St. Martin 1/14/17

We were up bright and early for our long flight back to Denver via Charlotte. We were halfway to the airport when Ruth realized that she had left her ipad in the condo. Back to Divi we went. We had a great time on St. Martin and hope to return another time.

Simpson's Bay

Mary's Boon, where we began this trip, is on the white strand of sand on the right.

St. Martin 1/13/17

We had a great beach day today. After lunch we headed to the wider beach near Gizmo’s Beach Bar. The sand was softer here and we easily found chairs. A pretty drenching rain chased us away to an infinity pool up the hill. When the clouds broke, it got very sunny there. Rick went home and I stayed and read for a bit.

Beautiful infinity pool.

After our dinner of leftovers, we went to say goodbye to our London friends and have a pina colada. It was a quiet last night, but we were happy to get to bed early since we had a huge travel day the next morning.

St. Martin 1/12/17

This morning we walked up the hill to Fort Amsterdam, a fort that changed hands between the Dutch, French and Spanish. It was a bastion to protect Great Bay Harbor and also served as a signal spot to broadcast boats entering the area since the view of the ocean is vast. 

Tonight we shared ribs at Gizmos. Easy dinner and not bad. Our friend Alan was there. We bought 7 necklaces form him. Ruth's friends placed orders via Facebook. Bet he liked us! We watched the dancers, participated in a Congo line and then headed home.

St. Martin 1/11/17

After lunch we took a taxi into Phillipsburg, where we shopped in the waterfront and had an ice cream cone. Lots of folks in from the six cruise ships in port today.

Mosaic of the island

RIck hates Time Share Tours. He loves Painkillers, though.

Interesting building

On the boardwalk.

Then we strolled down Front Street with all of the high end stores. We found some gifts for friends. Ruth bought a coverup and Rick bought a tee shirt that is probably too small.

Lots of high end shops.

Did not feel the urge to buy any watches or diamonds today, so we settled on a glass of wine at a very cute little French restaurant, L'escargot. Such a quaint little spot where we could people watch from the balcony above the street.

Great view of Front Street form this little balcony.

We felt as if we were in Provence.

Waiting out the rain.

While chatting with our English friends, we noticed that Mike and his son in law Clyde had matching color tropical shirts. Clyde's son, Albert matched Rick. Very cute.

Waiting out the torrent of rain that came up suddenly, Ruth chatted with Alan, who calls himself Yellow Man. She had passed him three times earlier while he was trying to sell his wares to passer us, but everyone was busy with dinner plans. He told us that he had been at the Motor Vehicle office all day trying to get his plates. He finally was finished at 6:00 pm and he came over to Divi Little Bay to try to make some sales, even though it was very late to start. He dumped his two bags on the table and Ruth found a pretty necklace. He said it was $10 but she gave him $15.

Yellow Man with his wares

We used our dinner voucher from the dreaded Time Share Tour (which was actually a nice chat with a nice man). Our dinner at Pure Ocean was excellent. Ruth had a steak with chimichurri sauce and Rick had lamb chops. 

St. Martin 1/10/17

Today we took a dreaded timeshare tour to check out the Divi property. The resort is very nice, but it is expensive to get here and it is a long flight. If we were coming to the Caribbean often, I would choose Divi properties. We received dining credit in the restaurant, so that will be nice. After the tour, we found loungers and an umbrella on the beach. Very relaxing.

We walked down to Bellair Beach Resort for dinner. Rick chose the coconut shrimp, which we split with a salad.

This little guy liked to share my half and half with me.

Pretty hibiscus all over the property.

Another patio friend.

St. Martin 1/9/17

Today's plan was to drive to Friar's Bay of the French side. As we were leaving, we checked at the front desk to see if we could move to the less windy side of the resort and they had a room for us. We love time on our balcony playing cards and relaxing and it was not possible with the high winds on the Great Bay side. They told was we could make the move, so we quickly packed up. Our new condo has two full baths, a washer/dryer plus two ocean front patios. We are on the first floor - prefer to be higher, but beggars can't be choosers.

Digs #2

Nice patio. No wind and private.

Huge bedroom

After stowing our luggage in D221, we drove towards Grand Case hoping we could find this beach. Ruth had directions from a TripAdvisor person named John. He gave us very detailed directions and we easily found this small bay. There are only two restaurants on the beach. John directed us to Friar's Beach Club. It was at the far end, so we trekked over. What a sweet French spot. We shared mussels au gratin and a Niçoise salad, plus some French rose wine. Very nice!

Friar's Beach Club

Escargot. Yummy!

We loved the decorations on the wall by the coed bathrooms.

After lunch we paid for two beach chairs and an umbrella. What a racket, but I guess everyone needs to make a living. We took a little nap in the shade. Ruth read a bit of A Man Called Ove and then went snorkeling. It was a sandy bottom, but there were several types of fish present, so it was interesting.

Ricky

Relaxing beach

A home with a great view of Friar's Beach.

We took off and headed to the Hertz office to turn in our rental car early. The fee was so high that we figured we could easily take taxis for the same or less per day and that would afford us some days of relaxing on the beautiful Divi property. Look at the great Christmas decorations on this house. They love Christmas in St. Martin!

These folks have the spirit!

More Christmas!

Upon arrival at Divi Little Bay, we discovered that we had missed the Manager's Welcome Party. There was a lot going on. They had vendors selling wares, a raffle and free drinks. We are not very good at being at a resort. We are used to taking off on our own. We did catch the tail end of the party and then went home for a dinner of left overs (just like home).

St. Martin 1/8/17

Today we planned to meet up with our new boat friends, Tom and Pat, on Orient Beach. A couple we had met at Sunset Beach Club mentioned that Kon Tiki was their favorite place on Orient Beach. We picked up Barb and Bill and picked our way to the French side. We missed the turn, went into another spot for directions and then found our destination.

We finally found Kon TIki!

Interesting statues

They gave us a neat little cabana table. Very private and fun.

Our little cabana.

Kon Tiki property

In front of our cabana

Neat swings as chairs for the bar.

Barb and Ruth found some shopping right outside Kon Tiki. Ruth bought Rick a shirt with parrots.

Walking Orient Beach, we came across Club Orient - the Naturist's hotel. We didn't keep walking. LOL

The famous Orient Beach

Orient Beach

We dropped the Knapp's off at Mary's Boon and headed home but we got snagged up in a big traffic jam. Apparently, this is normal on the Dutch side between 4 and 6. Our dinner was at Gizmos. We had fun chatting with our new friends. This is an easy place to enjoy new people. 

St. Martin 1/7/17

We woke up to rain. Fort Louis Marina was bustling with people coming and going. For us it was "Going". We said our goodbyes and found Rohan waiting for us with his bright yellow and green taxi. It was an outstanding week on a beautiful boat with the best crew in the business - Emma and Ashley!

Off the boat.

Rohan was there right on time!

We got our car and found our way to Divi Little Bay - our condo for a week. We have a beautiful one bedroom condo in the B Building with bright turquoise colors throughout. There is a great art glass light over the dining room table.

We are on the first floor on the Great Bay side, which we have discovered is the windy side. The resort has all one would need. There are little shops, even a grocery store, where we picked up some yogurt for breakfast. There are several restaurants on the property, too.

For Happy Hour and dinner, we picked Gizmos, the little beach bar. We met a wonderful family from London on holiday together. Mike comes to Divi every year kind of like we do at Lindo Mar. It was great fun chatting with them all. Little Lily came and sat on my lap next to her grandpa for a bit.

Ruth and Mike

Clyde (in the blue) at Gizmos.

Later we met a couple from Richland, Washington. What a surprise. Richland is where Ruth's folks started their marriage and Ruth was born there. Small world!