St Maarten

Brian and I went to St Maarten last week with my old college roommate Joclyn, and her fiance Josh. WHAT A GREAT TIME! We were there from sat-sat, the weather was great, the drinks were cheap, and the company was perfect =) For those that don't know, we bought a timeshare on a whim while on our honeymoon - we knew it was either going to be the best thing we've ever done, or the dumbest. It's workin so far! We were able to save points from last year (we went cross country last year instead of using the timeshare) so we had enough to get us a two bedroom, two and a half bathroom suite with a balcony overlooking the Great Bay on the southern part of the Dutch side of the island. The resort was awesome. We did some excursions, but there were a couple of days when all we did was take our time in the morning, eat breakfast on the patio then headed to the beach. It was super relaxing. It would get so hot that we would have to go in the water after 20 minutes, the water was nothing to complain about! we probably spent an equal amount of time just floating in the ocean as we did laying on the beach. We rented a car so we were able to explore...it's a very small island, 36 square miles, but they pack a lot into 36 miles! One half is owned by the dutch, the other half by the French. We only drove ourselves to the french side twice, and had an unbelievable meal. Apparently the french side is the culinary capital of the carribbean. It was good, but the area was kind of sketchy so we didn't hang around much after that. Turns out the dutch side had food that was just as good and it was closer so it was easier for Brian to drive on that side...the people there drive like maniacs so it was good that we just went a few minutes away each night after that. It's so sad but every morning i couldn't wait for dinner!! We went to a lot of suggested local places which I love doing. When i go somewhere I like to go places that say something about the place we're in. Every place we ate, we had a great view of the water. It's their slow season so nothing was every packed. It was awesome. The resort had a restaurant and a couple of bars so every night we would go back to the room, shower, play setback (boys vs. girls of course) on the deck, then get ready for the night. After dinner, we would go hang out with our fave bartender Leroy and watch the olympics. It was happy hour from 10-11 every night so drinks were half price, it was great. After that we'd all be wiped so we were in bed by 12 every night! so sad. it would have been better almost if there were more people on our resort, happy hour would have been more interesting if it was more than just the 4 of us...then we may have stayed out later! One night I went to bed and couldn't move, I thought i was just exhausted from the trip but then i realized i was just THAT relaxed. It's hard not to be when you're down there. No one stresses about anything...everything is on island time, food comes slower at restaurants, no one is in a rush. (except for the crazy motorcylcists). I'm obsessed if you couldn't tell. while we were there we did some snorkeling, and an ATV tour of the island, and ziplining through a tropical forest. Some of the pics I posted are of our resort, Gizmo the parrot, us taking a complimentary chocolate raspberry rum shot (unbelievable), our pool, the atv's, and the picture of the plane is at the airport...the island is so small that the runway is literally across the street from Maho beach, if you google it you will see a lot of cool pics, this plane wasn't that big so it wasn't as close to the ground, but it was still really neat to see (and loud!). when a plane would take off, once the jets started the sand on the beach would get blasted into the water, you don't want to be stuck behind that!!! GREAT VACATION! now back to work =(