Chapter 2
Sunday July 17th
We awoke to over cast skies and a better view of the planes. As I watched a few make their way to the runways for take off and others slowly drop down for landings I thought of the proximity I’d have again viewing planes at Sunset Beach Bar. Chill up my spine! Not from a fixation on planes, I was standing at the window with no shirt and air conditioning blowing on my back.
It was time to shower, get dressed and stop back at the restaurant for breakfast. Our plane wouldn’t leave for four hours. If we planned an hour and a half lead time for check in, as suggested for international flights, we’d still have 2 ½ hours for a leisurely meal of eggs, bacon, toast, juice and coffee and then just hanging out for awhile. During breakfast, we did see a guy with a St. Martin t-shirt, but it was too early for conversation with strangers. Besides, it may have been one of those “Mom and Dad went to St. Martin and all I got was a lousy t-shirt” situations. I thought, “Hey, we’ve got the tickets!” We were enjoying this first real day of our vacation! At least for a while. Sunday morning T.V. following breakfast wasn’t capturing my attention and you can only watch so many planes from an 11th story hotel room. So we decided to go to the terminal early, just in case we ran into lines through security. Some of you know how bad Philadelphia International can be!
The terminal flight schedule said “USAir flight 1465 on time”. Check-in proved to be effortless. I had printed off e-tickets and boarding passes and with our carry-on luggage we simply went immediately to security. It took us a total of 15 minutes from our hotel room to the gate. Now what do we do? Plane doesn’t leaves for two hours. We’ll know better next time not to worry so much on a Sunday morning at PHL.
I stopped by the currency exchange at the airport and purchased $500 worth of Euros which amount to about $350-380 Euros, if I remember correctly. I don’t think I’ll do that again. We found most every restaurant we frequented gives you 1:1. We managed to expend our stash of Euros but I decided at some point that it wasn’t necessary for us to exchange money next time.
Our plane left as scheduled and was only half full. The flight down was smooth but long. It is quite a distance to the Caribbean but after listening to some travelers talk about their journey from the west coast I realized we had it relatively easy with our direct flight from the east coast.
As we arrived I was able to snap a shot of the Sunset Beach Bar though I wasn’t sure at the time I had actually “got it” because you really race by at a good clip. It did turn out quite well I thought.
We breezed through immigration compared to our trip last year and within five minutes our ride to Unity car rental sped us away to pick up our Mazda. We had asked for a larger car and Michael was glad to oblige us. Next time I’ll ask for a larger, light colored vehicle. This one was dark green and attracted the suns rays heating up the interior quite a bit. Michael is great and I would highly recommend his business. We had a minor problem with our vehicle during our stay but he took care of us and solved the issue. More to come on that in another chapter.
As we drove out of Unity’s lot I remembered the sense of glee I felt last year during that first drive along a St. Maarten road. The glow of Caribbean light, the deep blue sky and puffy white clouds; the smell of the warm island air around us…we’re finally here! We made our way toward our first three night’s destination, Mary’s Boon and that same glee welled up inside.
Mary’s Boon is a very quaint “plantation house” which we thoroughly enjoyed last year, so staying again was something we looked forward to. You weave your way through a residential area not too far away from the airport (Mary’s Boon actually sits parallel to the end of the airport runway) and almost around the corner from Michael’s car rental lot. We parked our car and walked through an arched entrance way into a beautifully kept tropical island courtyard of palms, coconut trees and lush green vegetation. A small pool sits to the left and the check in desk is found straight ahead within the lobby that is completely open to the courtyard.
We hoped to get the same room as last year, on the second floor corner that proved wonderfully ventilated by the Caribbean air and glowed in the Caribbean sun. But alas, it was previously booked so we settled for a beach front room #107…poor us! (One of our favorite country songs is entitled Pour Me. We found ourselves singing that whenever we encountered a minor inconvenience during our stay. Something would happen and either one of us would sing….“Pour (poor) me, pour (poor) me, pour (poor) me, pour (poor) me…..” The song is about pouring whiskey but we liked to exchange pour with poor…a feigned lament to being troubled in such an exotic location….”poor me, I’m in paradise!” Our room had a king size poster bed was very clean, bright and made us feel welcomed and at home. A door near the bed opens up to a shared porch area running along the building. The beach, palm trees and ocean sat right in front of us though we had to access the beach from the front door on the other side of our room, walking down and around to the provided lounge chairs.
Our plane arrived late in the afternoon, so this evening we planned to go back to Bliss, which is located not too far from SSBB at the Caravanserai resort in the Maho beach area. We had several very romantic memories from our times of listening to the music and sharing a glass of Chablis together with the waves breaking gently upon the volcanic rocks below the deck where we sat. Two wonderful dinners were shared by us under a full moon watching the red and green lights of incoming planes as they landed in the cooler night breezes. This time around, they would be memories not revisited. The restaurant had closed due to low season though the bar, dance floor, pool, out door beds and other amenities remained open. We decided not to say because the music was a lot louder than we had remembered from our previous experience and did not provide the romantic ambience we had looked forward to. Poor us!
We decided to brave it and try a restaurant nearby called Palm Garden. We walked back into the restaurant and requested a seat out on their deck by the ocean. It is more like a small narrow inlet of ocean jutting back into the resort rather than a view of the open water we had last year at Bliss. We were looking forward to a good meal and were not disappointed. The prices seemed reasonable and the food well prepared in quality and presentation. Marilyn had Mai Mai and I had a penne dish with shrimp, scallops and fish. Very good but much more than I could eat. In the middle of dinner we looked up and the blue sky began became brushed with the light and darker grays of storm clouds rolling in. Last year it rained one day out of our ten day vacation. This year would prove different, but I love the rain….unless I’m on a beach. The rain started slowly with small pelts of water resting upon our table. Within a few moments, it came down much heavier and we had to make our way back into the covered area of the restaurant. We still enjoyed the sound and smell of fresh falling rain as we finished our meal, our wine and gazed out toward the ocean. Our first evening in Sint Maarten was a pleasure and as we retired at Mary’s Boon we looked forward to our first full day on the island.
To be continued….
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