St. Maarten....A Trip for Two

The first week of June Jeff and I were lucky enough to be able to go on a company paid reward vacation to St. Maarten. We were also fortunate enough to have wonderful family who were willing to step in and keep an eye on our kids while we were gone. Jeff and I were in the Carribean about 2 years ago when we went to St. Thomas by ourselves for a vacation, so we were excited to head back to that part of the world. Almost better than the vacation itself was the fact that we incurred ZERO expense in going including food, transportation, lodging, activities, etc. A trully INCLUSIVE deal.

Jeff recieving his award

We arrived in St. Maarten on Wednesday afternoon and after checking out the Westin Resort we enjoyed a welcome dinner on the pool deck outside. Thursday Jeff and I signed up for a ferry ride across the Atlantic Ocean to the nieghboring island of St. Bartholemews. We were excited to check out a different island, but the trip over proved to be a little more than we had bargained for. The first clue that the 45 minute "Ferry" ride was going to be interesting was during the captain's initial welcome and debrief. She started out by saying that many people spend lots of money to go to an amusement park to ride a roller coaster for less than 5 minutes. We were going to get the rare opportunity to experience a 45 minute amusement park ride. Jeff and I both had taken Bonine before we left which is supposed to help with nausea, so we really weren't too worried at that point. About half way through our 45 minute "RIDE" Jeff started feeling it (there were about 10 other people that felt it too). By the end of the journey he was exhausted and ready to get off the boat. I was fine, so while he slept off the yucks, I took a taxi tour of the island of St. Barths...quickly renamed St. Barfs. I picked Jeff up after about 1 hour and he was feeling and looking much better. We decided to walk around and quickly found out that St. Barths is a very exclusive island...everything was VERY expensive. We sat down to eat lunch where we split a medium sized pizza and a bottle of water and the meal cost us $30....and after talking to a bunch of others we found out that we got off rather cheaply. After lunch we checked out a nearby beach called Shell Beach. We quickly found out why it was named Shell Beach....there were millions of shells everywhere. I have never seen so many shells. Because of the shells there wasn't much of a beach so after checking out the shells and seeing a little too much of the French sunbathers, we started to make our way back to the dock. We happened across a couple from our group on the way back and they told us that the original "Cheeseburger and Paradise" from the Jimmy Buffet song was right around the corner. So although we didn't eat there we can now say we had a couple of Sprites and met the owner of the famous Cheeseburger joint. Before we left Jeff popped a dramamine for the ride back that he as well as the majority of ferry riders were now dreading. Fortunately the ride back was not as rough and Jeff walked off the ferry with color and without any issues. After our little Ferry boat adventure we were very glad that we had switched our original plans to give Deep Sea Fishing a try and had changed to an afternoon at the spa. Thursday night they had an awards ceremony recognizing all of the winners in the South Region, including Jeff. It was neat to realize that Jeff had his most successful sales year in probably one of the busiest years of his life. I KNOW that he was blessed not only for working hard at work, but also for the service he provides as branch president. We trully have been blessed because of Jeff's sacrifices.

At Cheeseburger in Paradise

Friday we headed out on another all-day excursion. This time we signed up for a catamaran trip to a private island off the island of Antigua. This 2 hour trip proved very enjoyable and much smoother than the previous days journey. Once we arrived at the island we had the opportunity to snorkel along a long reef in clear waters. We saw some pretty cool stuff, but Jeff still feels like St. Thomas had better snorkeling overall. The beach was a private beach and while we snorkeled the catamaran crew prepared a grilled lunch of chicken and fish. They rang a bell when lunch was ready and we headed up to be served our lunch...did I mention we really had very little to worry about during our vacation. Lunch was good and after laying on the beach for a little while we explored the little island. It was beautiful white sandy beaches and awesome water all the way around the island. As we were walking along the shore Jeff saw a baby shark that was playing in the waves. In fact the shark got close enough for Jeff to touch...pretty cool. We finished off our day with a great dinner at an exclusive restaurant in the city of Marigot sitting on a deck overlooking the beach and the ocean.

Saturday was deemed our day of rest and relaxation. We slept in, ordered room service and then prepared ourselves for our first ever massages at the spa. I wasn't sure if they would be able to accomodate my growing belly, but they did have a specail ringed pillow so that I could lay flat on my stomach for the massage. Both Jeff and I left the spa feeling very relaxed. After our massages we decided to go shopping for a couple of hours to see if we could find any trinkets for the kids. The shopping was much like most other tourists cities with lots of jewelry stores and then the other typical sourvenier stuff. We found a couple of t-shirts for the kids and then decided to head back to the resort to enjoy the rest of the day lounging on the beach and near the pool.

Sunday we woke up early so that we could attend church at the Phillipsburg Branch there on St. Maarten. I am so glad that we belong to a church where we can go just about anywhere in the world and find a place to worship and know that it will be organized the exact same way as our congregation here at home. The people were very friendly and excited to see so many visitors...there were 6 of us in all. After church it was time to get ready to head home, which is how we spent the remainder of our day...getting home. We had a great time on our trip but we were ready to get home and see our kiddos and gear up for a week at the Lake with the Griffeth Family!