St Martin

We are just back from vacation and everyone is feeling refreshed.  That time away from the babies, and life in general, was just what the doctor ordered!  Oliver loved all the extra attention that was showered upon him and he was downright angelic for the duration of the trip.  Unfortunately, we had my dad's point & shoot with us (so I could leave my fancy camera at home) and it was stuck in landscape-mode for most of the trip, so our photos aren't as great as they could have been. 

We loved St. Martin (we were on the French-side) and would definitely go there again.  Even though we had a direct flight, it took us about 11 hours door-to-door.  Adam and I were downright impatient with the speed of the rental car agency (especially once we learned it was still another 45min to the hotel!), but Oliver was completely calm and patient -- who did he get that quality from?? 

When we arrived, we got to spend a little time on the beach before dinner.  The hotel was located in a quiet cove shared by only one other hotel and a few boats.  

Our beach & pool bar

Day 1:  On the first day, we hung out at the beach and then went into Grand Case for dinner.  Oliver wasn't a fan of the ocean and the "waves" -- in the first picture, you can see how rough the water was.  He let me carry him into the water ONCE the entire trip!  After the first day, we spend most of our time by the pool and just came to the beach to play in the sand.  We quickly determined that Daddy's sand-building skills weren't up to snuff, and Mommy became the de-facto sand-player.

 

very uncrowded beach!

Daddy's fire engine

Mommy's Lightening McQueen (from "Cars" movie)

Oliver loved playing in the pool.  The shallow end had a nice incline and before he knew it, he would find himself up to his shoulders in the water.  He particularly loved the noodles.  He & I would pretend to fish with them and he enjoyed using it as a weapon against Daddy (I think I got the better end of the noodle-game).  Annoyingly, Oliver remains fearful of getting his hair/face wet - hopefully, we can get to the bottom of that before this summer.

MUCH happier at the pool

Grand Case is known for having the best food in the Carribean.  Being the food-snobs that we are, we were happy that this was the closest town to our hotel.  There were lots of french restaurants with great views and we couldn't believe it wasn't more touristy.  The beach on this part of the island was very narrow, so I was happy we had switched our hotel.  Oliver really enjoyed the view of all the yachts/sailboats as we ate. 

I don't have a great photo of this, but each night, we would sit in chairs by the lobby bar looking up at the sky.  Adam and I quickly ran out of information on constellations to share with our budding astronomist.  What else is there besides Orion, the dippers, and the North Star??? We will have to brush up on astronomy, I think Oliver would really enjoy star-gazing at the bungalow this summer as a special treat after the babies are in bed.

On Day 2, we headed to Pinel Island.  We took a boat (just 10min from our hotel) to the small island, which had 3 different restaurants that rented out chairs.   We were on the first boat of the day and got great seats.  Oliver contently sat in the sand playing in shade of our umbrella, while we read.  Oliver's kid's meal of Mahi-mahi actually tasted better than either of our lunches.  Oliver never went in the ocean the whole time we were there. 

 

For dinner, we were going to eat at one of the restaurants at the hotel, but it was closed, so we opted for a local pizza joint instead.  Oliver fell asleep at the table while we waited (toddlers nodding off can be so cute) so we ended up eating in our hotel room while watching a movie on the ipad. 

falling asleep while coloring

My favorite part of each day was the time I would spend with Oliver in the morning while Adam slept in.  He and I would explore the hotel grounds/cove, then go to breakfast, sit on the chairs with our "to-go" drink and then play at the playground.   

Oliver loved the chairs - nice hotel grounds

 

On Day 3, dark clouds loomed overhead, so we piled into the car and headed to the Dutch side of the island to Philipsburg.  This is the most-touristy part of the island, where the cruise ships dock.  We got some souveniors, had an early lunch, and headed back to the hotel for an afternoon at the pool.

This photo on the left is of Oliver pretending to snore - Adam puts his hat on his head like this when he wants to nap.  Our little comedian!  His snore noises were pretty hysterical. 

sunscreen-warrior

 

Drink at the pool bar

The day we left, Oliver and I hung out at the beach before breakfast (he was up super early).  We got some pool-time in before leaving for the airport around noon.

 

St. Martin - Thank you for a wonderful vacation.  We will definitely be back, hopefully sooner rather than later!