Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2018 October Family Cruise - Day 04

Our day began with an alarm going off at 6;30 AM. The plan was to all meet for breakfast at 7:15 AM and be off the boat at 7:45 AM. We did follow schedule pretty good. Our target...Trunk Bay on St Johns island. This would require a 20 minute taxi ride to a ferry, a ferry ride across the water to St Johns and then another taxi ride to Trunk bay. And...there were 9 of us. But as they say here, 'No problem Ma'an'. :-). For breakfast, except Karlie, most of us ended up at the taco bar where they were doing breakfast burritos. Others got omelettes nearby. Karlie shot up to get breakfast while I watched Atticus while he slept. I don't think she got enough. We will figure this out as the trip unfolds.

Coming off the boat, we were greeted by taxi drivers that drove vans. All 10 of us piled into a van with another family of 5...so that tells you how crowded it was. Pretty good pay day for a taxi driver as each passenger cost $10 one way. The ferry left every hour on the hour back and forth from St Thomas to St Johns. It cost $16.30 for a round trip ticket. I noticed that a 'senior' was 60 years or older and only $3.00 round trip. I thought I had hit the jackpot. But naturally, it is only for residents and I could not pass as a resident. My tan was not good enough yet or my language was a bit foreign...although they do speak English but in a pretty broken way some of them. The taxi ride on St Johns was an open air truck with benches in it. What seat belt laws? We need this is the continental US for goodness sake! The cost was $12 round trip from the ferry terminal to Trunk Bay and back.

Trunk Bay was as I remember it...just beautiful. The sand is like talcum powder. The snorkeling was just ok out around some rocks. But the beach and sand was what we were there for this day. We snorkeled for about an hour or so. And then we all got together about 40 feet off the beach. Even Denise joined us, who does not like water much. She even put on a mask and snorkel and got under the water, something she hates to do. And later, she even floated on her back...all things that she fears to do a bit. It was so awesome...so proud that she would do it. She swears that I told her if she would do that, I would ride Cannibal back at Lagoon. I said unless that was on video, I don't believe those words came out of my mouth!!! It was a beautiful morning for about 2 + hours. Just wonderful being together and enjoying what I love to do...bask in the sun on an ocean beach somewhere in this beautiful world.

At about 12:15 PM, we caught the taxi back to the St Johns Ferry Terminal and meandered around the downtown are there for a bit. Pretty small...pretty run down. But it was fun talking to the locals about their lives, their likes and their families. We arrived over at the Ferry terminal and our first taxi driver, Steve, was waiting for us. We had called him on St Johns. Hheck, we had not paid him yet for the first trip . So we knew he'd be there. This guy was really nice. But the trip back, he definitely took the scenic route back. It took quite a while to get back to our ship...but we made it. And what did we do immediately? That's right...head to the Guy F's Burger Bar and get burgers and fries. Some also hit the Ice Cream machines to kill that impulse too. so fun to be able to do such things.

After feeding our faces, we returned to our cabins to get cleaned up. But...last night on the ship...a few of the women decided to schedule a 'spa' time instead of excursions on a couple of the islands. So Karlie, Cassidy and Denise hit the spa to get rubbed down before dinner. I hope they do that to my steak tonight! Anyway....it is 5 PM right now as I right this. I'm looking out the window to see clouds in and rain beginning to fall. It is time to set sail.

Our second night for dinner on the boat was fun. We have nice round table at the back of the dining hall. It was a casual night so it was nice and comfortable. We dined until about 7:30 PM and then headed to the big stage where they were going doing some form of Yahtzee game. It turned out to be silly. So Mike went and grabbed some seats in the comedy club. Eventually a fellow from San Francisco took the stage. He was quite funny. But at one point Atticus made a small sound and the guy caught wind of the fact that a baby was in the room. And somehow that took the conversation into being from Utah..which was a total guess by the comedian. When we all said we were from Utah, he about fell off the stage. Then the Mormon jokes began. He had already made some Mormon joke references just prior to that. I think polygamy was at the heart of the jokes. Anyway, he was pretty good. After his act, we all went up to listen to the piano bar again. This guy is fun and plays the piano really well. The music is fun to listen and sing to. We lasted about 30 minutes there then Karlie and Atticus retired and Denise followed. The rest of us went to watch the married game show going on in the main stage area. One of the amazing things about this show was how he narrowed down what 3 couples would join him on the stage. The newest married was quick to determine as there was a young couple married for only 3 days. They were from Puerto Rico. Then it was time to narrow down to the oldest couple. It ended up being two couples that were married for 46 years. To determine which one had been married the longest he had to find out months. Both were married in July. So then it became day of month. Both were married on the 15th! Same day. The host said he had never had that happen before. So he brought them both up. The questions were silly and one got a little sketchy that brought out an interesting ice cream answer. But we will eave that alone. Denise did come back and join us for a while which was nice.

Well...tomorrow is our only sea day. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

Pictures:

Isn't he so darn cute?! What a great little traveler and guy he is. He loved the ocean water.