The Ports

The first port of call was St. Maarten's. We spent lots of time wandering and looking through shops. The jewelry stores were a magnet to Jade. She tried to pull Mike into each and every one of them. The streets were narrow and made of stone, it was so pretty. We found some shelter outside some shops during a rainshower and did some people watching.

• Mark playing a different kind of drum outside one of the many, many shops. The atmosphere reminded us of Silk Alley in Beijing.

• The kids were collecting shells along the beach in St. Maartens. They got some fantastic shells to bring home. The sand was gorgeous...soft and white and warm. Notice the palms blowing. During the rain they were bending over at the tops. The sky is so blue in this picture that it's hard to believe it even rained.
  

• The next port we stopped at was St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. This place is where you need to go if you are in the market for gems. There is 400 shops downtown and my guess is 300 fo them are diamond/jewelry stores and 100 are T-shirt/souvenier shops. We shopped but didn't buy anything. Mike found a watch he liked but the $37,000 price tag on it made him quickly change his mind!
  

• Before we boarded the ship Mike and the kids found a bunch of iguanas sunbathing on the rocks. They started throwing bits of granola bars at them and got a kick out of watching them walk over each other trying to get the food.
  

• Mark, with the Virgin Islands behind him.
  

• The final port was Princess Cays. It is the cruise lines private beach in the Bahamas. The water was so gorgeous. Sometimes it was tropical green, sometimes it was bright, bright blue. We snorkelled here and it was amazing. We took pictures underwater but we have to send the film to be developed. It was difficult to see through the viewfinder so I'm not even sure if they will turn out.
  Jade is all geared up to go snorkelling but this is as far as she got! She was much happier feeding the fish in the shallow water with grandpa right beside her!

Mark loved snorkelling! He caught onto to it so fast and was so excited with all the different fish he saw. Look how clear the water is at Mark's feet.

• Mark and I heading out into the reefs to see what we can see! That's our ship in the distance.

• Jade loved feeding the schools of little fish that were swimming all around her.