April 4, 2016

Sint Maarten 2016


I took a little break from food blogging last week to head down to the Caribbean for a while.  We went to St. Maarten (Sint Maarten) and did our best to relax.  

I think we did a pretty good job of it. 

The picture above was the view from our resort apartment.  Not bad huh? It was 82º every day we were there and if it rained at all, it only lasted for like 5 minutes. 

I have been wanting to go to the Caribbean for a very long time, so when this opportunity presented itself to us we had to jump on it. My daughter had never been out of the country before, so this was a great chance to show her new places. It also helped that every time I asked my daughter where she would want to visit she would always say "somewhere where the water is crystal clear and turquoise blue". Luckily we accomplished most of that.  The water wasn't always crystal clear but for the most part it was. 


Above is a small sampling of the drinks I tried while there.  I kept myself in check and only had one but man were these good.  Exactly my type of drink, fruity, sweet, and can't taste the alcohol. Just what the doctor ordered. I brought home a bottle of rum and a recipe book so I'll be recreating these soon.


The sunsets were amazing every night.  I probably took 100 pictures of sunsets.


Our resort had a sister resort that we decided to visit one day.  Their beach wasn't sandy like ours was but they had these amazing tide pools that my daughter loved exploring.


Eventually we went up to the North side of the island which is also the French side of the island.  We had decided to try a submarine boat ride, or glass bottomed boat which left out of Grand Case.  The water here is so extremely beautiful and all I wanted to do was just dive in.  All beaches are public, so I could have, but, I wasn't dressed for swimming.  I did get to walk around on the beach and that was nice as well.


We saw this turtle and a bunch of fish, cool coral, and some other sea creatures while on the boat.



Yeah, we got sidetracked at this French Bakery on one of our walks to explore the area.  This one is on the Dutch side near the resort we stayed at (The Royal Palm Beach Resort) at Simpson Bay.  We sampled some there at the bakery on a beautiful outdoor patio that overlooked a marina.  The rest I brought home and we snacked on for the next couple of days.


We did night walks on the beach almost every night.  This little hermit crab was so small and adorable.  We put him/her right back where we found it and went on our way but this moment was one of the highlights for my daughter.


This moment was another highlight for my daughter, and for me too.  This particular iguana scared me to death when he whipped around to face us after I took this picture.  I thought he was going to charge us and yes, I would have run screaming.  Luckily he just stayed where he was and stared at us before heading down into the rocks.

Excellent way to spend our spring break!  All other spring breaks will probably pale in comparison.

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