Caribbean sunset

The days flow together on a Caribbean island

We have fallen in to a pattern for our days. I wake up 4-5 days a week alone because Tom has gone to the gym at our sister resort. The rest of the week are his days off. When he arrives home we have a frozen fruit smoothie for breakfast while we decide which beach to explore for the day. With 30+ beach choices, it's the most difficult decision of the day.

Each beach on the island has its own personality. The windward and leeward sides are vastly different of course, however even beaches side by side have their own unique shade and texture of sand, variety and condition of shells that wash up, and vegetation (or lack there of) that surrounds the beach. Some beaches have bold iguanas that saunter by as we sit in our beach chairs.

Most days we choose a beach somewhere else on the island, although there are days we stick close to home and enjoy "our beach" here at the resort.  Whether we stay here or chose a beach further away, we end up on one of the two beaches at the resort for sunset. 

We are very fortunate to have two such beautiful and well kept beaches right outside our door. One of the beaches is small and directly in front of the pool, the other is larger and is shared with the resort next door. Our balcony overlooks the larger beach.

 Our beaches come equipped with two "chair guys", Raymond and Jolum, whom we have made friends with. They have become accustomed to us appearing in the late afternoon and staying until pretty much everyone else has gone to their rooms. The very best colors of the sunset appear after the sun has disappeared. Tom and I sit there, armed with our cameras, trying to capture the impossible..... The beauty and tranquility of a Caribbean sunset.

Carrie joins us

We have begun to find a rhythm for our days, choosing a beach and listening to reggae on the radio as we drive to it. (You've got to have a soundtrack for your travels!)

My sister Carrie decided last minute to join us for a portion of our trip. She is spending 10 days  sleeping on our sofa bed and lounging on the local beaches with us. Like me, she is not one to pass up any opportunity to travel.

The mornings that Tom goes to the gym allow she and I time just to hang out together. We saw each other in June at our family reunion but  so many other family members to visit with didn't allow any time for just the two of us to be together.

We share a love of beach combing so each new beach has been an opportunity to hunt for beach glass. We have found small bits of glass, predominantly green, on each beach. The Holy Grail of beach glass was Grand Case Beach, which is on the French side of the island. I told Carrie that it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Glass washed up with every wave and at the eastern end of the beach big chunks of glass sat like bits of shiny candy in the sand.

While I was looking for glass on Grand Case, a local girl named Sylvie, saw what I was doing and joined the search. She began to bring me handfuls and invited me to walk down the beach with her in search of more. She found the prize of the day for me, a chunk of cobalt blue... a color among the more rare. The best part for me was that she never asked what I was doing or why, she simply joined in the hunt and shared her bounty with me.

Stormy beach

A storm is brewing!

Sea life

St. Maarten sand, up close and personal

Nature's beauty!

Thursday, September 10, 2015

We spent the day hanging out at our beach, snorkeling and enjoying having nothing at all that we had to be doing.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

 

We spent the day on the French side of the island in Marigot. It is the Capitol and main city on the French side of the island. 

There is a market on Wednesday and Saturday and we wanted to buy some fresh fruit and veggies. The selection was small, as was the town, without a lot to recommend it. We wandered around unsuccessfully searching for an ATM that would take Tom's debit card. So far our credit union at home has not issued us cards with a chip, which is all the machines we have found accept.

After a fresh fruit bowl snack at a well known French pastry shop (nothing Gluten Free for me, and Tom was maintaining his weight loss pursuit) we returned to our car and left town.

On the way home we found the island's largest grocery store Le Grande Marche  and filled in items that we couldn't get (or forgot) at the Costco-esque store a few days earlier. Another $120. 00 in groceries later, and a trip to the ATM that we finally found that would take a non chip debit card, and we headed back home to finish the day at our pool.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

We spent the better part of the day "beach shopping" today. I had a list of a few beaches fairly near our resort that we had decided to check out. The first bay wasn't in the list for the day but I was driving and it looked like an interesting side road. There were a bunch of cars in the "parking lot" ( term is used loosely to describe the rocky area where people turned off their engines at the second the fancy struck them). We followed the path through a forest area and stumbled on to the  extremely gorgeous Mullet Bay. It was an organized multi row of beach chairs and umbrellas affair. We walked to the one end and took a few pictures, drinking in the beauty of the clear green Caribbean Sea and the saturated blue sky filled with bright white puffy clouds, before we headed back to the car in search of the next glorious view.

We were searching for Baie Aux Prunes, Baie Longe and Baie Rouges. 

New to the island's signage we ended up further along our route than we expected to be. I pulled over to ask a neatly dressed man for directional assistance. Because I had forgotten we had passed from the Dutch side to the French side of the island I said Hello and asked in English if he spoke English. He approached the car and spoke to us in French. I told him we needed directions but we weren't communicating well due to the language barrier on both sides. He suddenly looked at my beach location notes in Tom' s hand ( the notes Tom had just commented that he couldn't read due to my handwriting) and said " Baie Rouges?" and proceeded to give us directions in French, which would have been amazing if either of us spoke French! I was able to pick up a few words here and there, enough to send us on our way.

We drove further than I thought we should based on the directions I thought I understood (!) so I decided to turn down an alley that headed toward the water. At this point let me just say that this island is in love with speed bumps. You won't encounter too many speed limit signs, your speed is mainly controlled by speed bumps, large and larger... Sometimes marked, sometimes lying in wait to launch you unexpectedly into the air. The alley I turned down was narrow, full of various sized vehicles and other obstacles with speed bumps that proudly rose with unexpected enthusiasm in the middle of the street. Oh, and they had a split down the middle just wide enough for a car tire to fit in if you were silly enough to allow that to happen. I, thankfully, was not. I decided to bust out the 11 words in French that I know and asked a woman on the roadside in French if she spoke English. She looked dazed and confused. I asked for Baie Rouge. More confusion. I said Merci and drove off. (It occurred to me later that she didn't speak French, but English instead! Oops!)

With hazard spotting support from my navigator (and an old gentleman sitting at his outdoor table taking in the spectacle as I negotiated his driveway) we made it safely out of that alley and I chose my next alley more carefully. This one took us to an actual paved road. After driving a few blocks I spotted the perfect person to try for directions again. I rolled down my window and said "Bon Jour", she said "hi". Oh! You speak English! Awesome!

Suddenly, the woman who had basically been alone on the street was suddenly joined by another boisterous woman and a man with 4 teeth. I asked for Baie Rouge. " Oh yes, that's nice" my new friends said as the three of them separately began to enthusiastically gesticulate and swing their arms giving us directions. The only problem was lady 1 was throwing her arms to the right "you go this way", man with 4 teeth was throwing his arms to the left indicating that we should go that direction, and lady "2? She was throwing her arms right and then left while she jumped up and down excitedly encouraging us to follow her directions!!! Suddenly, as all of this was transpiring, a preteen boy in a school uniform was leaning against my door taking it all in. Tom was in the passenger seat making frustrated noises while I thoroughly enjoyed the entire encounter! I have a higher tolerance for the absurd than he does I guess ;-) The absolute funniest part though was that all three of my new friends were telling me the same thing.... I was on a "dead road"... I needed to turn around and retrace my steps to the alley I came up, in order to continue the direction I had been headed ( left, then right.. Both directions like my friends were telling me!) I felt like I was in a SNL skit and  I laugh out loud EVERY single time I think about this! ( and I wish I had video!)

We finally found Baie Rouge and walked down to the beach to take a few pictures and admire the rock cairns built on the beach.

After a few failed attempts to find the (non private) entrance to Baie Longe we gave up and headed toward our resort. We saw a crowd gathered at Maho Beach so we stopped to watch the action. Maho Beach is famous for being directly in the path of giant airline jets preparing to land. People are excited by the opportunity to have a jet scream 20-50 feet over their head as it lands or being blown over by the blast of the thrusters as a plane takes off. Valuing our hearing and life in general we watched the fun from a safe distance.

Monday, September 7, 2015

During my online research I found out there was a Costco like store on St. Maarten and that was our goal for the day... stock up on groceries to take us through the month we will be temporary locals. 

We drove to Cul de Sac which involved turning right out of our street, 1st right on the round about, second right on the round about, right just past Le Grande Marche, on the left. Just perfect for our first trip on the local roads. We only missed one turn because we mistook a dirt road for an exit on the round about (mostly due to the fact that a lot of the roads are dirt and none of them are marked with silly annoyances like center lines).

Cost U Less $ 337.00 

We happily returned to our place and made  lunch with our new groceries. We had cobbled together a breakfast from some apples we had in my travel bag and yesterday was snacks on the plane and a late lunch/early dinner at the resort restaurant so having a fridge full of food was nice.

A little lounge time at the beach below our balcony, dinner on the BBQ, and then it was time to start relaxing!

Life is tough on a tropical island

Happily Retired!

The view from our room!

Sunday, September 6, 2015

36 hours with no sleep. We thought it would be easier than our usual trips to Europe. Not as far to fly, combined with only a 3 hour time difference would be easy... 

We didn't factor in the 3.5 hour red eye flight (no sleep), 3 hour layover (sleep on the dirty floor without a sleep sack? No thanks), or the 3.5 hour flight into the morning sun (no sleep). Fortunately (?) cold airports and frigid planes helped to keep us awake. We will both be wearing our down jackets on the way home. Why do we both have down jackets packed to go to the Caribbean you might wonder? You'll have to ask Tom to tell you his story about the wife who scoffed at his idea of taking a packable down  jacket to Illinois in June....

During the last few minutes of the flight we excitedly shared picture taking opportunities through the tiny airplane window with a young woman out of the U.S. for the first time. How can you not get excited as golden sand encrusted islands begin to appear where moments ago there was only water, water everywhere? Or trying to capture the iridescent, translucent  green/blue shades of the Atlantic Ocean morphing into the Caribbean Sea?

 Moments after de planing and wizzing through passport control, we were outside waiting for our ride to the car rental place. We passed the time spraying ourselves with the essential oil bug spray I made. We read that Mosquitos surround St. Maarten and require a serious blood offering in exchange for your stay. That and the fact that many people visiting here have become infected with a horrible mosquito borne illness over the last year or so had me researching "bug be gone remedies". Not willing to soak myself in a toxic chemical fog for 5 weeks, I hit up Pinterest for some essential oil bug spray recipes.

We survived the requisite rental car wrangling,  and then we were off for the 5 minute drive to our timeshare. The 5 minutes which really was 20 in the end because we got excited when we saw McDonalds (we were supposed to be turning at Burger King) which took us to the wrong resort. Right brand, wrong branch.

Check in, pictures of the view for envious friends and family, unpack, down to the resort bar/ restaurant for a mahi mahi  reuben for Tom and Lebanese salad and fries for me. I almost faint when I see the $65.00 check. For that simple lunch? Island prices are going to kill us! .... oh, wait... That's the bill in Dutch Guilder..... $32.00 US. Much better. Man, am I tired...Walk to the little local market for water and then home to shower and bed. Tom makes it until 8, I hang in until 10. The fourth time I almost drop my iPad (you know that feeling of falling as you start to fall asleep?) I know it's time to give in.

Surprise!!! We are going to the Caribbean!!! Happy retirement Tom!!!

After spending a week visiting with our Arizona kids and grandkids, Tom and I embarked on the second leg of our journey,  a five week trip to Saint Maarten, Netherlands Antilles!

This five-week trip is a surprise for Tom as a retirement gift from me. I have been planning it for a year now and I can't believe the time is finally here and we have arrived on this beautiful island!l

Spirited to Chicago

We flew Spirit Airlines for the first time today. Our flight was uneventful once we were in the air. We were notified by email early in the morning that we would be delayed by a half hour. Once we were on board we were further delayed another 30 minutes or so due to computer issues at the headquarters in Florida. Our pilot walked the aisle schmoozing the passengers and explaining the problem as best he could. Overall our first experience with Spirit was fine (all airlines experience delays unfortunately) and we would fly them again, especially because we saved several,hundred dollars over the return flight home on another airline.

After arriving at O'Hare and picking up our bags we made our way to the subway entrance for the famous Chicago El train. $10.00 and 43 minutes later we were in downtown Chicago and a 4 block walk away from our hostel. I checked my phone for our directions and Tom used his as a compass to find "East" before we started our jaunt. Is was an easy walk and it only took moments (and a credit card of course) before we were checked in to our private room at the hostel.

This is our first American hostel experience and the most (by far) expensive hostel we have ever stayed in at about $150. per night (reportedly $50. for a single bed in an 8 person dorm). The price we paid is  for a room without a private bath. Our room is as bare bones as it comes, however the common rooms are plentiful and inviting which I believe may be the point. If the rooms aren't overly spacious or accommodating people will be forced to congregate (and therefore mingle) with other travelers in the common areas. This is of course our favorite part about the hostel experience anyway!

Hungry after a long day of travel we found an old style Chicago restaurant (circa 1932, low light atmosphere, heavy wood walls and tables, and lots of loud talking). We had a so so meal before we headed back to our room. Despite it being two hours earlier at home we were ready for bed.

Branson here we come

Branson... Slovenia? Poland? Ukraine?

Don't I wish.

No European adventure for us this time around. We are headed to a family reunion in Branson, Misssouri this trip. We are excited to see our extended family, however meeting in a more exotic local would have been my preference!

We are starting or adventure with four days in Chicago. Our temporary big city home will also be our first American hostel. No $30. room like we are accustomed to in European cities. We are paying $150. a night for the pleasure of sharing a bathroom with several other private rooms. We are supremely excited for the hostel experience though. Our hostel is reported to have a great common room which always makes meeting other travelers easier.

After Chicago we plan to spend the next week with friends and then family before heading to Branson for the big gathering.

August 11, 2014 Mystras to Athens, Greece

Today was our final drive in Greece. We needed to make the 2.5 hour trip from Mystras to Athens where we were scheduled to drop off our car at the airport. We had arranged a ride from the airport to our apartment for the night, and the drop off went off without a hitch. 

The problems started when the young guy who was our driver informed us that he was not available to take us back to the airport as we had previously arranged. We weren't happy to hear that news but we decided that we could figure it out when we got to our apartment.

We had scheduled an apartment in Athens through airBnB and I had been in communication with the apartment owner the night before we were to arrive back in Athens. He informed me that due to some repairs on the apartment we were supposed to be in he needed to switch us to a different apartment that he owned. I agreed that the change would be fine as long as the apartment was up to the same standard as the one we had already paid for.

Upon arrival at our apartment we glanced around and it seemed fine except we found out that it did not have Wi-Fi as we had been promised. We were dismayed by that news because we already knew that we needed to arrange a ride back to the airport in the middle of the night, along with last minute tasks like checking in for our flight.

We decided to do a load of laundry so that we could pack clean clothes in our backpacks. The washing machine immediately caused a flood in the bathroom where it was located. That is when we started to look around and began discovering the problems not evident at first glance. When we went to hang laundry outside one of the outside doors was broken, and when we went outside through the functional door we found there was no clothesline available. When we went to leave the apartment to run our last minute souvenir errands the handle on the front door was broken and we were afraid we might not be able to get back in again. When we returned to the apartment it was evening and we discovered that there was only one light in the entire apartment. It was dinner time so we went to the kitchen to make some dinner and discovered that our "fully furnished apartment " had no plates, glasses or utensils. There was also not a pot or pan in sight.  We had suffered the mother of all bait and switches.

The good news was that during the repacking of my backpack I rummaged through every pocket until I found the business card of the taxi driver who had given us a ride when Deiann and I were together  in Athens the first time. He was the taxi driver that had given Deiann, Kim, Danielle and I a ride 1.5 weeks before. As we got out of his taxi that day he offered me his business card and said "just in case you need another ride while you're in Athens". In that moment that I found the business card, I was very grateful to be a "keeper of things".

As we descended the apartment stairs in the middle of the night we could see that the taxi driver was waiting outside the glass front door for us. Our relief knew no bounds. I had texted back-and-forth with the taxi driver to arrange our ride but we were relieved and happy to see him there in person, as promised.  We weren't certain he would be there due to all of the mishaps of the prior 12 hours.

As my five week Greek odyssey came to a close, I was as always when I'm at the end of my travels,  sad to have it all be over but grateful that it had happened.

I have a new grandbaby on the way, due in just over two weeks and a baby shower planned within that time. Days after the grandbaby arrives Tom and I have a two week vacation in Lake Tahoe, California planned so I have all of that to look forward to which softens the blow.

I have no idea where my next holiday will be but it's time to get started planning!

Mystras, Greece August 10, 2014

After cheek kisses goodbye from Stella we got on the road to Mystras. Mystras is a smallish village with ancient Byzantine ruins, and it is only four kilometers from Sparti. There is nothing ancient and interesting in Sparti despite its famous past but Mystras is a charming albeit small town. 

Because it was Sunday we needed to get to the ancient site as soon as possible because it closed at 3 pm. We drove the 2.5 hours from Kardamili to the upper site and began our exploration. The upper site is the multi level fortress/palace and the lower site includes several small monasteries with well preserved frescos that are really beautiful. In 1249 a Frankish prince built a castle here before the 4th century Mystrás became the seat of the Despotate of Moreas, and in 1448 the last emperor of Byzantium was crowned here. 

The day was hot (36.5 Celsius) as we have come to expect so after hiking around and viewing the sites a Mesimeri  was in order. We had passed our hotel on the way to the upper Mystras site so it was a breeze finding it when we wanted it... Always a desirable thing! We checked into our room, turned on the AC and indulged in that nap.

We have both really slowed down the last few days. Weeks and weeks of strenuous exercise have begun to take their toll on me and the daily nap, while I feel guilty  "wasting time" in Greece, has become a necessity.

After our nap we went for a walk around the small town. It was a pleasant walk without much to see. We ended up on a park bench near a military hero's statue. We enjoyed just "being" on our next to last evening in Greece.

Dinner was at the hotel restaurant where I was very pleased to be given assistance by the waiter regarding Gluten Free, vegetarian options. He made a special effort to know about my preferences that he had noted on our reservation. It was especially nice the following morning when we had breakfast and they brought me gluten free "biscuits" (cheese crackers.. Yum!). The owners have a friend that is the local baker and he made them just for me!