WARM AND SUNNY ST. MAARTEN

Thursday, January 19, 2017                                         78 F sunny

Philipsburg, St. Maarten / ms Osterdam

Last year when we visited St. Maarten, we went on a windy, rainy, and wavy boat ride tour around the island with Donna, Lawrence, Gwenda, Colin, Nancy, Brian, and Denise. It was quite an adventure, arranged by Colin. Today we had a very calm and sunny day.

I forgot that we had to take a water taxi to the main part of the town, a five minute ride ($7/per person--round trip). TK and I visited our favorite spots, but we really enjoy walking the streets and talking with the citizens. I mentioned my blog to a young lady who worked at Little Switzerland. She studied in the Netherlands for five years, came home this year, and is headed to Tallahassee’s Florida State University for school in the fall. She said she is a writer and wants to start a blog—I showed her mine.  I told her blogspot.com is really easy to set up, but I do not do the blog to make money, only to help me remember our trips and let family and friends know what we are up to.

First thing this morning, TK heard rolling thunder—he looked outside the balcony and saw over 26 motorcycles with 20 riders roaring down the pier toward the port—they had disembarked from the Celebrity ship!  This was brand new sight for us!

The motorcycles return to the Celebrity ship

St. Maarten/St. Martin is the smallest island in the world with two countries, Netherlands and France. It is 37 sq. miles—need to check—that is what the boat operator said. This is my 2^nd favorite shopping island.

We had a light lunch at the Green House (restaurant), but the Wi-Fi was very poor. We continued our walk along the beach, stopping in a few shops that a caught our interest. TK spied something that Friend Donna would like so we purchased it—need to send it as soon as we get home so she has it on her Caribbean trip!

TK at the GreenHouse restaurant

We returned to the ship by 1:30 p.m.—TK wanted to go swimming and I wanted to enjoy our great balcony. There were four other ships in port and one of the onboard servers told me the RCCL Allure of the Seas has 6000 passengers. I cannot even imagine that. It is a large and glorious ship with so many outside balconies as well as boardwalk balconies (inside overlooking public areas). The Allure on the next pier over from our ship.  I watched as people began returning to the ships. The Carnival Vista and the Celebrity Equinox shared our ship’s pier. As I was people watching I decided to count the distinctive red striped bags that Little Switzerland uses (LS sells high end watches and jewelry). In a little over an hour I counted 46 bags and because of my vast experience I know those bags were worth at least $23,000 minimum, probably much more. That count does not include people from our ship because I could not see passengers boarding our ship from the balcony, nor could I see passengers for the Allure. Not bad for one day!

 Tonight’s dinner was very good, apple soup and prime rib. Dessert was strawberry crisp-TK had snickers cake. Mariyadi told us tonight that his family also grows papaya, bananas, and bamboo, as well as coconuts.

Georgia, our Windows 10 instructor, is from Leicester, England. She majored in photography and has a degree in photography from the New Hampshire School of Art.

If anyone is really reading this, I must add a disclaimer. Our life at home is not that exciting either. However, we have a lot of fun wherever we are and whatever we do.

Late addition: I was able to connect to the ship’s Wi-Fi, but I could not access any browser—not a good sign for my blog.

Lobster towel animal!

TK’s Takes:  It was hot but not humid—very pleasant today. Not many people are using the pool.