Tan boobies

We came home from St. Martin yesterday evening. I have to say, it suited me just fine to have no access to a cell phone or computer for an entire week. Though when I checked my email last night it took me an hour and a half to sort through everything. That's the bad part about vacations.

This vacation was the first and last of its kind - Tripp and I, plus my mom, Cathy, Phyliss, and two family friends. Spending 8 days with your family members, even if it's on a beautiful tropical island, is just not fun. By day 5 everyone was ready to go home. It wasn't all bad though. From now on we'll stick to a friends only policy.


Tripp and I visited 5 different beaches, Dawn Beach, Baie Rouge, Orient Baie, Friar's Bay, and Pinel Island. Orient Baie, Baie Rouge, and Pinel Island were amazing! Really good snorkeling at Baie Rouge, and the water is gorgeous. Well, all of the water on the island is gorgeous. . . Orient Baie is the ritzy frou frou beach, lots of naked boobies and extremely tan old French guys in very little bikinis. Pinel Island requires a ten minute ferry ride and it is definitely worth the $6 round trip. The beach on the island is somewhat small, you can rent chairs and umbrellas, there's a restaurant and a bar on the island, no other trappings of the land locked world though - not even electricity. The water on the beach is completely still, no waves, and doesn't get more than waist deep. The main recreation on the beach is to buy a large alcoholic beverage, sit in the shallow water, and get drunk and tan. Very nice.

When we first got to the island I gave Tripp a quota, he could only see 20 sets of boobies, penalty free. That number totally went out the window, especially once we got to Orient Baie. So to make it some what fair I got to go topless too, and give the ladies some time in the sun. They enjoyed it thoroughly. As did Tripp.

Though the island's motto is "The friendly island" the majority of people were not entirely friendly. The island's wildlife, however, is very cordial. While driving down any given road you are likely to be greeted by many friendly goats, lots of cows, some horses, several dogs, a few roosters, and of course, some pigs. They just roam about freely, greeting tourists and happily accepting any leftovers you might be willing to spare. My mom almost came home with a puppy she met in Phillipsburg. Tripp and I almost came home with a baby goat, they are way cute. We were going to name it Boris, but then found out there's a good deal of red tape when it comes to flying live stock on international airlines. Ugh.




Hurricane Dean almost scared us into coming home two days early (not that we minded by that point) but we found out the airlines wouldn't move our tickets forward anyway. So we stuck it out - Dean visited St. Martin on Friday with some showers, many dark, stormy clouds, and big ass frothy waves. We didn't go swimming that day. There was lots of detritus (new big word found on many beach signs on the island!)and yucky stuff washing up on shore. I don't like to swim with yucky stuff. A few crazy surfers did tempt fate and surfed with Dean. That's what happens when there's too much testosterone in your body.

Tripp and I ended up coming home only with a lovely set of tans and some kick ass guavaberry liqueur. If you go to St. Martin, get a guavaberry colada from the guavaberry emporium in Phillipsburg. It will rock your socks off. Seriously.