25th Wedding Anniversary Trip Day 1 Sunday, June 4 2006

Left the ATL on a 10:00 Delta flight, and got an immediate chuckle from the T-shirt of a lady that said,

"Happiness is no tan lines!" Yeah, baby!

We had clear flying to the Florida coast and onward to the Bahamas, but then it clouded up until we got to

the Virgin Islands, where we got a nice view, then swung east to St. Maarten. I tried to ready myself for a

picture of the SSBB from the plane, but it was by me in a flash.

We departed the plane into the warm Caribbean sun, greeted by the "Welcome to St. Maarten- The

Friendly Island" sign at Princess Julianna Airport. We grabbed our bags and went out to look for Leslie

Bruce of Kenny's, who had e-mailed me and said not to panic if we didn't see him right away. We waited

about 15 minutes, and here he came! We took the bags out to the white Toyaota Corolla, sat in the AC

while we filled out the paperwork and were gone with his directions within 10 minutes.

We headed to the Flamingo Beach Resort on Billy Folly Road. We checked in, and the activities director

asked us if we would like to take a catamaran sunset cruise for $10 apiece, all drinks included. Uh, yeah!

We threw the luggage in the studio beachfront room, marveled at the incredible blue water view from

inside our unit for a while, and headed to the Palaypa Beach Bar at the resort and had hamburgers and

french fries. We were starved, hadn't eaten since a little pastry and coffee at the airport.

Once done, it was time for the cruise. We headed around the end of the beach that the Flamingo shares

with the Pelican Resort, and checked in. Had some time to spare, so we found a bar facing Simpson Bay

and had the 1st of many Caribs on this trip. Soon, we boarded and headed out towards Phillipsburg. We

had only been on the island about 3 hours and here we were, sailing around this beautiful island, rum

punches flowing, pinching ourselves - are we really here?!!!!!

The cruise was the perfect way to start and get acclimated to the island pace. We took turns taking

pictures of each other with a group from England. The staff brought drinks to us ( after I decided they do a

much better job of navigating around a rolling catamaran than I after a few rummers :>) and we sailed to

Phillipsburg harbour, around a couple of ships, and came to rest at sea facing the sunset. 6 months of

planning and anticipation and here we are! Life is very, very good!

We headed back, taking pictures all along the way to the dock. We disembarked, and walked around the

beach towars the Flamingo, and stopped at the little Pelican beach bar for the view. What a start to a

wonderful vacation.........