St. Maarten

Logan earned another trip from his lumber company.  This year they took us to St. Maarten.  We left super early and I mean super early on Monday morning and got back super late Friday night.  Our flight left DFW at 5am!!!  We barely slept the night before.  But we made it and it was beautiful and such a fun week!  The airport is literally right close to the beach.  The runway is right next to the beach so when the planes come in it's SO loud!!  People actually try to hold onto the fence next to the beach when planes are taking off.....it's crazy to watch because the jets have to turn on full blast to make it up in the air.  The sand kicks up from the jets and it's like a sand storm!!  It was kinda wild to watch.  Our resort was right next to the airport so we had a lot of plane watching.

This was our first afternoon on the island.  We went down to the beach and Logan even went for a quick swim! 

That is our resort.....Sonesta

We had a welcome dinner with all the others on the group trip that first night.  We were all pretty tired so we went to bed quick!  The next morning we got up early and went to breakfast.  Then we went on an excursion.

We rode a pretty long catamaran ride over to Prickly Pear island which is uninhabited beach.  It was the most beautiful sand I've ever seen....so soft and so pure.....hardly any shells and no rocks.  The water was such a beautiful blue.  We got to snorkel here and then swim up to the beach.  I don't have any pictures but it was so pretty!!

That is Prickly Pear island in the background.

We had lunch on the boat and a group of girls were all together and they were so funny to watch.  They all sang and danced together....definitely some entertainment!  We also went to the island Antigua afterwards and swam for awhile.  We sailed on the way back and it was so peaceful.  We were in the shade on the boat and it was so relaxing.  I even fell asleep for a little while!

This was some rich guy's boat....crazy!!!

After we got back we met up with Brian and Heather (our travel buddies) and walked to a steakhouse called Jax's.  It was the best steak and salad I've ever had!!!

Yummy dessert too!  It was such a great meal!

Hanging out in the hammocks after dinner.

The next day we got up and headed to another part of the island called Phillipsburg.  We found a little coffee shop and had some breakfast and coffee.

We walked around and shopped some.  It was pretty busy because this is the area where all the cruise ships come in for the day.  Barry and Judy had been to this area a lot because this is where Logan's uncle had a condo for a long time.  They told us we had to go to Lazy Lizard's.  We had a burger and enjoyed people watching for a little while.  It was fun!

We walked the boardwalk for awhile and then decided to head back to the beach.

We went to a beach just around the corner from our resort.  It wasn't very crowded and most people if they were there were leaving for the day.  We just read our books and enjoyed the beach.  It was overcame which made it so relaxing.  This was one of my favorite times of the whole trip!

That night we met up with the Blevins again and went to a Mexican food place called Jimbo's.  It was ok.  The service was sub par and the food was ok.  We walked over to a Gelato place called Carousel and got dessert.  It was fun!

The next morning we got up and took a cab to another part of the island...Margot.  St. Maarten is owned by Dutch and French.  Since I've started making sourdough I've wanted to eat some real French bread.  We found one and went and tried some! 

Then we headed up to Loittere Farms.  We got to hike and do a lot of zip line/obstacle courses.  It was a fun morning!

The highest point on the island!

Then we took a fancy cab (Ha!) back into Grand Case and ate fresh fish right on the beach at Lolo's.  It was pretty good!

Then we swam in the ocean for a little bit. 

We walked around and shopped the little town for awhile.  Then headed back.  We had a farewell cocktail hour with all the Henson trip people.  We got to watch the sunset!  It was a beautiful night.

Then we went out to dinner at Skip Jax with some friends from the trip.  Johnny ordered a lobster and actually had to pick it out after he ordered it!  It was entertaining and a fun night.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast in one of the restaurants.  We had to drink our coffee in our "little white cups"....it's our favorite.  

  

We went back down to the beach and enjoyed the waves and view as long as we could before we had to change and get ready to be back to the airport.

The airport was CRAZY.  Our flight was delayed but thankfully we made it back in time to catch our connecting flight.  It was a long day.  We flew from SXM to Philadelphia and then to Dallas...makes perfect sense right??!?!  Our sad faces bc the trip was over :) Great trip and so fun of course to be with my hubby!!  So thankful for him!