Wednesday, September 3, 2003
09-22-2003, 9:13 p.m.

Wednesday, September 3, 2003�

Before I went to sleep last night, I set a wake-up call for early this morning. We were supposed to pull into St. Thomas this morning at 7:00, and I was so excited as it was our first port. I wanted to get up and watch, so I set the call for 6:30. When the phone rang, I jumped up, and grabbed my camera, and ran out to the balcony. I was so disappointed at first, to realize that we obviously got into St. Thomas ahead of time, and were in fact, already docked. The disappointment only lasted a few seconds though, because the beauty of everything around us took over. I ran inside and woke mom and dad up, and told them that we were already there. They both got up (although with some grumbling) to look outside with me and we admired the view for a while, and finally decided to go back to sleep for a while.

We had set up room service for a little bit earlier so we only slept for a little while, and got up when the coffee got there. We had our coffee on the balcony admiring the breathtaking views, and then took our showers and got dressed. We had decided to wait a little while before we got off the ship, so that the crowds would already be off. We went to the horizon for a breakfast, and then headed down to the gangway. I was so excited, this was my first time anywhere outside of the continental United States, and I had been looking forward to it for so long. It was beautiful, everything was beautiful!

The plan was to shop in the morning, until it was time to meet up for our afternoon excursion. Mom really wanted a tanzanite ring, and dad had promised her one, so we were off for the jewelry stores. We must have looked at so many stores, and tried on so many different rings, necklaces, and bracelets. It was so much fun! Mom fell in love with one in the first store we were in, but it was a bit expensive, and she wanted to keep looking. She found several more she loved as well but dad kept talking her out of them, and it turns out that he was doing that because he really wanted to get her the first one she loved. We ended up back at that store, and was looking some more, when Dad told the lady that he wanted that one. My mom was speechless, and oh so happy. It is such a beautiful ring, and I was so happy for her. Well little did I know that they had already planned on buying me a ring as well. They kept telling me to try all these rings on, and there were a few that I really loved, but I didn�t want them spending that much money on me. Finally, I found a much cheaper one that I really fell in love with, and they bought it for me. I was so stunned, it was just so beautiful, and so unexpected. It is a ring that I will treasure for always! Mom and I really spent a lot of time today admiring our new baubles.

We did some more shopping and I bought Chrissy and June each a pair of tanzanite earrings. They are small, but so pretty, and I hope that they love them. They�ve never had much real jewelry so that will be exciting for them.

After shopping for a while, we headed back to our ship to meet the excursion we were taking to St. John. We were going to trunk bay to do some snorkeling and we were all so excited. Dad ran up to the room to get our tickets, and mom and I hung out taking some pictures while we waited for him. He got back, and we went to get in the line for our particular excursion. They started calling off the groups, and when they got to ours, they said that they needed to talk to everyone. Seems that from Fabian, the water was really churned up, and it was pretty rough that day. Also, they said that there were some pretty strong undertows... they said that they didn�t recommend that beginners go snorkeling in this, but that it was up to everyone as to what they wanted to do. They would refund the cost of the excursion if you decided not to go, or they would switch you to a different excursion if you were interested. Mom and Dad and I talked about it, and while we were all looking forward to it, the fact that they were saying that it was a little dangerous, and very unlikely that you would see much anyway, we decided to go ahead and cancel. We were all disappointed, but felt like we made the right choice. Since we decided not to go, we decided to go shopping some more instead.

On our second shopping trip, we looked at more jewelry, but found ourselves at the electronic store. Mom saw a camera that she really loved, and I knew she was going to buy it, but before she could, I gave the guy my own credit card. I hadn�t gotten her a birthday present yet, because she couldn�t decide what she wanted, and I had wanted to get her a camera all along. I had taken her shopping a few weeks ago, to pick out a camera, and they didn�t have the one that she wanted that day, so we ended up getting nothing. Well, she was so excited when I bought her this camera, and that was just so nice. She started using it right there in the store. While we were looking at cameras, my dad was looking at binoculars. He has wanted a pair for a long time, so mom and I talked about it, and decided that we would go half�s on a pair for him, and went to tell him. He was so excited too, and so we all walked out of there with something special. It was a great day.

Dad was tired after we shopped, so he decided to go back to the ship, but mom and I wanted to look around some more. We got a bunch of cool little things, some bathing suit cover-ups and some sun dresses and the such, and just had such a great time running from store to store. It was fun. We must have taken a million pictures of each other too, just being silly and goofy. The fun part, was that before we came mom had bought us each a pair of overalls. Well, we decided to both wear them, and everyone kept asking us if we were sisters the whole day. They couldn�t believe it whenever I would call her mom, it was just so funny. She loved it though!

On the way back to the ship, I stopped and bought a phone card and tried to call Stephen, while my mom called my sister. He must have been in his lab or something, but I got his voice mail and left him a message. I was a little disappointed that I didn�t get to talk to him, but I didn�t really expect to. It was nice hearing his voice on the voice mail at least. I miss him a lot. When we were done, we went back on the ship, and changed into our swimsuits, and decided to swim and watch the sail-away from the pool. It�s such a beautiful site, seeing the ship pull away from the port. It was such a hot day that we were definitely ready to cool down at the pool, and it was just a nice ending to a nice day. After a while we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. We went to the dining room where we had an awesome meal, and the best waiter ever. Edgar! He was so cool, and he even sang to us a couple of times. He really treated us so wonderfully and we are going to request him tomorrow night. We had such a great time at dinner! They really do treat you so good here. Our new room steward, Antonio, is also wonderful, and is always there to do stuff for us. This has been so great.

After dinner we went to the casino for a while. It was funny because they kept asking us if we wanted a drink, but the ship was rocking so badly again that I felt drunk without a drink. Mom and I joked that the way to tell drunk people tonight was that they were the only ones walking straight. This hurricane stuff really sucks and the ship is really rocking a lot more again. I guess I am getting more used to it though, cause instead of feeling sick constantly, I only get temporary bouts of nausea. I guess that is better, but it still sucks. When we were in St. Thomas today we talked to some people who were on a Holland America ship. They were supposed to go to St. Maarten yesterday but couldn�t because of Fabian. Man, I hope that doesn�t happen to us tomorrow, but I guess it is a possibility. We knew that it was hurricane season, and we expected stuff like this to happen, I just wish I didn�t have to feel sick. Oh well, it�s still wonderful, and I am not complaining too much, mostly just documenting it all and like I said it�s getting better at any rate.

Mom and dad are already asleep now and I am writing this on the balcony. I am about to go to sleep myself. I have been trying really hard to write in this before I go to sleep every night, but it is not always easy. There are times that I don't feel like it at all, and I am not used to writing with a pen and paper.. give me my keyboard, this would be so much easier.

I set it up for an even earlier wake up call tomorrow morning. I do not want to miss another docking. This one I am going to make, hehe. St. Thomas was wonderful� very beautiful and I would love to go back someday, with Stephen next time. I know he would love it. I really do wish he was here now.