Family Visit (June 2-17)

If anyone is actually still reading this blog, you probably think I disappeared! My blogs are fewer and farther between these days! I just don’t have time to blog!!! Thank you so much to those of you who are still reading the blog even though I don’t blog often!!!

Phillip’s parents and brother arrived the afternoon of June 2nd. It was great timing…their plane landed right around the time Phillip got out of class for the day. He had just enough time to drop his school stuff off at home and then we headed for the airport. When they arrived, we stuffed our little Atos (tiny boxlike car) with all of their luggage. It couldn’t possibly hold another bag or a person besides the driver!!! I drove home and Phillip took the bus with them. (A bus costs $2 per person and is really just a van with a license plate that says bus. Hehe!)

They loved their apartment and we were so glad to have them in Tradewinds!!!! (I freaked out that morning though when I realized they didn’t have any working TV channels!!! The realtor was super nice and got a black box from another apartment that was empty. She even had a worker go set it up! That’s totally unheard of…things never get finished in one day here. But sure enough, by the time they arrived at the apartment, they had a working TV. Phillip and I were soooo impressed!!!) They settled into their apartment that afternoon and we ordered Pizza Dan’s for dinner!!!

The next morning, we headed to Philipsburg! (Phillip had class, so wasn’t able to go.) We went shopping on Front Street and ate lunch at Kangaroo Court. We love that place!!! Then we went grocery shopping in Philipsburg (which always takes forever…they were shocked when I said it was a 3 hour process!) We made it home in time to meet Phillip for a quick dinner.

Friday morning we went to Marigot. We attempted to go to the market, but there was no market that day!!! We stopped at Sarafina’s for pastries. Phillip and I LOVE that place! (I got a couple of pastries to take home to him…he was excited!) We went to a little shop nearby and then headed home to go to the pool! Phillip was able to join us that evening to go out to dinner! We went to the Buccaneer Beach Bar!! That’s the little outdoor restaurant on Kim Shaw Beach, where they light the bon fire in a huge ball. It’s really pretty!!!

Saturday morning, Phillip and I went scuba diving! We felt bad leaving while they were here, but we had the deep specialty certification planned before they planned their trip. It was a 2 day certification – Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. There were 10 AUC students. We really had a lot of fun!!!!! We dove 2 really deep wrecks that morning. They were very short dives though. The deeper you dive, the less time you have to stay down there. The wreck “La Renee” was 135 feet deep!!! “The Fuh Sheng” was 120 feet deep! After diving, we all went to Philipsburg to go shopping again. Phillip was able to join us this time! We ate dinner at Kraken in Maho that evening. It’s a new pirate themed restaurant that Phillip and I had been wanting to try. Big mistake!!! The food was gross and the service wasn’t much better! Oh well, at least now we know…

Sunday, we all headed to Grand Case. They had lunch on the beach and snorkeled for sea glass that afternoon while Phillip and I finished up our deep diving specialty with our AUC diver friends! We dove La Renee and Fuh Sheng again. They are very pretty wrecks! (I also have to admit that I am quite proud of myself for diving that deep. It’s a little overwhelming to think about…)

Monday, Phillip and I both studied all day. I walked that morning with Steve, Cheryl, and Matt to the Sapphire so they could rent a car. (Charles was working on our car because our brakes were squealing really bad!!!!) Matt drove them back to Philipsburg to go shopping again and then drove the loop all around the island! Very impressive!!!! This island isn’t exactly easy to drive, and he did great…didn’t even get lost!

On Tuesday the 8th, we hung out at the pool (ok, I swam laps and studied at the pool). I fixed dinner for Phillip and we hung out with him at home for a little bit, then the rest of us went to Tequilas (a Mexican restaurant) for dinner. We had heard it was really good. We all got burritos. They were great!!!! We each splurged and got a margarita too…they had fun fruity flavors. Yum!

On the 9th, we went to the Marigot market. The market is in full force on Wednesdays! Then we came back home for a quick lunch and met Phillip. He spent the afternoon with us…hooray!!! We went to several beaches that none of us had been to before! We went to Baie Prunes, Baie Rouge, and Baie Long…all on the French side. Phillip, Matt, and I snorkeled at Baie Rouge. Phillip and I went around the cliffs, over to the right side, and inside a little hollowed out area…it was neat! We saw lots of cool fish. Steve, Matt, and I had Thai food that night. Steve and Matt really liked it. I was so glad…I love that place!!!

June 10th was our 4th Anniversary!!!! Can you believe Phillip and I have been married for 4 years already??? It doesn’t seem like that long! Unfortunately, he had to spend the day studying. So we decided to celebrate over the weekend instead! Steve, Cheryl, Matt, and I went to Toppers for lunch. I think that was Matt’s favorite restaurant here! He got a really spicy pasta…I think his mouth was on FIRE! That evening, I went out with the 5th semester girls! Willow, Julia, Danielle, Alicia, and me. What a great group of girls!!!! That was our last time to all hang out together! Willow left the island 2 days later and Danielle is leaving early too. It was great spending time together and really hard to tell Willow goodbye. I can’t believe it’s already time for goodbyes…

Friday morning, Steve, Matt, Phillip and I went scuba diving!!! Matt isn’t certified, but was able to do a discover scuba course, which means he got a quick briefing to teach him the basics. Sally (instructor) stayed by his side to help him whenever needed. He caught on quick though and was able to dive totally by himself on the second dive! We went to Creole Rock for the first dive and Turtle Reef for the second dive. Steve was super excited to get to see a sea turtle! (He didn’t see any when diving here last year and was really disappointed!) The sea turtle was not shy…it swam right up beside us! Maybe it was fascinated by us like we were fascinated by it! After diving, we hurried home and dropped Phillip off at school for class. He was about 10-15 minutes late for class!!! It was his only chance to go diving with his Dad and brother, so it was worth it! (Most people are late to class, or even skip class, frequently and he never does, so we didn’t figure once would matter!) That evening, we ate dinner at the Greenhouse. They have a happy hour from 4:30-7:00, with 2 for 1 drinks. They have amazing frozen drinks there! I just wish Phillip could have joined us…he has still never been to the Greenhouse and it’s one of my favorite restaurants here!

Saturday the 12th, we had an amazing day! One that none of us will forget, probably for many reasons! It was also Steve and Cheryl’s anniversary!!!! :-) So…here starts the adventure. Phillip was able to spend the day with us, which we were all excited about! We planned to go to Orient Beach for the day. There’s another beach in that area that we had never been to before, so Phillip wanted to try to find it. We somehow took a wrong turn and found a different beach. Oh well, that’s one more beach we have seen now! We were looking for Anse Marcel. We thought we were finally on the right track…but we were headed up a huge hill!!!! Our little car does not like hills. We got partway up and just stopped!!! Uh oh!!! Cheryl offered to get out and the rest of us quickly agreed with her! So we all had to walk up the hill while Phillip was driving. While walking up, it started to RAIN!!! Matt and I hurried and got to the top before getting soaked, but poor Steve and Cheryl were totally soaked (on their Anniversary!!!) by the time they got to the top! Ok, it wasn’t even the top. It was just a decent place for Phillip to turn around instead of heading up the rest of the insanely steep hill! So…all of that for nothing…we turned and went back down the hill! We decided we can live without ever seeing Anse Marcel!

Luckily the rest of the day was better! Steve and Cheryl rented two jet skis for us “kids” to play on at Orient! Matt had one and Phillip and I shared one. The rental guy told me “Hold on like a love machine.” I must have had a funny look on my face. He laughed and said “hold on tight!” Ha, ok!!! We had the best time!!!! Those things go crazy fast! None of us had ever been on a jet ski before! You certainly do have to hold on tight! It felt like a roller coaster at times, jumping over the waves and turning! We flew up in the air a few times while going over waves. Craziness! Luckily though, we never tipped it!!! I drove for awhile, mostly just to say I did! It was fun and I definitely enjoying driving like crazy for a little bit! Phillip says he “drove it like he stole it.” We always say that about the speed boat he drove in Cancun for our honeymoon! Now he can say that for 2 things!

After the jet skis, Phillip and I decided to splurge and do something big to celebrate our anniversary. We went parasailing!!!!!!! It was amazing!!!! You sit on the back of a boat, they hook you up in the harness, attach the harness to ropes attached to a huge parachute, and then they start letting out the rope. Before we knew it, we were going up, up, up, till we were super high over the ocean! It was absolutely amazing! We had the best view! We looked up and just saw the huge parachute over us. The ocean looked never-ending below us. Beautiful!!!! Phillip spotted a sea turtle from up there! At one point, they slowed down so were really low and close to the ocean! Then they slowed more and let our feet drag in the ocean, then sped up and we went up high again! Very cool! We took our camera (in the waterproof case) up with us, so Phillip got some neat pics! We gave in though and paid $15 for them to take pics of us from the boat. They had a film camera…the roll of film took 12 pics. We got to keep the roll of film. I can’t develop those here though, so we still don’t know how they turned out! We had a great time! Parasailing is something that we have both always wanted to do! What a great time to try it!!!! :-)

When we got home, Phillip had a quick dinner and headed to school to study for the rest of the day. The rest of us got BB’s to go…yum!

Sunday was a more relaxed day. We spent some time at the pool (I studied) and then went to church that evening. Steve, Matt, and Cheryl all went to my little Caribbean church with me! I was so excited that they went. I just love that church!!!! We ate dinner at Sunset (on Maho Beach) afterwards and they got some great pictures of the sunset!

Cheryl had read in a St. Maarten magazine about a perfumerie called Tijon! Phillip and I didn’t even know there was one here! The magazine said in Grand Case! Turns out, it’s about a block away from we go to scuba dive! We never knew what it was!!! So Monday morning, we went to the perfumerie! We smelled their perfumes and colognes. They smelled really good! They make their own in the shop. They don’t sell any other brands, just their own. It was really neat to see! Cheryl got a perfume and Matt got a cologne. The owners told us about a perfume class they have. Participants learn about perfume making, then get to make their own perfume! We decided that sounded awesome, so Cheryl and I signed up for a class for the next morning! :-) We spent the rest of that morning snorkeling for sea glass at Grand Case beach. Then we ate lunch at the lolos!! We ate at Sky’s the Limit…delicious food!!!! I will miss that food!!!

Tuesday morning, Cheryl and I headed back to Tijon for our perfume class! John taught us about perfumes, had us to smell and describe each of Tijon’s scents, and then let us start smelling the oils in the “perfume organ.” The perfume organ has leveled tiers, full of 300 different scented oils! They are in alphabetical order so they can be found easier! John gave us each a tray so we put any of the scents we liked in the tray. We each got to wear a lab coat too! (Made us feel important!) Then we took our tray of scents into the lab and started working! It was a bit overwhelming at first because we didn’t trust ourselves and weren’t sure what to do! We caught on pretty quick though. We had lots of plastic eyedroppers, so we could put one in each scent. We each had 6 little glass beakers to work with. We could mix whatever we wanted into the beakers. We just had to write down how many drops of what scent went into each beaker. That way, when we had something we thought we liked, we could repeat the recipe. Once we each had a scent we thought we liked, he took the other beakers out. Then he gave us each 3 clean beakers and said to make the same thing in each beaker. Then we should add something different to 3 of the beakers in order to see if we still liked the first best, or if we had improved our original scent. It was really a neat process! We each ended up with a perfume that we love!

The class cost $100 (only $80 for me because I’m a “local”). We each received a gift bag full of goodies!!! Each gift bag had a bottle of their perfume (we got to pick our favorite one), samples of 2 of their other perfumes, soap that they make, lip gloss that they make, a sample of sunscreen that they make, and a sample of massage oil that they make. That’s a lot of stuff!!!! Considering that their perfume bottles cost $57, we thought we got a super good deal!!!! Can’t believe we got to take all of that stuff home, along with the bottle of perfume that we made! Awesome!!!

After the class, we drove back to the apartments, picked up Steve and Matt, and headed to Skipjack’s for lunch. I had never been before, but Phillip went with school once and loved it! He recommended the beer battered fish and chips. Good choice! He was right…delicious!!! Then we headed to Philipsburg to go shopping one more time! On the way home, we picked up McDonalds for Phillip’s dinner. He was excited!

Wednesday the 16th, we went snorkeling at Little Bay. That’s where we found so many sand dollars last year. We didn’t find any this time though! But we had fun snorkeling and saw 2 squids under a floating dock there! They were cute! We saw a dive boat not too far out from where we were snorkeling. I had heard there’s a wreck there that’s a popular dive/snorkel site. Matt and I decided to go check it out. We got to the boat, but didn’t see anything. We saw dive buoys marking off an area a little farther though, so kept going. We got farther and around the corner, we saw another boat and a huge floating platform with snorkel equipment, dive equipment, and tons of people snorkeling. So I asked someone about the wreck. He pointed us in the right direction. Sure enough, there was a sailboat and a sub down there! I really enjoyed seeing the sub! I was mad at myself for not taking the camera that day. I always take it…except that day! Figures! We enjoyed diving down to see the wreck…really made me appreciate scuba though! Sure would have been easier if I could have breathed while I was down there! Ha! We ate dinner at Sugarcane with Phillip that evening. It was good! Then we went to the Carousel, new a gelateria (ice cream) place in Simpson Bay. We all really enjoyed the ice cream! I had pineapple and melon flavored! Soooo good!

Thursday morning, they went to the pool one last time and then packed everything to head home! We were busy that morning!!! We had to move all of our stuff back to our apartment, empty food from frig/freezer into our apartment, etc. Plus make sure the apartment was empty and clean! Matt drove Steve to the airport, where he waited with a bunch of their luggage. Matt drove the car back and loaded the rest of the bags. Then I drove Cheryl and Matt back to the airport. We had a full car both times! I don’t think they were ready to leave!!!! The 2 weeks went fast, but we sure had fun! :-)