St. Martin, post #2

These pics are from Christian's iPhone, which happened to be very convenient on vacation when you didn't want to lug around the big camera.  

Getting ready to take off - 6am, St. Louis!

Layover in Charlotte, where we met up with our friends.

And arrival in St. Martin - walking outside to get to the airport.

Panoramic of the view from our villa for the week.  There will be a few more panoramic shots here, as Christian loves doing them and the turn out pretty cool:)

The front door to our villa after we had passed through the locked gate.

Johnny Cakes for breakfast at Mr. Busby's - a local specialty.  Deep fried dough with egg and cheese - pretty darn tasty, though this was Christian's plate of food.

First taste of the beach and water at Dawn Beach in Oyster Pond (where we stayed on the island).

Picture of the inside of the villa - our living quarters.

My view while relaxing and reading a book - quite nice!

My view to the side - also quite nice :)

Dessert at Calmos Cafe - tasty.

Whoa, hotty, lol!

I convinced Christian to join me for a run (or two) even though the roads were incredibly hilly and narrow, making it tough and potentially dangerous.  Thankfully he obliged and we got in a small bit of activity while on vacation.  We did stop to take some pics while on the run though, because the scenery was just too pretty!

A view of the Westin Resort, which was a mile from our villa.  We decided to tour the resort and it confirmed our happiness with the rental we chose.

This picture and the one below DO NOT do this hill justice.  It was ridiculously steep and we both ran the entire way up.  Probably the steepest hill I have run, and I've run in San Francisco and Boston!

Our rental for the week.  Lovely color, right?

A plantain tree right on our property.

The next few pics are from our time to and on Pinel Island.  This is the island where we were caught in a few rain storms, making for some fun memories.

Our dinner that night.  Pictures are of yummy fish cakes and an excellent grouper.

The next day we went to the one beach we vowed to not go to while on the island.  Orient Beach is known for its topless/nudeness, but we really wanted to parasail and this was the place to go.  We thought we might be safe, since we were in a mid-low season and not on the most common section of the beach where this would happen.  We weren't saved entirely, but it could have been a lot worse.  AND we were able to parasail as couples, making it quite worth it!  Pictures of our parasailing in the next post, I believe.

You'd think we were in love or something :)

Love hotel, above, where we ate on Sunday night.  Calmos Cafe, below, where we ate on Tuesday night.

Walking the street(s) of Grand Case.  This was their main (and only) street we went on here.

The next set of pictures are from our trip on the Catamaran out to Prickly Pear.

Iguanas on the rocks, if you can see them.

Boy bonding.

Lots of sun this day - had to take cover on the way back!

Pics from another run by our villa.  Oyster Bay is what you see here.

If you look at the white buidling just to the left of the red/yellow buildings, that is our villa.  We learned that it was for sale while there and up on the market for $2.2 million.  So.......if anyone's looking for a place to buy and has $2.2 mil to spare, I know a place...

Bon Voyage St. Martin!  It's been a blast.

Chillin' in Charlotte again while our plane was 3 hours delayed...the joys of traveling!