As we got into St Maarten we could see that there was construction going on at the airport. We had to wait for a loooong time to get through immigration... about 2 hours. You can see the long line behind us. And there was one in front of us, as well.
After getting settled we stopped at a restaurant close to the house called the Greenhouse. We all enjoyed a good meal and good conversation!
The next day was Sunday. We drove to Church which was not too far from our home and had a good Sacrament Meeting. We also stayed for RS/Priesthood and it was great! While we were at church we found that Wade and Paula Sandberg's son, Jase, is serving a mission on the island of St. Maarten. They're in our stake. It's a small world. It was fun to see someone from Grantsville on that small island.
We finally got through immigration and got our bags only to get our car and get into heavy traffic!😖
After driving for about a half an hour we were able to find our rental house. It was gorgeous. It was a white two story with all of the bedrooms upstairs. Brad and Ruth took the master bedroom, and DeeAnn took the next biggest room but did not have a bathroom with it. She used the 3/4 bath on the main floor. Rick and I took a smallish room but liked it because of the nice spacious bathroom just next to it in the hallway. We had a beautiful view of the ocean and our pool from our room.
The house had a beautiful well-stocked kitchen with doors leading out to the pool.
Very convenient and fun!
Afterwards, we stopped at a nearby grocery store to load up on food for the week.
Wednesday morning we all got up and made our individual breakfasts and then sat and talked around the table for lots of hours. It was really nice!
Then each car went separate ways. Rick and I drove around the island to see the sights. The only picture I got was of Rick and me at a fruit stand. I bought a pineapple. (Unfortunately, it got left in the car overnight and got too hot and ruined.)😒
That night we ate at the Buccaneer Bar right on the beach,
It is always so fun to be on vacation and eat out every night!!
Lovebirds💕
When we got back that night I was just dozing off in our room when DeeAnn came in all excited and told us that Larry and Darla's trip with Dennis and Karen had been cancelled, so Darla was coming to be with US! We were all very thrilled that DeeAnn would have a companion!
She made the arrangements to leave the very next day to arrive on Friday afternoon.
The next day, Thursday February 22nd, I was anxious to get over to the famous Sunset Beach where the big jets fly right over the top of the beachgoers while coming in for landing. I had been checking the flight schedule and knew that the big planes would be coming in just after lunch. We made a plan to all meet at the Sunset Bar and Grill for lunch.
We got there and got a seat but Brad and Ruth were behind us a ways... they got stuck in traffic. By the time they got there and we ordered our food the planes started coming in earlier than expected. I was afraid that I was going to miss them all, so I hurried and ate my food and rushed out to the beach to see the planes. We got to see a couple of big ones and smaller ones come in, and it was SO COOL! I loved it! Rick and the others were able to join me on the beach to see some of the planes come in and take off.
It was very neat to see!
I realized after getting to St Maarten that I forgotten my ball caps at home. I ended up purchasing a visor from this "hat lady" wandering on the beach looking for buyers just like us!
After we watched the planes coming in DeeAnn joined Rick and me, and we headed over to Mullet Bay Beach We were able to secure a couple of chairs and an umbrella, and we enjoyed some beach and water time!
That night we got to eat at a fun restaurant called Skip Jacks right in Simpson Bay close to our house. We were able to see right out onto the lagoon with all of the big beautiful super yachts sitting in the harbor. We all enjoyed our meals and visiting, and before we left Rick had to get one of the waiters to reach into the crab holder and pull out a big one! This is a nice big Caribbean crab!
Friday February 23rd
This was a good morning. I had a massage.
Rick dropped me off for an hour, and it was quite wonderful, if I must say!😀
I can't remember all that we did in the afternoon but we were excited to pick up Darla that afternoon.
Just after arriving we found a really nice Italian restaurant over by the airport and Sunset Beach.
The name of the place was La Rosa, and the food was soooo good! I love me some Italian food!
We all were happy with our meals.
La Rosa Restaurant
Saturday February 24th
The next morning Rick, DeeAnn, Darla and I went out for a fun breakfast at Juliette's Bistro.
I had seen this patio Bistro every time we drove up to our house so I was glad to finally try it out.
We enjoyed some good food and conversation!
After breakfast we met back at the house with Brad and Ruth and drove over to The Rainforest Adventures. We were able to catch a sky ride up to the top of the mountain for beautiful views over Philipsburg. We took a lot of pictures at the top and enjoyed the views down below.
Rick and I were the brave ones of the pack and rode the Flying Dutchman down to the bottom.
The Flying Dutchman is the steepest zip line in the world. It drops 1050 feet in elevation down the 2800 feet of cable. Luckily we were strapped in a chair or I would not have done it. My chair turned sideways for pretty much the whole way down.😬 That made it so I did not love it as much as I would have if I were going forward. I was happy to make it to the bottom safely alive.
Darla got this picture of us coming down.
And I got this picture of her and DeeAnn coming down the slower way:)
A cool tree at Rainforest Adventures
That evening we set sail on a sunset cruise. It was pretty laid back until people got their alcohol in them.
It's hilarious to see how loose people get after a few drinks.
The sunset view was beautiful and it's always wonderful being on the water.
That night we had a full moon as we were coming into the harbor.😊
That evening we drove over to the beach again to watch the planes land because Darla hadn't seen them.
While Darla was filming a plane taking off, the wind from the jet's engines was so bad that it knocked her over into a somersault right there on the beach. Oh my goodness! We laughed and laughed at her coming up from the ground; face and hair and dress covered in sand. We all were covered from the blowing sand but she really got it with the somersault and all! Fun times!!
On Monday, February 26th we took a small ferry over to Anguilla. (pronounced an-gwill-a)
It is a British territory so we had to take our passports along and go through immigration. We were so happy that it was an easier pass-through at the port than getting into St. Maarten. We rented a couple of vehicles and set out to explore Anguilla. I thought it was a beautiful slow-paced island and actually wouldn't mind going to stay for a few days.
We found a nice restaurant (kinda spendy) on the beach, and then while Brad and Ruth set off to explore more of the island, the rest of us enjoyed a bit of time on the beautiful beach. After a couple of hours we called to find out where Brad and Ruth were, and they were at the dock ready to get onto the ferry to go back to St. Maarten! We decided that it was time for us to head back as well so we changed and packed up our stuff to go turn our car back in.
We stopped at a shop to browse around a bit, but the merchandise was too expensive. I was hoping to find a hat and was lucky enough to find one back at the small ferry station. After taking the short twenty minute ferry ride back to St. Maarten we found a really cute outdoor restaurant by the ferry called Rosemary's. It had local Caribbean food and was super flavorful. It was one of the best meals of our trip.
That ended our last day of our St. Maarten trip. We went home and got packed up for the next day's flight to Antigua.
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