About our trip: 2/10-2/15 on French side, Orient Beach. 2/15-2/20 on Dutch side, Cupecoy Beach Club

About us: Myself and dh (Dear husband), mid 40s, and our Dd (Dear Daughter), 4, are on this trip. Ds, (Dear Son), 20, just got a new job (actually his first "real" job in HVAC after trade school) so he couldn't come with us. We have only been to St Maarten via cruise ship but knew we would love it the moment we got AWAY from the cruise port. Our home is Nashville, TN and has been for most of our lives though I had a marvelous childhood in rural Central Florida.

Day 1- 2/10, (The adventure begins)
Lots of delays with flights but arrived fine. We were flying through FLL. Blech! but we had credit with Jetblue so what can you do. Global Entry is worth everything we paid and a great deal more every time we use it. JetBlue was efficient and checked all our EHAS docs at check in at our home airport and then again at the FLL gate. Flight was completely uneventful thank goodness. Dd does okay with masks but she was ready to get it off by the time we landed. Immigration was a breeze. Maybe 15 mins tops. We got our rental car at Avis pretty fast and then stopped by Carrefour Market for basics. Thankfully we got to the condo at Orient Village about 7pm and got the caravan inside fast because the bottom proceeded to drop out for about 15 mins. Condo is 2br/2.5 bath in Costa Caraibes with an ocean view and a community pool but it had no reviews. It was a risk but other than some low water pressure in the upstairs showers, it was very good and being a 5 min walk from everything is a huge plus. I do miss a clothes dryer but clothes dry fast on the provided line out on the patio and truth be told, I am just spoiled. We waited out the rain and then walked over to the restaurant district. We wanted super casual after a travel day with a tired 4 year old in tow so we ate dinner at Yellow Sub. Cedric recommended the special, bone in veal steak with an amazing mushroom sauce (their chef is a trained saucier and it shows) and buttery mashed potatoes, so we both gave an enthusiastic "yes please!!". Steak was super tender with a light crust. Dd had steak hache and frits, perfectly done and she ate more than half of it which is a glowing endorsement on the part of her finnicky taste buds. Dh and I shared a lovely bottle of Côtes du Rhône, cheap by US standards. Dd had a scoop of vanilla and dh and I shared profiteroles for dessert with a nice rum for digestif. We were starving (and it was still more food than I could manage) so this all hit the spot. We passed through the Village and made ressies for Le Piment for the next evening. Back to the condo we walked sated and ready for a good night's sleep. Watched some Tom and Jerry on Boomerang and then zzzzz's.