We got off the plane at Princess Julianna Airport in Sint Maarten after a long day of flying. We got into the rental car van to get our car and our driver asked if it was our first time there. If you want a nice relaxing vacation, he said, you go to the French side. You want fun, you stay on the Dutch side. He was right.
Our friends have been coming here for years and every year they invite us. This year we made it a point to accept and join them. Saint Martin is an island in the Caribbean that is about 37 miles around. It is split in half: One side belongs to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the other side belongs to France. Originally, it was occupied by Spain. Once Spain left, both the Netherlands and the French were interested in occupying the island. They decided to split the island resulting in the Treaty of Concordia, which was signed in 1648.
To get there from Dallas, we had to take a 5:30 am flight from DFW through Miami. This is us after getting up at 2 am so that we could be at the airport 2 hours before our flight. I look drunk.
You can see all the boats out there. That one with three masts used to belong to a Russian oligarch. It was "seized". Not sure who owns it now.
This was interesting. The first night, we were sitting on the patio before meeting up with our friends and the power went out. Apparently, this happens often on this island. There was instructions in the VRBO and everything. Note the shutters behind John. These are hurricane shutters and they are on every window, including the bedroom. These are better than a blackout curtain.
The power came back on after about 30 minutes and we met up with our friends and had dinner at this cool place where the chef grilled everything on a Weber grill in back of the restaurant. It was called The Palms.
On our second day, our friends were on a boat ride that put them right in the middle of the regatta. Meanwhile, we decided to drive around. That's when we realized our nav app didn't work in Sint Maarten. We ended up in Marigot, which is another town not far from Simpson Bay but on the French side of the island. There was a bike race going on that day so we were diverted. We ended up driving by this lighthouse - the Marigot Jetty Root Lighthouse.
Marigot Bay. The color of the water was amazing and the photos don't do it justice.
We found lots of these guys. I'm assuming they are Iguanas but I'm not so sure. They look lethal.
This is Ft. St. Louis. It was built back in 1789 as a defense against pirates. Today you can go up and have a look around. We did not because we weren't sure where to go. Marigot is one of the main towns on the French side of the island. We continued driving but ended up turning around thinking we could go back the way we came. Nope. Diverted again so it took a while for us to figure out how to get back to the main road which led to our condo. You'd think it would be impossible to get lost on an island that is only 37 miles but you'd be surprised. Eventually we found the main road and made it back home.
Once we got home, we took a dip in the pool. We met our little neighbor, Pedro. He was about 4 and quickly took my hand and said, "Come on!". At the time I was not in a position to get in the pool but after we got back from our "excursion", the pool sounded good. He wasn't swimming then but he still wanted to play. He was throwing his ball to us while we were in the pool. His mom came out and, literally, picked him up and took him inside. The poor kid was crying. I felt bad we got him in trouble. After our swim, we took a walk on this amazing beach. This is Simpson Bay.
Later that night, we met up with our friends and walked down the beach to Mary's Boon for dinner. This is a beach club and hotel, which I hadn't realized at the time. The restaurant was okay. John got a salad with Mahi Mahi and I got a shrimp dish that had an amazing sauce.
The next day, I needed steps. So we walked around the small area by our condo. This is the Over Value market. We didn't go in but thought the name was funny. Note that the top floor of this building is open. That's because in 2017, the island was hit with Hurricane Irma. It practically wiped things out. Both sides of the island are still recovering. The French side more so than the Dutch. The lower floors (the money making floors) were repaired and put back into service first. The upper floors will get fixed as time and money permits.
The signs leading to the beach clubs. Note the fence in the background. That's the airport. We were at Mary's Boon the night before and Karakter is where we were headed today.
Later that day we went to Driftwood, a bar in Maho Bay. It's at the back end of the airport and people will congregate here to watch the planes take off.
Here's a big AA plane going either to Charlotte or Miami. People will stand in back of the plane and when it starts moving, you can get caught in the backwash of the jet.
Here's the sign that says, don't stand here or you'll get caught in the backwash of the jet. But people want to do this! They get blown back into the sand and get a big face full of it. We chose to obey the signs.
Also on this day, I walked right into the sliding glass door. My eyelid looks like I have a lovely dark colored eyeshadow. But I actually hit the glass with my brow bone. As the week went on, there were color changes all over that side of my head. The sliding glass door in question is behind me on the right. On a cruise ship, they put stickers on the door so you'll know it's there. Here they did not. This is the result.
This ended up being a beach day. We got a "cabana" like area at Karakter, another beach club within walking distance from our condo. Our friends, Chris, May and June were chillin'. These beach clubs are kind cool. You "rent" beach chairs and umbrellas for the day and the waiters come by and bring you drinks. The chairs and umbrellas were rented out by the time we got there but this cabana worked out well.
John and June in the the water. John was wearing his Raybans. I suggested he take them off lest he lose them to the ocean. I was ignored. I went into the water later with my $15 Target sunglasses that I was very excited about. The first wave that hit me took my glasses. John took his off after that. The water was beautiful. I could have hung out there all day. I will say that the waves were kind of aggressive. I had a ton of sand in my bathing suit when I got home. TMI?
Karakter, the beach club that we hung out at. Some fun facts: The Dutch side takes US dollars. They speak English and the grocery store, Carefour, carries a lot of American brands. The liquor here is relatively inexpensive when bought at the grocery store. American fast food is McDonald's, Burger King, KFC. In the airport there was a Subway. Right outside the airport was a Domino's Pizza food truck. I would have liked to look at the McDonald's menu but we never went in. The main street in Simpson Bay is very traffic-y and no sidewalks for walking. However, the yachts that you see in the bay are amazing.
May cooked a wonderful dinner at their condo so, after all the beach activity, we cleaned up and walked over to their place. We were very close.
Tuesday, Chris gave us a tour of the island, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We knew nothing about this place and had we come here on our own, we'd have found it frustrating not knowing how things work. Coming with Chris and May was like having a "fixer" to help us figure stuff out. This is a view from atop the hill in the photo below.
Dinner was at a French restaurant across the street called Bistrot Caraibes. They have this fountain in front of the restaurant that has live lobsters. You can pick your lobster from the fountain and they'll cook it for you however you want.
We had steak and chicken but at the end of our meal, the waiter brought us each a shot of Rhum. Each restaurant has it's own home grown rum that they provide to everyone. This one was made with ginger. It was very sweet, almost like a syrup. The ginger gave it a nice little afterburn.
After dinner we walked around a bit. There were street vendors selling all kinds of stuff. Chris bought a wallet made out of skin from a stingray that was very nice. After Hurricane Irma hit in 2017, the French side of the island had a harder time recovering. Their recovery effort was government run vs. private insurance on the Dutch side. Here's a building that is still boarded up.
A view of Grand Case at night from the pier.
The deck around the pool that faces the bay. After a big lunch with everyone at Coco Beach (a beach club restaurant in Orient Bay), we went back to the hotel and checked things out. At our hotel was a restaurant called the Sunset Cafe. It was famous for it's view of the sunset. So we put on our swimsuits and headed up to the pool which was located above the restaurant, so we got to watch the sunset without having to eat at the cafe. It was beautiful.
For dinner, we wanted something light so we went into town to see what choices we had. We went to this place called Cynthia's Talk of the Town. It's a "lolo". It's a local thing. They have a grill in the middle of the restaurant where they grill all the food. That's the kitchen. It's open and the smell of grilled meats wafts out into the street to draw you in as you walk by. And it did!
John got this swordfish steak with steamed veggies. I got grilled chicken with beans and rice. The food was good. This particular lolo is supposedly very famous.
This is another example of the abandoned structures in Grand Case. It looks like it would be a cool little house but after Irma, it wasn't repaired.
Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Grand Case. I didn't think it was open as it was still awaiting repair help from Irma. The roof was missing. The tarps on the roof make the church functional. They still have Mass here.
We had lunch there. This was a shrimp and lobster salad that was amazing! We had a lot of seafood while we were here and it was quite delicious.
John wanted to try a cheeseburger, which he said was good. This was our last full day on the island so we soaked it all in. Back on the beach, the water was a lot calmer. I went in with a second pair of sunglasses and didn't lose them. About 4 it rained for an hour. It was a nice little diversion. We sat out on our patio at the hotel and just chilled.
More boats out in the bay.
Our final dinner on the island was at a French restaurant called The Villa. It was very good. I had a lobster bisque that was amazing.
After our three course dinner, the waiter came around with their house rhum. Theirs was so potent, they poured it from a gasoline can (which I hope never had gasoline in it)! It was a blur so it must have been powerful. It was a great dinner and a great vacation with our very good friends.
The next day we had a ham and cheese croissant fresh from the oven from a little coffee shop right down the hill from our hotel. It was very good. It was flakey and cheesy goodness.
The main event was the Harmony night parade. In Grand Case, they do this every Tuesday after Mardi Gras as their budget permits. We were lucky to be there. It's a very small parade. This girl was the leader. They stop outside all the restaurants so people can take pictures.
These ladies were next. May said they actually went in the restaurant and did a little dance. I didn't see that. But the guys behind them are the musicians. It was a pretty cool parade.
On Wednesday, we all moved from Simpson Bay on the Dutch side to Grand Case on the French side. On the French side, the currency is Euro and they speak French...to each other. But they speak English as well. The grocery store here didn't have a lot of American brands. Also, on the French side, the only American fast food we saw was McDonald's and that was back in Marigot. They did have a delicious sandwich shop (bakery) that we frequented more than once.
We stayed at the Grand Case Beach Club. We tried to get a VRBO but there was a minimum stay for most of them. Our room had a small kitchenette. The hotel is located at the top of a hill at the far end of Grand Case. It's a comfortable walk down into Grand Case proper. There are no sidewalks so you do have to deal with traffic. However, it's a rather narrow street and it's one way so drivers aren't going very fast at all.
We met Chris, May and June at Captain Frenchy, which is another beach bar, for another peaceful and laid back beach day.
It was going home day so we were headed back to the Dutch side to catch our flight and we came across these random goats. They were just walking around the road. One was actually in the middle of the street and dared us to hit him. We didn't. But seriously! Who ever heard of feral goats?
Our trip back home was uneventful. We couldn't have asked for easier flights. It was a fabulous week. Thank you to Chris, May and June for including us.
