St. Thomas!!!

Posted by SE Wagner July 22, 2014

St. Thomas!!!

So we arrived here around four yesterday, which meant I'd already been up for ten hours (!!!!) and I hadn't had anything but two airplane cookies, trail mix, and a protein bar since 9 A.M., so I was a bit tired and cranky, but wow, it was so beautiful. I didn't have a window seat on the plane, but I could still get a glimpse of the island coming in and it was so so pretty.

The first plane took us to Atlanta, Georgia. It was tiny and I got to sit with TJ and we arrived at the airport and had to speed walk to catch the next flight to St. Thomas, and luckily that plane was bigger, but while my happy family got to sit together three rows behind me, I got to sit with some stranger. Thanks a lot, fam.

I hadn't had a chance to pee before we got on the plane so I had to go super bad and the stupid captain wouldn't turn off the seat belt sign and the stupid flight attendant kept saying, "If there is anything we can do to make your flight more enjoyable, please let us know." And every time she said that I thought "Turn off the bleep bleep bleep seat belt sign!!!" I was about to start crying I had to pee so bad. And then the captain finally turned it off and I got up but some lady got there before me!!! But she came out, of course, and I got to go. Thank the Lord.

The airplane arrived in St. Thomas and we walked off the plane, down some stairs, and onto the asphalt. It was weird to walk off a plane into the open air. Then we went inside the airport, which was super tiny, and went to the baggage claim area, which was all open air and had about a dozen fans on inside. We got our bags and the rental car, realized we had no idea where we were going, so my mom went back inside, got a map, and then we were on our way. The weird thing about Caribbean islands is that they drive on the left side of the road but have cars with steering wheels on the left. So it's like a British/American driving mashup. The roads are also very narrow and windy and hilly here and people drive super crazy. But we made it to our destination safely (after getting our guts jiggled out by a crap ton of massive speed bumps) and after we'd unpacked our stuff, we found a place to eat, and after we ate we went to the grocery store (creatively named "Food Center") and got some groceries for the week. Except this was a bit of a problem, because everything is so dang expensive! A gallon of orange juice is $9.99, Nutella is $10.99, Oreos are $6.99, cheese is like $5 for 8 slices, etc. etc. Sunny D was the cheapest drink at $2.99, so we got some of that, even though Sunny D is more like Son, We're D-Rinking Chemicals. So basically we're eating PBJ for lunch for the next few days.

Then we went back home and I went to bed at 9:50 and woke up at 9:30.

Today we've gone down to the beach, gone snorkeling (so much fun!!!! We actually saw fish!!! I was just swimming around, minding my own business, and this school of whitish blue fish swam by me and then I saw this massive fish with them and I was like "That's so cool!!" I thought I'd be freaked out about seeing fish so close to me, but it was just super cool.), gone to the pool (it's so pretty!), and seen a bunch of iguanas and lizards. It's been a lot of fun and now I'm going to go put on more sunscreen and go back out.

The view from the room TJ and I share: