St. Thomas

We did have a bit of a plan for our port day in St. Thomas but our scheduled tour wasn't until 11:00.

After a walk around the port area we decided to visit a nearby Butterfly Farm and Bird Show.

If you must live your short butterfly life in a cage this is a beautiful setting.

I had no idea that butterflies each have their own host plant. Meaning they only lay their eggs on one kind. So all of the butterflies here are shipped in because the owner isn't allowed to breed non native butterflies in St. Thomas.

He makes sure that he doesn't have their host plants so they live their short lives eating and mating without a place to "nest".

I also learned that after the caterpillar makes it's cocoon it completely dissolves into a pool of DNA which then reforms into a butterfly.

They love fermented fruit like bananas.

We all enjoyed it, except for Graham that is. He was scared that the butterflies were getting him. Watch how fast his head whips around when one darts by.

This was a bit of a trying afternoon. Ethan had a major melt down before our tour...something about not getting his way. Then both Zach and I got motion sick on the windy road ride across the island to Ghetto.....I mean Ocean World.

The bigger boys were signed up for a submarine adventure and Graham and I were going to just roam the park. We ordered lunch while Zach recovered and Graham napped. The fruit smoothies kinda smoothed everything over.

It did rain a bit off an on but we were all in water wear so it didn't matter. Along with the roaming iguanas, there were sharks, fish, giant sea turtles, stingrays, and other hands on sea life. At the end you'll see how Graham and I passed the time while the big boys were gone.

We thought we'd have time to visit the adjacent beach but the timing didn't work out. I really enjoyed the submarine tour but overall this place was nothing to get excited about. It did offer some other pricey adventures but again we were not eligible.

So he knows lots of numbers....now we just have to work on getting them in the right order.