Wednesday morning I woke up and we still hadn't docked. To the west was a rainstorm that we'd passed through, complete with its own little rainbow.

     
Click on the picture to see the rainbow. At one point we even had a little rainbow right off our balcony. It started at the cabin above us around to the cabin below. Very cool.

We ducked off to another delicious breakfast on the Lido deck (scrambled eggs, french toast, grits, bacon, coffee). One thing about the coffee. It's really good. I like coffee (love the way it smells), but usually put enough milk in it to turn it into a light brown color (actually, more milk than coffee), and a couple of packs of sugar. Pam drinks hers black. But the coffee on the boat was so good, and I wanted to try an experiment to see how little milk I could drink during the week, so I had mine every time with just half a pack of Nutri-Sweet - no milk. Had it at breakfast, while sunning on the Lido deck, while killing time in our room, with lunch, dinner, after dinner snack. I've become a coffeeholic.

We headed back to the cabin after eating and looked  outside - LAND HO! St. Thomas had snuck up on us.

     
Our first look at St Thomas.

We headed on down to meet our tour for the day: A romp up to Blackbeard's place (one of many on the island), a winding road ride to a scenic overlook, then down to a beautiful bay where we were able to swim and relax on the beach for a couple of hours. We didn't know we were going to the beach until after we'd already left the boat. So we didn't have our snorkeling gear or swimsuits. Luckily (heh, imagine that) they had a shop at the beach, fully stocked with swimsuits. Some of them were extremely expensive. But we all found some reasonably priced, rented a couple of beach chairs, and off we went! The water was gorgeous, warm, and very clear.

   
  Remember: we're in Taxi 504! The view from Blackbeard's.

    
A tropical bay, where in just a few minutes we were relaxing on the beach and swimming in the clear waters.

After the beach we were taken to the tourist trap shops near the harbor where we stocked up on some duty free alcohol. Our 2 liters of rum and whiskey should last us a few years back in the states. We're more beer drinkers than anything, but we got caught up in the moment, and the prices were unbelievably low. Oh, and Pam stocked up on some heavily discounted cigarettes (duty free, of course).

That evening at dinner we heard that one of the tour busses had been in an accident and several people from our boat had to be taken to the hospital. Most were OK, but a couple of people had to end their trip and head back to the states because of injuries. How sad. The boat was delayed from leaving a couple of hours while waiting on the folks who checked out OK at the hospital and were able to return to the ship.

RCCL's Freedom of the Seas departing St. Thomas. It's cool how these huge ships can turn themselves on a dime without the aid of tugs.

Up before dawn. I've slept so peacefully each night that I'm wide awake and refreshed by the time dawn breaks. Amazing. And it goes from dark to light and light to dark so quickly with the sunrise and sunset.

        
Just after 6 AM somewhere southeast of the Bahamas. The sunrise from our balcony Not many folks out and about on the Lido deck. Just give them a few hours. On the map, that big chunk of land in the lower left is Cuba, the one directly south of the boat is Haiti / Dominican Republic.

Speaking of the Lido deck, what killed me were the couple of people who would arrive early every morning and stake out ten or so deck chairs by the pool. The chairs would stay empty until around noon, with the couple guarding them so nobody else could use em. I was always out early, so getting a good spot wasn't a problem for me (and Pam would join me by 9 AM or so, so the single chair I saved wasn't a big deal).

   
A view from the Sun Deck (deck 12). Appropriate name.

I'll try not to bore you with the (literally) hundreds of sun / clouds / vast expanses of water pictures that I took. The water was endless. Then, still early in the morning we saw something flash across the water. It looked kinda like spray, but it went in a straight direction for about 20 feet then disappeared into the water. Then there was another flash. What in the world? It took a while, but we figured out they were flying fish. Duh. From the 8th deck where our balcony was they looked almost like dragonflies. Amazing.

That night after dinner, I took Zach to the casino. Grabbed $100 from the debit card, and sat down at one of the blackjack tables, $5 minimum. They had a couple of $25 minimum, but that was way to rich for me. Long story short, I quickly whittled my $100 down to $45 in about 2 minutes. I took a timeout. Zach was freaking out (his first time in a Casino, watching Dad fritter away his college money). Figuring the dealer had been on a hot streak long enough I started betting pretty aggressively. I hit a few hands in a row and wound up with $150 in front of me. Then I stood up and we walked away with the chips and cashed out. Fun.

We woke up early Monday morning to find ourselves already docked in Nassau. The seas overnight were gently rocking; we slept great and were full of energy for the day. But we weren't going anywhere today. We didn't schedule a shore excursion for Nassau. Last year Zach and I went diving, and were amazed by the crystal clear waters; Pam and Alix went on a dolphin encounter and came back with a video of them playing with dolphins. This year we decided to hang out on the ship and save our energy (and money) for St Thomas and St Martin.

The weather was dreamy - mid-80s, nice breeze, scattered clouds in the distance, and beautiful scenery all around the ship. We spent the entire day lounging by the pool on the Lido deck listening to live music, napping (on deck and in our cabins), and trying to avoid the endless amounts of food available. (Hamburgers at the grill on the Lido deck - excellent. Rubin sandwich from the deli - hearty.) We all spent some time in the gym, definitely the most work of the day.

One of the other ships parked beside us was from the Disney line. They had their little rubber duckies out for a spin, practicing their docking and close quarter navigation. The lifeboats are meant to hold 150 people each. They look built large enough to hold maybe 50. Last year I was able to look inside one. It had little outlines of where everyone's butt would go... packed together like sardines. Abandoning ship into one those in heavy seas would be a miserable experience.

We sailed out of Nassau relatively early (around 2PM). Apparently it's a long way to St Thomas, because we had a full day at sea ahead of us for Tuesday. As we were cruising along to the southeast, we continued to relax on deck. I went exploring around the other areas of the upper decks & was amazed with the winds. The wind was coming out of the east-northeast at about 15 knots. The ship was heading southeast at around 20 knots. Those two added together created quite a wind, making it difficult to walk forward. In narrow places such as on the stairs I had to use the handrails to keep from getting knocked off my feet. The water was such a deep blue and the boat was moving fast. Wouldn't want to go overboard.

Monday night was the first of the two formal nights for dinner. We dressed up all fancy with most of the others on the boat. Some people go whole hog - tuxedos, sparkly evening gowns. The works. We even had our pictures made. We discovered last year that the photographers on the ships are excellent. And the photos are very professional quality. (Something else to spend money on, but well worth it.)

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1 & 2) I found watching the ship channel fascinating. Here we are, Monday morning, docked in Nassau. 3) View from the Lido deck. 4) Rubber duckies enjoying a swim. 5) Part of the Lido deck, my home away from home. 6 & 7) Mind your step - it was windy. 8) On our way to formal night dining.

We drove down to Miami in my pickup truck, loaded with enough luggage for a three-week voyage. We each had two or three changes of clothes for each day. Well, maybe only I did. But it sure was a lot of luggage for a one week trip. (Considering I spent most of the time in my swimsuit, I could have packed extremely lightly.)

Miami is a beautiful place to visit, especially on a Sunday morning. Traffic was extremely light as we cruised across Highway 60 then south on the Turnpike. We made incredible time, including a long stop a one of the rest areas where everyone picked up some sunglasses.

We slid into town early, breezed through check-in, and suddenly we found ourselves on board. Our cabins weren't ready yet, so we hung out on the deck, already feeling the worries of work drift away.

Before the ship could depart everyone had to participate in the lifeboat drill. It's at that point that you realize how many people are actually on the ship with you. Hundreds. Thousands. Big ship. But the amazing thing is that we never feel crowded. (Except when lined up during the lifeboat drill.)

Once the drill was over we headed back on deck to watch Miami and the US fade away. The views were wonderful. It's a tropical paradise down there. The sunset over the city was amazing as we cruised out of the bay and into the Gulf Stream.

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1) Hamming it up during the lifeboat drill. 2) Boats in the harbor just off Star Island. 3) Condo. 4) Condos. 5) Sunset over Miami

Last year (2006) we started a new Thanksgiving tradition for this leg of the Blizzard clan. Both my parents and Pam's mom are gone, years ago. Pam's dad is too afraid of hurricanes and tornados that might suddenly attack the Tampa area and won't visit. (I won't mention that he lives just outside Pensacola. Think of a bowling lane. Think of the sweet spot for a strike, between the 1 and 3 pins. That's pretty much what Pensacola is in the game of Hurricane Bowling. Tampa, on the other hand, is a total gutter ball. Hurricanes don't come through here. Makes us wonder what the real reason is that Pam's dad won't visit... but that's another story, for another time. And this is about our new holiday tradition.)

So our new family Thanksgiving tradition is to take a Thanksgiving cruise. We did last year and loved it. As a result we decided to keep the tradition alive this year, and went on another cruise. And we had another blast. Over the next few days I'll post about the relaxing time we had on this year's journey aboard the Carnival Valor.

 
Our little family, right outside the terminal in Miami. (I don't know what's up with the goofy look on my face.) And the Carnival Valor, our home for the next week.