Vacation 2011: Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

Day two of our trip was spent in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. Even though St. Thomas is part of the US Virgin Islands, they drive on the left side of the road. The first few days of our cruise were in jeopardy, somewhat, due to Hurricane Maria churning near the Puerto Rican coast. The weather cleared and we were able to sail on time, but we did encounter some rainy weather due to Maria. The entire day in St. Thomas was rainy and humid. All of the island tours were cancelled due to the rain and wind.

The visit wasn't a total flop because we got to visit our friend, Cole, who lives on St. Thomas. He moved to the island from Atlanta a couple of years ago and seems to really like living down there. We met him for lunch at Senor Frogs. It was near the ship port, so I suspect that it's a little touristy. Cole seemed to be a regular there and it was near his work.
These are some photos Justin took as we were leaving Senor Frogs. I was amazed at how hilly the islands are.

Cole has told us before how lots of tourists on the island will ask him if he lives on the island. Apparently, this is a question lots of people on the island are asked. They usually tell people they live in Miami and take the tunnel to work each day. This is unbelievable for several reasons, the main one being Miami and St. Thomas are over 1,100 miles away from each other. One of Cole's friends on the island made these decals for their vehicles. The photo below shows Cole's tunnel passes for the last couple of years.

After lunch, Cole very graciously drove us from the port to the downtown area.
They even have a Pizza Hut in Charlotte Amalie.

After wandering around the downtown area for a while, we grabbed a cab back to the port. Justin and I were somewhat surprised at how religious people on the island were. Nearly every store we visited had the radio on a religious talk show. Our cab driver was listening to the talk show and basically preached to us. She was very nice, so we just smiled and nodded. As we were walking back to the ship, we heard some music from an approaching vehicle. We turned to see an open bus-type vehicle dropping off some fellow cruisers. They were singing, clapping, and chanting. We secretly wished that we had been on that bus instead of in the church cab.

We snapped this photo before we headed to dinner later that evening.

When we returned to our room, our room steward had left this towel animal for us. These are so interesting to me! I'm easily entertained.