Wedding and Honeymoon Trip report 6/15-7/1

6/15 flight from Chicago O’Hare to Nevis with San Juan connection on American. No problems whatsoever except WAY too many bags. No hassles though, except a gentleman making fun of me carrying my wife to be’s large gold bag. I would have made fun of me too.

Nevis 6/15-6/24

I know this is the St. Martin page so I will just say that Nevis was awesome. We had 32 friends and family fly in for the occasion. We have been to Nevis a few times, Emily’s grandparents winter there, so it was nice getting to show the first timers around.

The week was awesome weather wise. Only rain at night. The day of the wedding it started pouring 2 hours before the ceremony which was to be on the beach at my parents rented villa. I was freaking as was the bride who was not with me. Luckily the villa had an awesome screened in porch area where we were able to hold the ceremony. The weather cleared up just as the ceremony was under way, so luckily we ere able to take all of our pictures outside still.

The reception followed at the Mount Nevis hotel restaurant down by the ocean. Food and everything was fantastic. Me and the bride left around 10:30 and stayed up at the Mount Nevis resort to sleep off the wedding and awake to a flight over to St. Martin for the honeymoon.

I have never wanted to leave an island so badly. I LOVE Nevis, but all of the wedding planning and dealing with friends and family had really taken a toll on us, so we couldn’t wait to get to St. Martin.

6/24-7/1 in St. Martin

Flight on WinAir was delayed about 45 minutes. Small 19 passenger 30 minute flight over to St. Martin finally took off. We were seated right behind the pilots, no closed doors. Pretty cool.

Finally in St. Martin, 1st time there!!! Got a rental car at the airport from Lesley at Kenny’s. Great little Nissan, with a lock on the shifter to avoid theft.

On to the Cap Caraibes hotel on Orient beach. Great little boutique hotel. Nice rooms with a kitchenette and an ocean view over Waikiki Restaurant from the third floor. No great amenities at the hotel, but it was just what we were looking for. We also got a card that gave us free beach chairs on Waikiki and another beach, we stuck with Waikiki all week. I think there were only 2 other rooms rented out during our stay, so we felt very alone which was nice for a honeymoon atmosphere. We had the pool area to ourselves everytime we went down there.
Once settled we hit the beach for a bit and had a couple of pretty expensive drinks at Waikiki. I think it was $27 for a guavaberry colada, a banana daquiri, and a large bottle of water. For dinner we went down to Orient village and went for some pizza at Tap 5. Yum. I had heard some great things and it lived up to it. I love the spicy oil they give you.

If you notice all of our food choices we stayed mostly in Orient village the whole trip, quite a few good different restaurants to choose from. Maybe next trip we will venture more, but this one was all about relaxation.

Sunday the 25th- Lots of Orient beach. I liked the atmosphere of topless and the c/o crowd. I wish I was brave enough to go sans clothes, but I think it’s cool that some people just don’t care, props to them. Another American lady next to us seemed offended at some people with her 14 year old daughter around. I just laughed. She obviously didn’t research Orient enough if that was going to be a problem.
Lunch of salami, cheese and bread in our room. Dinner at TaiChi. Really good thai food. Crunchy spring rolls, spicy thai shrimp, and pork with noodles. Great desserts as well. Pineapple fritters (like a little donut) and lemon sorbet.

Monday the 26th- Hit the Pirate for lunch on Orient. $2 beers, we went with some Presidentes. We were a little burnt out on Carib after 10 days in Nevis. Had a great fajita chicken wrap and some ribs. Very reasonable prices and great service.
Dinner at Planet Orient. Wifey wasn’t feeling to well so she had great French Onion soup and salad, and I had a not too great Ribeye. We sat by the lobster tank, so I was getting yelled at for watching them and not talking enough. Free apple shots after dinner, I had to take the wife’s which I was more than happy to do. You have to sacrifice in marriage I am learning.

Tuesday the 27th- Drove into Marigot in the morning for some shopping and some chocolate croissants. Emily found lots of great shoes of course. As long as they fit into her bag and didn’t take up my Ma Doudou suitcase room I was fine with it. I do have to say that parking here is a nightmare!
Went on around the island and stopped at SSBB for some lunch. I don’t know if it’s because we are used to Chicago prices or what, but for $34 we got an Angus burger, great fried shrimp, 4 heinekens, and a lemon ice. I say it is a pretty good deal. We loved seeing the planes coming in and taking off.
After that we ventured onto to front street and bought a few things. I bought a very nice Omega watch lookalike. I can’t tell the difference and after paying for a wedding a $3000 watch is just a little over our budget. Stopped at DK and Emily tried on some nice diamond earrings. Pretty good price for them, but we decided to wait until next trip. Whew. I guess her just getting 2 rings is good for this year. I hated getting bombarded by the timeshare people and their you’re a winner cards!
Kept going around the island not really sure of where we were but that was the plan. Ended up over by Oytser pond and Lucas Beach. Some great views from up there.
Back to Orient village for dinner at The Rocking Chair tex mex. France had beaten Spain today, so everyone was in a great mood. I had missed the game shopping all day. So our waitress Audrey was letting me know everytime time a goal was about to be scored on the replay of the game in the bar. Food was good, chile con carne and steak fajitas. Audrey even bought us a round of cocktails at the end of the night.

Wednesday the 28th- Back to sitting on the beach at Orient all day. Had lunch at Baywatch. Good food and great atmosphere. We both had buffalo chicken sandwiches. Andy was around making sure everyone was satisfied. Tried to go see Luiz after to get Emily a white bikini but he wasn’t there. Not feeling all that hungry for dinner so we just stopped by Tap 5 and had some soup and drinks and then got some Haagen Dazs. About $10 for 3 scoops, a little pricey.

Thursday the 29th- Pretty rainy all day, blah. Drove into town to find Rima’s. We were pretty disappointed with what they had. I guess we were looking for St. Martin shirts and they didn’t have any. Bought a few things to take back home to people. Pineapple Pete’s for lunch of Grouper fish and chips and Ribs. Very good. Mojito’s as well… Stopped by the Ma Dou Dou hut and it was open. Bought quite a bit.
Dinner tonight was what we had been waiting for. Tabba Khady. William and Philippe met us at the entrance and gave us the special table up top because we were on our honeymoon. Also a glass of champagne. Food was fantastic. Crab salad app, Emily had the red snapper which was ok, and I had the Spicy seared tuna. It was unbelievable. Also a bottle of good Riesling and a pear dessert and a mango crepe dessert. This place is a must visit. William also takes some very good pictures! The atmosphere is awesome! The drive is not that bad from Orient.

Friday the 30th- Last full day ? It was supposed to rain all day, but we actually got some good sun all morning. Did a little jet skiing. Pizza at Waikiki. The pizza was pretty good, but didn’t really like the prices or service here.
Dinner at Cote Plages in Orient village. This was the surprise of the trip. We had thought about it all week and we are glad we tried it. I had the tenderloin which was fantastic! Emily had the Creole plate which was great as well. A chocolate dessert of some sort that was awesome, and a couple of complimentary Ma Doudou shots to cap it off. Service was superb.

Saturday the 1st- last day. Had breakfast at Bikini beach. Packed up and hit the airport. Dropped the car off to Kenny and hit the duty free for as much liquor as I could carry. If I lived in St. Martin I would definitely need some AA meetings. So sad to leave.

Overall observations:
Service at all restaurants was unbelievable. Everyone was so nice. I went into it not expecting the French people to be as nice to us, but they proved me wrong!
Driving sucked. Traffic and people driving like idiots, but it wasn’t all that bad because we stayed put most of the trip.
Never felt unsafe whatsoever. We were cautious, but everything went smoothly.
Great Island, great people, can’t wait to get back!
Working on a site for all the pics....

Bryan
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