A Fun Week!!!

Wow, I haven’t written forever! We had a fun, busy week!

Monday, we slept in a little later and met at 10:00 to head to Philipsburg. (Jane was supposed to pick Ramone up at 9:00 and when we left at 10:00, Jane hadn’t even left yet. She is staying in the apartment under us since no one is renting it at the moment.) We drove down Front Street so they could see all the stores, then drove back down Back Street and I dropped them off at the little market area so I could go park. The normal parking lot was full so I ended up with a really long walk to meet back up with them. They probably thought I got lost! (That parking lot was really close to where we finished shopping, so it worked out great anyway.)

Then we went to the store that has OPI fingernail polish 3 for $10.00! Can’t beat that deal!!!! We ate lunch at Kangaroo Court next. It was delicious, like usual!!! Then we shopped on Front Street! We got free drinks from a jewelry store (they were trying very hard to sell us expensive jewelry!!) and drinks from the owner of “my purse store” as I refer to it. I love this store and the owner is so nice! He almost always offers us drinks because he knows me now and knows that I bring people into his store! He has Dr. Pepper!!!!! SWEET! Tina and Becky both bought really pretty purses there! And he gave us some good deals! Hooray! Shopping was fun!

When we came back, we had hot water!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!!

That evening, Tina and I went for a swim at the Summit pool after dark. It was a little chilly but very peaceful and relaxing! I seriously enjoyed my hot shower after swimming. First hot shower in a month! It was great!!!!!

Tuesday morning, the electricity went out at 7:15. Phillip had to shower in the dark and still said it was the best shower he’s had in a month! Hot water sure makes a shower feel better!!!!!

Tina, Becky, and I went to Little Bay that morning. Tina and I snorkeled and looked for sand dollars. We saw a beautiful starfish, lots of fish, and few sand dollars! I also saw an eel, but didn’t think Tina would want to know about that till after!!! A local was walking along the beach selling handmade necklaces. We each bought one! They are very pretty and he ended up giving us pretty good deals on them!

Later that afternoon, we drove to Cupecoy Beach (the gay, nude beach) so they could see too! They remembered that from the blog and wanted to see. But seriously, it really does have pretty ocean views from there!!! Hehehe… Then we went to Dolphin Casino so they could see the Pachinko machines. We ate dinner at Sunset that night. We got there too early and it was still really hot! But it was beautiful once the sun did finally go down! We played Shanghai that evening in their room! FUN!!!!

Wednesday morning, we drove to Rimi, a huge souvenir shop! Then we spent the afternoon at the Sonesta Maho resort pools. That was fun and super relaxing! We ate dinner at Pineapple Pete’s. I had the strangest food…I had a “chicken and pineapple salad.” It had lettuce, sweet and sour chicken, fresh pineapple, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, and mango chutney. It was soooo weird, but soooo good! I would definitely order it again! I had to take a pic, it looked so strange! Tina and Becky got pasta and it looked great too! Becky also ordered a guavaberry colada. The island is known for their guavaberry coladas! We played more Shanghai after dinner!

My birthday card from my parents finally arrived on Wednesday, which was a month and a half after they had sent it!!!! It was stamped July 24th! I’d love to know where it went in that month and a half!!!

I got some good news on Wednesday! Sara, a good friend from college, is coming to visit in January!!!! I am so excited and really looking forward to seeing her!

Thursday morning we got up early and took a ferry to St. Barths!!!! I’m so glad they got to see another island while they were here! They had “seasick patches” too, so everyone was just fine on the ferry! (I love those things!) We took an island tour in St. Barths and then the taxi driver dropped us off at St. Jean Beach for a couple of hours. It was so strange for me to see this beach totally deserted. All the restaurants and shops were closed, there were no chairs on the beach, and hardly any people! So different from when Phillip and I were there!!!!! Summer is definitely “low season” for St. Barths just like it is in St. Maarten. Winter is when all the tourists come! Our driver then drove us to Shell Beach. We only stayed for a couple of minutes, but I was so glad they got to see Shell Beach…it’s my favorite! There are shells everywhere!!!!! Some places you cannot even see the sand…just shells! Neat!

Then our driver dropped us off at La Select, the ORIGINAL CHEESEBURGER IN PARADISE! How cool is that?!?!?!? We had lunch there…the food was just ok to be honest. But I am so excited to say I’ve been there! Neat! Supposedly, Jimmy Buffet is having a free concert there on November 7th in order to celebrate La Select’s 60th Anniversary! Hmmmm…that would be fun!

After lunch, we walked back to the ferry and then killed a little time walking around there. The ferry ride back was just fine too and we were back in St. Maarten around 5:00pm. We had Pizza Dan’s for dinner that night! Phillip met us there, so I was excited to get to see him! Then we came back to our apartment and played Shanghai again! (Phillip went back to study, but at least we saw him for a little bit!) I was very impressed when we got home to see all of the dishes washed! I felt bad that Phillip took time to do that, but it was really sweet of him! (I think he was just happy to play in the hot water! Ha!)

Friday morning, we ate at SugarCane Café for breakfast. It was really good. I had banana pancakes…yum! Oh and a Dr. Pepper…started the day out right! Hehehe! I had eaten at SugarCane 3 times before, but always for dinner, which is way too late for me to drink caffeine. So I was excited to order a Dr. Pepper there!!!!! Then we drove to Maho and went in a few little gift shops and went back to Sunset for their gift shop. The T-shirts there were $25.00, but the guy gave us an AUC discount and Tina and Becky each got one for $20.00! Good deal! They were really neat shirts that showed the airplanes flying over the beach at Sunset, where we ate Tuesday evening! Cool!

We spent the afternoon in Summit Pool. It was great! Tina and Becky walked to BB’s for dinner. They really liked the food (ribs and mahi mahi). Yum! They also got to try Amstel Bright, the other beer I had told them about. They had tried Carib beer at SugarCane Café and had Desperados at Sunset. It’s fun trying new beer! (Carib is my favorite beer! I will miss it when we return home…not that I drink it that often, but I don’t really actually like any beer in the States. I actually really do like Carib!)

Tina and Becky spent the evening packing and reading/watching a movie. Phillip and I got dressed up and went to the White Coat Reception at Tantra! Every semester, the school hosts a party after the first semester students’ white coat ceremony. It was fun to get dressed up and go out! Dinner was catered by Sopranos…it wasn’t that great, but hey, it was free! It was nice to go out and to see everyone! I was also really excited to see Tantra. It’s a really fancy nightclub! It reminds me of something you’d see on TV, where all the rich famous people are all dressed up and everything is super fancy! There is even a room upstairs with couches and a fancy bed. We think it’s the VIP room and it probably isn’t usually open, but they had everything open for all the students last night! Crazy! Tantra is located above Casino Royale. We went downstairs to the Casino for a little while, then back upstairs. The tables had been moved away and the danced started around 11:00. This is when I realized how old we must be! The music was so loud!!!!!!! We didn’t stay long after that! We were walking back to the parking garage, and passed Sopranos Piano Bar on the way. We were looking in to see who all was there and heard someone yell, “PHIL!!!!!!!!!!” It was pretty funny! Several of our friends were in there, so we went in and talked for a few minutes before heading home!

This morning, Tina, Becky and I just hung out in their room talking for awhile. We weighed their suitcases (always a must with that silly 50 pound rule!) and then headed to the airport around noon. I was sad to see them go! I’m so glad they got to come visit! It really meant a lot to me! We had fun and the week flew by! (On December 12th, the day we found out we were moving here, I told Tina our news by saying, “I know where you and your mom are going on your next vacation!” I’m really glad it worked out!) :-)

I picked up Subway for Phillip on the way home and took it to school. He wants to get a lot of studying done today!