St Thomas and the Seaplane

I had a trip not too long ago to St Thomas. It was my 2nd time going since coming here. Overall, it's a lovely island. But, I think that's biased on my part, only by the fact that I get to drive on the left hand side there and it's a lot of fun!! And, very mountainous, which makes the left-hand driving even that much more thrilling. Beyond that, haven't quite figured out what you would do there much past a day, but it's nice to look at. It's a BIG port for cruise ships and shopping. I've never understood that piece of 'cruising'. You're American, you get on a very big and very expensive ship, they sail you very far away only to shop at American stores found at your local mall for the same price, or more. Hmmmm??

I digress. Back to the subject. This trip caused us to not only meet with people in St Thomas, but to also meet with people in St Croix. I don't even know how far away it is, but you have to get there via sea plane or ferry. We chose the plane. Initially, I was not a big fan. I don't like small planes and although I'm fine traveling and flying (a lot!), I like to know it's big and safe.

Here's what it looked like. An 8-seater. Choppy waters, they ask you your weight when you check-in, in order to properly 'balance' the plane. They weighed my barely-a-purse, purse that came in at a whopping 3lbs! If they have to weigh even that, how fine of a line is this balancing act??

This was our lovely pilot, Paul. He was from Russia or maybe Germany. I can't remember any more, as I'm so current in my blogging! Ha! But, he had an accent, I know that. Australian, I think now. :)

There were only 3 of us on this particular flight, so he let me get up front and pretend to fly the plane. Doesn't happen in commercial any more, does it? Nice guy. Guess he didn't suspect I was dangerous! Funny story for all you Dallas friend's reading.....the only other person on the plane....was an attorney from University Park who was about my age and now lived and practiced in St Thomas/St Croix! How strange is that? I didn't learn it until the very end, but of course, started the 'name game' at that time. No luck.

Here's how empty the plane was. We look like tourists, don't we?

Fuzzy picture, but this was a teeny-tiny island right off St Croix that had a resort on it. Looked very relaxing. Again, the pilot was very kind to us and took liberties not allowed on commercial. Knowing it was my first time, he did a fly by of the island to show me the sights. He kept pointing back and telling me to switch side to see certain things and to take pictures.

Here is Paul in action. Shorts, tennis shoes and a baseball cap. Nice uniform for sea flying. Wouldn't anything else seem inappropriate??

Best part.....the take off and the landing. It was a lot of fun and not scary at all!! Much to my surprise! Dad - if there were a sea close to San Antonio, I could really see you doing this in your post-retirement life!

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'Happiness should not be pursued - create it!'......we went to PF Changs's last night for dinner. This was the fortune in Olivia's cookie. Kyle laughed as for some odd reason, this brought tears to my eyes. It was perfect for Olivia. I kept it to put it in her baby book as I truly believe this is my daughter's mantra. She lives by it. So much to learn from this little one. I'm quite lucky.