For one glorious week, I was lucky enough to get away from this wretchedness...
And relax in this awesomeness!
 |
| I also discovered how fun it is to take panoramic photos! |
"This awesomeness" refers to Sint Maarten/Saint Martin/St. Maarten and every spelling variation thereof. (Even after spending a week on the island, we still don't know how to "officially" spell its name!) The trip was a special celebration for my father-in-law's 60th birthday.
Don't worry--we still dealt with plenty of nasty winter on the way there and back. In fact, we had a nice overnight detour in Charlotte, NC, after our flights got utterly screwed up.
 |
| 30+ hours of travel and still (sorta) smiling. |
But at least we got to stay in a hotel, unlike those poor travelers who had to sleep on airport cots.
 |
| Ewwwwwww. |
Once we finally got to our destination, the week was an absolute blast! We swam, we sunbathed, we napped, and we drank about a dozen cans of Fanta Pineapple soda.
 |
| I didn't even know this deliciousness existed! |
When we weren't guzzling down 49 grams of sugar in one sitting, we did some activities around the island including snorkeling and ATV riding. I've never snorkeled before, and I was pretty lousy at it. But we saw some really cool stuff, like wild sea turtles and ginormous urchins! (Hubby wouldn't let me take my camera on the boat, so no pics. He swore my sunscreen-slick fingers would send it straight to the bottom of the ocean. Psh.) The ATV'ing was a lot of fun, too, and the tour took us around both the French and Dutch sides of the island.
This beautiful beach was a highlight of the ATV tour, where tourists watch airplanes land on the island while sitting alarmingly close to this sign:
 |
| Yikes! |
We also did a sunset dinner cruise, which was both lovely and tasty!
Although I usually enjoy drawing in the sand during my beach trips (like my last trip to Hilton Head), the waves quickly washed away everything I doodled in St. Maarten. But I still had lots of fun sketching in our pool alcove-gazebo-deck-thingy, as well as in the cute little nook in our bedroom.
My favorite sketch of the week was a pelican doodle that I threw a splash of color on when we got home.
Of course, the week was over all too soon. Our trip ended with more fun winter travel and an encounter with a disco ball camel at the St. Maarten airport.
Oh yeah, and we may or may not have seen Johnny Depp's yacht.
Our taxi driver said that it was, and I'm going to choose to believe him. :)
Now that I've spent a week soaking up the heat like a lizard in the sun, I feel ready to face the rest of this never-ending winter. (It has to end sometime, right?) Although, I'd happily head back to the Caribbean--even if it meant another 30+ hours of travel!
Note: Weather map picture is a screen shot from www.weather.com. The Fanta Pineapple picture is from www.amazon.com. All other images were taken by me.
No comments:
Post a Comment