baltimore_dad

Monday we got moving and signed up for the shuttle to Philipsburg. We signed up for the week-long pass so we can hit some other places later in the week. There were two cruise ships docked in Philipsburg, so it was a little crowded but the people added to the charm in a way. The town was very similar to almost every other port we stopped in when we went on our cruise. Tons of jewelry stores, knick knack shops everywhere, and many bars. Trish got a really nice looking tanzinite ring, and we did some gift shopping at the Del Sol store. We ended up having lunch at an upstairs indian place that was recommended from the Fromer’s book Trish picked up. It was quite good. We got back to Oyster Bay in time to clean up and hit the welcoming party. Open bar, decent band, about what you’d expect. We had a good time.

Tuesday was St Marrtens day. Kind of like our 4th of July, so most of the town was shut down. We were planning on staying around the resort so it worked out well for us. One of the traditions is to make and fly kites, so with the help of the staff we did. It was a ton of fun, Trish made a kite that looked like a girl, complete with hair, I made some square monstrosity. There was no wind so we haven’t tried to fly our kite yet. After making the kites we went snorkeling at dawn beach, was pretty fun, water was cloudy, but was able to get at least one decent fish picture. We headed back to the room and read. We haven’t had time to read in ages, it’s been nice to take the time on this trip.

This morning is the start of our second full day on the island. We got here Saturday afternoon, to beautiful weather. Though I’m beginning to think the weather is like this all of the time. The flight in was pretty neat as well. Seeing the islands get bigger and bigger as we got closer was pretty neat. The clouds over the Caribbean were very neat looking. Trish and I could see rainbows under some of the clouds, and the rest of them looked like very dense balls of cotton, neat stuff.

We got a great cab ride from the airport, the driver showed us around the island a bit. We shared the cab with a couple going to Garden of Eden at Orient Bay. We got dropped off at Oyster Bay first. After we got checked in we headed down to Beau Beau’s (one of the two restraunts at the resort) got some drinks and a very good dinner. It was happy hour so the drinks were two for one, I got something called Beau Beau’s punch, which I think was a cup of straight alcohol. Between the complete lack of sleep and the several hours of flying, it knocked me down. We went back to the room and fell asleep around 7p local time. I woke up around midnight very disoriented. After figuring out what time it was, and getting the AC turned on in the room things got much better, slept well the rest of the night. Trish was fine though the whole thing.

Sunday morning I woke up and walked across the street to “Mom and Pop’s” convience store, got some yogurt, cheese, and a fresh baugette. All of it was great, we sat in our room and munched our way through breakfast. We got showered and headed down to the pool. The view from the pool is stunning as you can see to the left. It’s an infinity pool overlooking the carribean. The colors in the water are difficult to capture with my camera, but they’re stunning, especially for the first time seeing it. After the pool we headed down to the beach, Trish sat on a beach chair and read, I got in the water. The sand here is like powdered sugar, incredibly fine grained. The water was fairly warm, and amazingly clear.

After the beach we headed to the bar to watch some football. I watched football and had some rum and cokes while Trish went to a guavaberry liquor and chocolate tasting. I joined her after watching a few minute of football. The guavaberry (unrelated to actual guava) liquor drinks were all good. The chocolate was pretty tasty as well. I really want to try straight guavaberry liquor at some point I don’t really know what it tastes like, but it mixes well. The guavaberry coladas are fantastic.

Saturday night we had a great dinner at Daniels, a beach bar by day, a restraunt by night. It’s just down the beach from Oyster Bay. The owner was very cool, and dinner was great. After dinner we walked back up the beach and headed to our room. We watched some football, read for a bit, then fell asleep.

We’ve had a great time the first few days. We miss Liz, but we’re really enjoying the time alone. Trish had a great idea for stories to tell Liz. It may turn into a children’s book, which would be cool. We’ve been talking about the adventures of Monty Goat (Montego) a carribean goat. The goats here wander the island and head home at night for food and water. Kinda neat to see goats wandering around. We saw the same thing when we went to jamacia, coming up with stories about the adventures of these goats may be fun. Anway, I’ll write more later.