Here’s a happy story of a family of 5 … yes, we brought 3 children, ages 7,6, and 3 to St. Martin for 2 weeks! This was the 2 boys 4th visit, and my daughter, the youngest, was on her 2nd visit!
US Airways flight from BWI to Philadelphia – almost cancelled because one stewardess lost her ID and could not board the plane … luckily, an employee of the airline was taking our flight and volunteered to steward the flight … very odd but everything worked out …Flight from Philadelphia to St. Maarten was smooth and arrived early!
We took a taxi from the airport to my father-in-laws house in Orient Bay Resort… we were able to use my FIL's car while we were there so we did not have to deal with renting! Craig from Packlight arrived soon after to deliver our chairs and umbrella for our 2 week stay … great service… I told him to become a TTOL sponsor again!
The 5 of us went off to Dawn Beach at about 4 PM … I headed right to Ms. B’s … sadly they had stopped serving ribs for the day … happily, they were still serving Carib’s!!!
We spent a lot of time at Le Galion … it is great for the kids … we also enjoyed eating at Tropical Wave .. Other beaches we tried this year included Mullett (we liked it but the shallow part for my daughter was very short-lived), Friar’s (we liked that too but it really was smelly), Pinel (my favorite .. the kids loved the boat ride and the water … we adults were a little turned off by the $13 euro cheeseburgers), and Orient (where my FIL’s house is but we tend to not swim there due to the bigger waves and stronger current) …. We spent many days at Dawn Beach but toward the end of the trip I was surprised to see a lot of jellyfish which appeared to be stinging many people in the water .. none of us were stung … but we all were a little hesitant to go in the water after seeing the jellyfish (and man they were HUGE) …. now for those of you that I have just freaked out, I believe this to only be an August/late summer thing, I have never seen jellyfish before at Dawn Beach in any of my previous visits (never in August) ...
Meals which did not involve macaroni and cheese or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (yes, I packed the mac and PBJ) included roasted chicken from Bounty in Grand Case (Yummy), lots of Ms. B’s ribs (I believe we had lunch there 4 times and those ribs were no doubt the best!), ribs from Pedros (yummy as well actually!), Taloula Mangos in Phillipsburg (great Kosher moshe burger! And my husband enjoyed his swordfish sandwich) although the service was very slow … , Baywatch where we enjoyed our food but were a little turned off by the 15% added automatically to the check, and our new favorite beach restaurant , The Pirate on Orient where I fell for the chicken sate wrap and my husband loved the blackened fish wrap and mahi mahi … we went to the Pirate on many occasions and Glen was always happy to see us!
On our last night we were thrilled that the 17 year old girl who lives year-round next door was back from France and was willing to babysit for us … my husband and I escaped to L’Escapade (most everything in Grand Case was closed until October including Il Nettuno, California, Rainbow, L'Alabama…) … Auberge Gourmand I noticed was open but we wanted to have dinner on the water side … L’Escapade offered $1 = 1 Euro cash or credit and we enjoyed the dinner very much … my husband had red snapper and I had a dish with shrimp, scallops, and mussels … and that was after French onion soup and escargot … we also had dessert (shared) and got out of there for $125 including tip (not bad)!
This year we finally went to the St. Maarten Zoo and LOVED it! I am sorry we had not been there before … truly enjoyable with lots of great animals… we went to the butterfly farm for a 2nd time and enjoyed that as well .. but if I had to pick one of the two, it would definitely be the zoo! My husband also took the kids to the movies in Phillipsburg to see Yugioh the movie .. thank goodness I was spared! My husband took the boys to the Marigot Fort and they enjoyed the adventure … while they did the hike my daughter and I shopped the markets in Marigot and we enjoyed that as well!!!! We went to Sunset Beach Bar for a short visit which was fun as usual (the kids love to watch the planes!). We also hit Boo Boo Jam for their Sunday evening band and dancing but were surprised to hear the band playing easy listening and top 40 songs ... we wanted island music!!! ... but we enjoyed it anyway!
We visited DK Gems and I bought a small opal and tanzanite ring from Deepti’s brother Kamal .. Deepti had not yet returned from New York … I did visit Deepti after she returned … they are a very nice family! The only other major shopping I did was in Marigot.. I bought my favorite perfume which was a lot cheaper in St. Martin and then I walked into Little Switzerland to find that some of their larger Lladro’s were an extra 40% off … I purchased 2 and love them!
OK, one other thing I bought was Banana Vanilla MaDouDou rum … everyone talks about how great the stuff is and I liked the bottle (ok, I liked the 2 bottles) … so now what do I do with it?? I know drink it, but just over ice or what?
Flights back were uneventful … when we got to Philadelphia we did have to pay duty on our extra alcohol we brought in … $14.97 to the IRS … and we only brought in 8 liters… they told us only 2 per person of drinking age … oh well …
In summary, we had fantastic weather the entire 2 weeks, we enjoyed the family bonding, the kids had an awesome time, we enjoyed what little dining out we did, and we love the beaches of St. Martin! Now to plan the next trip!
