10/20/2004 02:58:50 PM|||LadyGypsy|||Snorkel-girl!

As part of our excursion today, Thor and I ended up kayaking 2 miles through gorgeous mangrove lagoons.

And I snorkeled for the first time! See, I'm a very poor swimmer (the phrase "epilleptic chimpanzee" has come up when talking about how I swim) and it's against every instinct to stick my face under water and breathe through a tube while NOT kicking my feet. The tour guides were fantastic, though. One of them paddled his kayak next to me while the rest of the group pulled ahead in case I got panicky. Which I did, a few times. We had life jackets so I wasn't too frightened.

Wow...the sea life was gorgeous. I saw schools of brightly colored fish, sea cucumbers, and even a live conch!

By the end of the excursion, I was moving about on my own. Thor took a picture of me with my snorkel mask. I want to print it and keep it at my desk at work, because it proves that I can do ANYTHING, even if it scares me.

I walked the nearby mall here in St. Thomas. Like St. Martin, they're big on booze, smokes, and jewelry. Everything else looks like the stuff I can buy on the Ocean City boardwalk. I was going to take a cab to Charlotte Amelie, the capital, to shop some more, but we're leaving port at 4:30.

Oh yeah, and I have a facial scheduled for 4:30. My first. Unfortunately, I'll miss this afternoon's bingo session.

More notes from the sea:

• I bought an ugly-but-sorta-pretty 'island' sundress yesterday at Margiot, the French capital of St. Martin. Turns out it was made in Thailand. D'oh!
  
• Yesterday's Drink of the Day was a Rum Runner. I took three sips and had to quit. My God, it was like poison! The bartender kindly gave me a wimpier drink. She said they recommend the Rum Runner to people who want the strongest drink they have.
  
• Believe it or not, I'm getting tired of food. In order to counterbalance the mass quantities of food, we're taking the stairs whenever we have 3 or fewer floors to travel.
  
• I hope to hit the 7:30am yoga class tomorrow as well.

Finally...
November is National Novel Writing Month. Sounds like a fabulous idea. I wonder if I can write 50,000 crappy words in one month. Can you?|||109830101037815770|||