I took a surprise trip home to the States for a few weeks! So, in order to keep that tough surprise, I put myself on an internet lock down. I was very careful about what I posted and when, so as not to slip and leak the good news.
And then when I got home, it was a whirlwind of enjoying America, so no time to post then.
So now, I'm back. Not 24 hours of being back to Dominica and I'm blogging. That's dedication, right?
Enough babbling. Now to the point of the post! Our exciting St. Maartin vacation!
Yes! We went on a vacation. To a beautiful, tropical Caribbean island. And no, not the one we live on.
Matt finished his second semester, so we decided to a book a vacation instead of flying us both home for the break. While we love going home, it can be expensive flying two people back. Plus, we learned last break, it's not much a vacation because we were constantly running around trying to see everyone and do everything, that Matt didn't get to rest his mind too much. So we were looking to relax and refresh a bit. And we sure did! And, when else in our lives are we going to be able to just fly to another Caribbean island in less than an hour?
So we settled on St. Maartin. And yes. it's spelled St. Maartin. It is a tiny little island (smaller than Dom) that is actually two countries - Sint Maarten and Saint Martin. Sint Maartin is the Dutch side, and Saint Martin is the French side.
We stayed in Simpson Bay. And it was lovely. Beautiful white sand beaches, crystal clear water, delicious food, entertainment, shopping and more! We even walked around in an air-conditioned mall!
We spent the majority of time our posted up reading on the beach. And we loved it. And the day it rained? We huddled inside and froze in the AC. And enjoyed every shiver.
We indulged in all of the delicious food. I even had a steak! Yay for red meat.
But probably the most exciting meal we had was Dominoes. Delivery. Yes, I said it. We loved it. We ordered pizza and sat in our huge comfy bed in the freezing AC and loved it. Every bite. It's the little things.
One of the coolest things we did is good to Maho Beach. Maho is situated right on the runway of the airport. Literally right on the runway. So you can enjoy the beach, and get up close and personal with the airplanes.
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| Sunset Beach bar has this board up that announces arrivals. |
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| The huge, double-decker plane from the Netherlands. |
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| Yes. That's a danger sign. People will hold onto the fence to get jet blasted when the planes take off. We weren't that crazy. |
So yes, clearly we loved it.
We also rented a car, so we were able to enjoy that luxury. We drove throughout the whole island which took about 45 minutes.
And because the island is actually two countries, we were able to stand on the border and be in two countries at once! There is no border patrol or anything, so it was similar to crossing a state line.
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| Dutch side. |
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| Turn around and you have the French side. |
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| Standing in two countries at one time! |
We also found the most delicious ice cream place. It was gelato actually. The place is called Carousel. And it was so amazing, that once we went there, we went back again. And again. And again. They had Nutella gelato. Of course we kept going back.
Our hotel room was lovely. We stayed at the Flamingo Resort. We had our own little kitchen area as well which made it nice. We took advantage and went to the grocery where it was stocked full of varieties of food! It was overwhelming and a wonderful change!
They also thought we were honeymooners. So they gave us the honeymoon suite. Fine by me.
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| That's our room in the very top left corner! |
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| The view from our kitchen. |
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| Our spot on the beach. |
We took one day to drive to Phillipsburg, the Dutch capitol. There we found this great boardwalk with lots of shopping. It was right on the beach. So, the beachfront and shopping? My kind of day.
We had such a wonderful, wonderful. time. We love everything about the island. It gave us a quite the break from Dominica, and even gave us a taste of America. To me, St. Maartin felt more like America than the Caribbean, so it was a nice change of pace for us.
Plus, we got to enjoy each other. Spend stress-free, study-free time together.
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