Church in St. Thomas

Our first stop on the cruise of a lifetime was St. Thomas. That was a Sunday, so Dad found a branch about 20 minutes from the dock and we rode a taxi into town. It was really cool to go to church in a new place. Everyone was so nice! Two of the most amazing ladies gave talks - Sister Krout, the newest sister missionary in that area and Sister Guilene Finch. Obviously, I knew neither one of them, but after listening to their talks, I felt as though I truly knew their hearts. They were such amazing ladies and very steadfast in the gospel. It was a joy listening to them.

One older woman, from the looks of her around 70 or so, took one look at Dad and said, "You need some sun! That's just not natural!". It was pretty hilarious. She was so concerned for him because Dad isn't the tannest of men, and her bluntness just took us by surprise! We all laughed pretty hard. It definitely went in the quote book Kristie was keeping.

In the open air taxi, about to leave the dock

The driver drove like a maniac! It was like a rollercoaster.

The fam outside the church building

After church, we came back to the ship and changed. We went to a place called Coral World which was a really cool interactive aquarium. We got to see a shark & stingray feeding, pet a shark and watch a sea lion production. Then, we all got to feed stingrays ourselves. That was really cool. I've never been near stingrays and have always wanted to swim with them, or have some kind of interaction. They were really funny because as soon as the Coral World trainer brought us to their aquarium, they seemed to get so excited like they knew what time it was. We were able to sit on the side and stick our hands in and pet them while she told us how they lived and what their temperment was like. They were really gentle and seemed to really like being pet. Then she showed us how to feed them. One stingray in particular would come up and want to be fed, and when you lifted his "nose" to drop the fish in his mouth, he would squirt water at you out of excitement! Needless to say, they nicknamed him Squirt. I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the day.

A baby nurse shark we got to pet. She felt like sandpaper.

Petting the baby nurse shark

Learning how to feed stingrays. This was one of the coolest things. The stingrays felt like giant portobello mushrooms!

This guy was way excited!

After Coral World, we walked over to a famous beach called Magen's Bay. It was beautiful and the weather was amazing. We couldn't have asked for a better first day.

Me & Kristie with our new favorite smoothie guy. I forgot his name but he made the BEST pina coladas (virgin of course) known to man! He used all natural ingredients and no sugar added. He even filtered the water used to make his ice. Now that's legit!