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What a big and exciting day we had today! Once more, the Carnival Liberty was in port with the Carnival Triumph and Carnival Glory, so my hometown friend, Heather was there. This time, she was excited to have a visit with my visiting family. So Mel, Brad & I first met up with Heather for a nice little visit in one of the crew centres on the pier. A nice way to ease ourselves into the day.
Then we met up with Jody for our tour - parasailing!
The thought of parasailing used to really scare me. I had no interest in doing it because it was so high. Then last year, the day I went sky diving, I was standing at the water’s edge watching the sky-divers ahead of me fall from the clouds. And thousands of feet below, out on the water, were some people parasailing. And suddenly, parasailing didn’t seem so scary! Ever since, it’s been on my “life list” of things to do. So today, was the big day.
We’d booked the tour through shore excursions. So the four of us waited on the pier, then met the tour operator. We were expecting to
be meeting up along with other passengers from our ship, or possibly from one of the other ships in port. But to our surprise and complete delight, it was only the four of us on the tour! As we rode in the motorboat out to sea, I turned to Jody and said “Doesn’t this make you feel like we’re rich and extravagant, having a private tour?” It was awesome. It made the tour so laid-back, personal, fun and really, we got spoiled. With only the four of us, we got to have more time up in the air than we ever would have if we were on a tour with a larger group - like the other parasailing tour boats we passed by.
Mel & Brad were up first. I videoed them going up, then took all sorts of photos, admired the scenery and started getting nervous. Mel & Brad were champs up there, waving at us and just sailing around. On the way down, the guides gave them a quick dip in the sea before sending them back up and reeling them back in.
Then it was mine & Jody’s turn. We got strapped in. And I
got scared. But I didn’t have much time to think about that, cause then we were up in the air! According to our guides, we sail up at about 600 feet. I was surprised at how calm it is up there. The boat below is speeding along, but you’re just sort of floating. Completely calm, completely peaceful. And St. Thomas and the surrounding smaller Virgin Islands, looked so picturesque from above. While we floated along, I just looked around and said how exciting it is when you’re in the middle of a life list moment, and you know it. Makes it even sweeter to soak in.
When Jody and I had been in the boat, he’d joked the guides about getting our lines tied up with one of the other parasailing boats. So of course, as we were up there, our guides had a good time steering us just close enough to the other boat to get our imaginations going (but of course not enough that there was ever any danger). Another exciting moment - a plane took off from the island and actually flew below us! I turned to Jody and commented how it was like a scene
out of some action movie, except in the movie the plane would have gone straight at us before ducking out the way. It wasn’t that dramatic in reality, but it was pretty cool.
Then on our way down, we too got a good dunk in the sea. That was actually really fun and I was surprised at how fast we were moved through the water. Then we were back up for a moment, then brought down onto the boat.
Parasailing was great. I’m so happy to have finally done it. And doing it with Mel and Brad and Jody made it even greater.
And our day didn’t end there!
Jody returned to the ship to go to work and I took Mel and Brad up to the top of Paradise Point. We rode the gondola up the mountain. Then, up at the top, we got seats in the open air restaurant overlooking the stunning view back down to Charlotte Amalie Harbour. Beautiful.
Paradise Point is also famous for a drink made only in St. Thomas: the Bushwacker. Brad’s on a mission to try all of the different fancy drinks available down here, so of course
he and Mel couldn’t pass up trying one of these. A Bushwacker is made with Baileys, Kahlua, Vodka, Dark Rum, Amaretto, Dark Creme de Cacao & Coco Lopez. Amazingly, they’re very tasty - but then they’ll really hit you as you can imagine with all of those liqueurs!
And after all that, we made our way back to the ship - after all, we’ve got dinner in the dining room waiting.
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swills82
Sarah Willett
Fearless
You're quite the adventurer m'dear! Sounds awesome. Another thing to add to MY list! Congrats!