Day 1 dawned a little gray and stormy in St. Maarten but we didn’t care, we were in paradise.
This is a working holiday for us and none of our clients know we’re away so Shhhhhh, don’t say anything, okay? LOL. There are times we take true vacations and tell our clients and other times we steal away and set up the “St. Maarten Office”. Our view sure is better here with beach and sand compared to the snow and cold of Canada this time of year. We worked until 2p.m. then went out to play. Sort of. If you read my travel day report, you’ll know that I was diagnosed with a mild case of “Shingles of the Eye” but had been given the green light to travel by my specialist. With hat, sunglasses, meds, ice packs, scarves, and cover ups, I was all bundled up under the umbrella like an elusive Greta Garbo under cover. But I didn’t care because the sun had come out and despite a few passing showers we let sand gravity take over.
Breakfast and lunch were from our fridge with a European Continental offering of smoked ham and cheeses from The Netherlands, a baguette with French butter and sweet watermelon for dessert. There were also two new puppies to watch playing in the surf in front of Mary’s Boon. We were sad to hear that the two older dogs had crossed over the Rainbow Bridge in the past few months, but Casper and Lucky had taken up residence and their racing and romping through the waves was a lot of fun to watch. They are very well-behaved resort dogs who do not beg for food and only come up to say hello and then are off to do more zoomies on the beach. Training is going well!
Gary and I are Aviation Fans, and we love The Boon’s airport viewing deck. We timed it perfectly just as Air France was arriving and the big A-330 made a dramatic landing on the wet tarmac. Very cool.
As I went back inside to clean up from dinner, I looked at my eye again and lo and behold, it looked so much better. The inflammation and swelling were noticeably better and the blistering had stopped. I was so happy that we decided to go out for a celebratory lobster at Skipjacks.
There were two options and Gary ordered Caribbean Lobster because we get Maine lobster in Canada. He asked for it steamed with garlic butter, and it was excellent – very tender without the overdone rubber-ness of other restaurants that try and cook Caribbean Lobster. In a last minute-game-time-decision, I switched to the Seafood Platter that should have been called the Seafood Sampler. To say I was very underwhelmed with the plate of food when it arrived is an understatement. Two tiny shrimps, a small piece of Mahi-Mahi, two Scallops and a small stuffed crab back barely took up any real estate on the plate but was I ever surprised when I took my first bite. Wow – it was seafood heaven with a charcoal, garlicky flavour that just melted in your mouth and sent your tastebuds into rapture. Literally. It was more than enough food and at the end I decided with the inflated food prices restaurants are facing these days, it was worth its $29.95 USD price tag. We’re not big dessert fans so we hit the road and called it a night.
