical destinations.

For our shore excursion, we went on a tour of Blackbeard's castle. Only it wasn't really a castle...just a watchtower (which had a rather terrifying circular staircase we had to climb), and some remnants of a retaining wall or two. Other than that, we toured some 19th century homes. And we shopped. I successfully bartered with a couple street vendors, and Bill okay'd me getting a tanzanite ring (from a jewelry store, not a street vendor!). It is beautiful. They seem to have forgotten to size it, so it will have to go to the jeweler next week.

Here is a picture looking up at the watchtower we had climbed and one of our cruise ship (docked next to the "Disney Magic"--what a rowdy ship!).