Beast's still asleep this morning, but it's 9:20 and I'm done.

Yesterday we were awake by 8:30 or so. Decided to forego a shower till afternoon. Went & ate breakfast in the Windjammer with pretty much the ENTIRE SHIP. It was packed. Good food. Ran into Cleveland & Knoxville. Introduced Beast. Talked for a long while with Rita, one of the waiter-managers. She is also from India, but on the east side closer to Thailand. Funny lady. Likes to alk, which gave us time to let breakfast settle.

Back to the room, SeaPass & passport in hand we found our way to the gangway on deck 1 & strolled up the pier in the sun. Yes, we'd dosed with sunscreen & bug spray--I already have 2 mosquito bites, so it may be too late--but as hot and humid as St. Croix was at 11 a.m. we probably sweated it off in 20 minutes.

Anyway, we snagged a couple of maps from some ladies at the info booth and found a market stall selling hats where I found one that might keep my neck out of most of the sun. 20 bucks.

From there we wandered up the beach a ways to a place we could sit in shade & people-watch/look @ the view. I walked down to the water & stuck my feet in & waded around for a bit. Once my feet dried a little and I could brush of most of the sand--much finer than sandbox sand, and much whiter--we put our shoes back on to walk the street back to the main part of town. Stopped & bought a couple of souvenir shawls (one for me, one for Cindy D.) and then wandered back to a waterfront plaza to sit down & try to cool off.  We scared a rooster out of his hiding place where we sat.

Oh, we'd passed a KFC while walking & Beast mentioned that there were quite a lot of Subways all over the island. Ugh. Needless to say we didn't go inside. :)

After we'd sat for a bit, Beast said he was pretty much done, feeling sunburned and overheated. So we walked back to the pier and reboarded the boat. We had to do a simple security check to get on board. Then back to our room to water up. No wait, we hit Ben & Jerry's in the Promenade for ice cream AND water. Beast's very red skin gradually resolved into sun-pink, not burned. He really was overheated.

THEN we came back to the room where Dwayn was cleaning up after us. We grabbed some books & parked in the Library for awhile till we figured Dwayn would be done. Talked a little about "strategy"--get up early & see the island of the day prior to the worst of the heat.

After we'd gotten back in our room, we decided to heat in different directions. I went to the Promenade again in hopes of buying a lanyard for my SeaPass--stores were still shut and I asked @ Guest Services who said that while we were docked anywhere the shops are closed. They'd open again @ 6. Then I scoped out the Board Room. I seen a sign just after boarding near Guest Services that Friends of Bill W. met at 5 dailly there. Also in the area is the movie theater.

While I was doing that stuff Beast went up to the pool deck to sit & people-watch & read (and not drink, I hope). Maybe doze.

The other place I stopped was @ the dining room to figure out details on that. Last night was Formal Attire, so I wanted a fix on what that meant for un non-formal-wearing ppl. Also, do we need a reservation. Not required, but suggested. And we didn't HAVE to dress formally ... but ...

So we planned to eat @ Windjammer again for dinner. I had a power nap before Beast came back & then we just sort of hung about till 5 when we hit the AA meeting, which I thought was perfect. Beast was quite honest about his struggle, but I'm not sure anyone got thru to him completely

After that we wandered till the Windjammer opened & we found seats overlooking the wake as we pulled out of St. Croix. Pretty good food--not excellent, but good. My mac-and-cheese is better. :)

We watched and ate til it was totally dark outside and all we could ee were the lights from Frederiksted & then Christiansted as we came around the island. [I'm pretty sure I have this confused with a different night....oops]

Then we wandered around people-watching some more. People were having pictures taken with the Captain or in front of various backgrounds in their formalwear. Lots of music. Beast too me up by the bridge where he'd walked earlier, but they had shades down so we couldn't see in. It was VERY windy on decks 11 & 12 forward. And we were moving pretty fast so it wasn't easy to walk properly @ all. We found the running track too, so if I want to walk that, I can.

Back to our room. Beast got a hankering for pretzels, me for cheetos & he sets off to see if he could find any. No dice. Then he went & refilled our "official" cups.

I read most of the book about Puerto Rico I'd bought @ El Morro. We looked over the Compass for Day 3. There's a U2 tribute show tonight. We're at St. Kitt's today. What we'll do, who knows. Beast was wiped out, so he hit horizontal in bed & was pretty  much out before the lights went out.

I read some more & then I was done as well.

I forgot to mention that when we came back after dinner we found our bed prepped for sleep, the Compass for Day 3 on the bed along with an adorable towel puppy--made of one of our bath towels.

O[h] and went [when] Beast came back with water, he also brought a couple of rolls from the buffet for a bedtime snack.

I'm sure I've left stuff out, but at least now I am completely caught up.

Beast just woke up so we're off to a quick breakfast as soon as we get dressed. Then back here for sunscreen & island prep. More about all of that later.