St Thomas 2007
Finally!!! We're here, and here's the first day of pictures.
You wouldn't believe what it took to get here.
First, I closed a taxi door on Heather's hand! (OUCH) Luckily she had a ring on that more or less protectoed her, but I felt horrible for the accident.
Flight delayed out of Ft Lauderdale, causing us to miss our connecting flight in San Juan Puerto Rico.
So we had to spend the nigth at a Best Western.
When we finally get to San Juan, my new Verizon Blackberry goes belly up (with "Device Erro 348").
(( I've just deployed 60+ of these at work, not a good start!))
We had the first flight out of San Juan to St Thomas this morning.
Budget Rental car had given up our VAN (becuase we missed our flight).
So we had to get TWO cars.
Then we find out that Sherri has lost her phone.
One ordeal after another.
The saving grace is that this place (Villa Gardenia) is a FREAKING Paradise. Its H U G E.
Ed, Alex and I did a shallow water dive (50 mintues down time) at a place called McArches.
We cooked Chicken on the outdoor grill near the pool, and watched the clouds float by tonight.
Lets hope the drama is finished, and we are in store for more of what this beautiful Island has to offer.
We'll follow up in the comments as the days go by.
You wouldn't believe what it took to get here.
First, I closed a taxi door on Heather's hand! (OUCH) Luckily she had a ring on that more or less protectoed her, but I felt horrible for the accident.
Flight delayed out of Ft Lauderdale, causing us to miss our connecting flight in San Juan Puerto Rico.
So we had to spend the nigth at a Best Western.
When we finally get to San Juan, my new Verizon Blackberry goes belly up (with "Device Erro 348").
(( I've just deployed 60+ of these at work, not a good start!))
We had the first flight out of San Juan to St Thomas this morning.
Budget Rental car had given up our VAN (becuase we missed our flight).
So we had to get TWO cars.
Then we find out that Sherri has lost her phone.
One ordeal after another.
The saving grace is that this place (Villa Gardenia) is a FREAKING Paradise. Its H U G E.
Ed, Alex and I did a shallow water dive (50 mintues down time) at a place called McArches.
We cooked Chicken on the outdoor grill near the pool, and watched the clouds float by tonight.
Lets hope the drama is finished, and we are in store for more of what this beautiful Island has to offer.
We'll follow up in the comments as the days go by.
Jealous!!!
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Looks like a great place!
What kind of camera are you using during your dives?
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Day two was less traumatic than day one. Only hitch was the dive shop (that offered to store our gear between days) lost Ed and Alex's dive gear! Still sorting that out. Also my dive watch battery went dead during a dive. But came back pretty quickly. I found a watch repair man, who had the correct battery.
Cheryl: Ed's Camera is a Cannon SD1000 with and underwater housing. I'm using a Cannon Powershot with a similar housing.
I had fogging problems on the second dive, which ruined some of the pictures. As you look at them, you can tell they have a white color to them (even after color balancing).
The evening was spectacular, with fresh grilled Snapper. After dinner, we retired to the pool/hot-tub and watched several asteroids race across the night sky.
Its off to the beach today, 1 afternoon dive, and a night dive. Should be fun!
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Day 3 pics are up. We started at Coki beach. Its a nice white sand beach with snorkle areas. Sherri and I saw all kinds of fish, but more fun, was were two cuttlefish. We didn't get pictures of that, but it was fun watching them watch us.
The guys split off to do an afternoon dive, which was nice and relaxing. Ed and Alex got their gear back (thank goodness).
The pics from this dive came out well.
From there, the guys went back to Coki beach to get the girls, who were doing just fine (with the help of a young nursing student who kept their adult beverages fresh the whole day).
Back to the house, and the guys went back to the dive shop for a night dive. This was Alex's first night dive. I took my UV light. The coral flouresced wonderfully. Unfortunately my modified housing for it flooded, and I had to remove it at depth. After taking it out of the housing, it shown BRIGHT! The coral was alive. I treid to take a few shots which tuned out blurry, but at least you get the feel for the color of flourescing coral.
Back to the house, and it was Spagetti night! The girls had cooked, and we had dinner and drank the wine we bought. After dinner, we spent the rest of the evening in the hottub.
Today is the 4th of July and we will most likley go over to St John where we are told that they do a "Carnival" style celebration.
Happy 4th of July!
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Looks like y'all are having a GREAT time!
Happy 4th!
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AWESOME PICS!! HAVE A GREAT TIME SHERRIE BERRY!
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Day 5 pics added.
Two dives, and Saphire Beach.
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Bastards; the lot of you
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Pay backs are hell, Mr. & Mrs. Tour Europe for a month....
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It hasn't been quite a full week yet and it already seems like over a month ago. Amazing how being back at work can do that to you.
At least the pictures still take me back to the beach in my mind.
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We were very fortunate during our recent stay in St. Thomas. A few days before we arrived, a hurricane passed by the island. It really made the water murky for a few days, but it ended up being a great vacation.
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