St. Thomas

St. Thomas was georgous. It was my favorite island. I had never been there so I was excited to explore the island. If you remmeber, the girls were whining of extreme heat and being exhausted by the time we got to the end of the dock at St. Maarten. So, we decided to leave them on the boat and explore St. Thomas grown up style. They were upset about it at first. But, when we picked them up from childcare, they were fine. They replayed for us their fun and eventful day on the boat.

A few pictures of the islands surrounding St. Thomas.

The Pelorus was docked next to us at St. Thomas. Our wait staff told us it was owned by the King of Saudi. I don't think that is true. From what I could find, it was briefly own by a wealthy Saudi business man. But, wouldn't you like to have this as your personal yacht? From what I understand it's worth more than the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder, combined.

A very touristy shopping building....but pretty nonetheless....

I noticed that there were a TON of religious buildings all over the island. There was a strong Christian influence. At least musically. Most of the time, you could hear some reggae form of praise and worship playing on someones radio/speakers. I couldn't pin point what the dominant religion was. I asked a woman in one of the churches we went into and she said that probably every religion was represented on the island and many of them merged together. Strange.

Arthur and I quickly got off the tourist trail and explored the back roads on our own. Twice someone stopped his car and asked us if we were lost or needed to get back to the boat.

For the most part, we walked around and took pictures. So much was different from what we've seen before in other places. Beautiful, yet falling apart....

People didn't seem to maintain their houses and yards the way we do here in the states. Not sure why, money? heat? just not in the culture? Matter of fact there were several yards where we saw that people kept their washer and dryers outside, completely hooked up and usable. I guess because of the heat.

Thought this tree was enchanting...

Okay, not sure why I took this picture. If my Aunt Lynda were with me, somehow this would have been an inside joke for weeks. I thought it was hilarious that someone had a collection of doll busts sitting on her front porch for all to see.

We were able to walk through part of a private (as in all students paid a tuition to attend) school and church. I believe this church was built in 1948.

Church entry way

a classroom door, decorated....

the sanctuary

A very nice old man walked us through the sanctuary and shared some info with us about the church. He had a very strong accent and was, at times, very hard to understand.

office door to school, was an outside entrance

This was the teachers' parking lot, 3 blocks away from the school. It was 96 degrees in the middle of winter!

This synagogue is the oldest continuosly used synagogue under the American flag. It was very interesting. And, fairly small.

For whatever reason, this interested me...the childrens' puzzles

Notice the sand on the floor. Apparently there was marble underneath but they chose to pour sand over the marble.

 We stopped by Cloud 9 Art Museum, which was supposed to be open. But, it wasn't. We knocked and knocked but got no answer. I noticed the hole in the window.

I mentioned that we took lots of pictures.....here are a few more for your enjoyment. Too bad I don't have Photoshop, I bet some of these could be really unique.