Look at what we woke up to this morning! St. Maarten in the distance just before we docked.
The kids woke up just in time to watch over the balcony as we were pulling into port.
Today we had many plans. Grammie and Papa Doug took the kiddos to Coral World (I’ll post pics soon). While Jamie and I had the morning free before our afternoon excursion to Orient Bay.
Just after the Captain’s announcement we debarked the ship. Isn’t she beautiful?
Since the ship docks across the bay, we had to take a water taxi into Philipsburg, the Dutch capital of St. Maarten.
In town we did some exploring. Visiting all sorts of local stores and sampling their finest beverages. : )
We even caught a glimpse of a local!
And couldn’t leave without being a typical tourist and posing next to the sign.
Without much time to spare we made it our way back to the ship to meet for our excursion. Sadly, it was canceled due to the threat of rain. I was bummed that it was canceled, but I thought it spoke a lot of Disney to cancel it and refund our money before letting us sit in the ran on the beach for 3 hours.
Anyway, we made the best out of things by grabbing the kids and heading back to the beach in Philipsburg.
Lucky for us it was right next to the water taxi dock!
Everyone enjoyed playing in the water
and you couldn’t beat the view of our ship in the distance!
This is how Rio took it all in. : ) The boy innately knows how to relax and enjoy the moment.
Alas, after a few hours, it was time to be back on ship.
St. Maarten is definitely a place I would like to visit again! A small island with a local culture that is vibrant and not too consumed with tourism… besides the 18+ times that I was approached on the beach to buy everything from bags to clothes to magnetic jewelry. I’d like to say that I didn’t buy anything from the street vendors, but as we headed back on to the water taxi we impulsively spent $6 on a cd with “Smash Hits” written in black Sharpie across the front.
After a great day, I couldn’t leave such a beautiful place without taking one last photo.
Oh, and that cd? It turned out to be an awesome reggae cd! My one regret is not buying more! : ( After all, how was I supposed to know I should have trusted the guy who kept saying, “I treat you right” in his hypnotizing Jamaican accent?
1 comment:
so beautiful! And that Rio-- Such a high-power, high-energy guy. Keeping up with Ravyn is exhausting. I love the red chair cushions. I'm sad, too, that you didn't get more reggae. I know it is Jamie's favorite and he always shares with me......
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