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About Me

About Me

Welcome...I'm delighted that you chose to visit! I started this blog in March 2010 and I am so happy that I did. It has made me more aware of the many ways that God is blessing my life. I have made some special friends who bless,teach,encourage,and entertain me! My desire is to be an encouragement to you. I hope you will tarry for a while and that you will come back to visit often.

Monday, October 14, 2013

st marteen


St Marteen is a 34 square mile Caribbean island with a population of about 78, 000 people. It belongs to two countries...France controls about 60%, the Netherlands, 40%. However the Dutch side is more populated.The two countries live harmoniously and travel from one side to the other without border checks. But, a call from one side to the other is an International call...even if you are next door neighbors with just the border between!! And don't think you can use your cell phone...there are towers to block them!

This greeted us as we  headed from the dock to...



our nice air conditioned tour buses!!
Much nicer than our transportation on St Thomas.
 

Thought these were neat...twirling windmills.
They served no purpose...just an art feature.
 

Our guide was Danny, a life long resident of St Marteen.
He was very informative and enjoyable. He slowed down
so we could get a shot of our ship.


Expensive resort...nice, huh?
 

Our first stop on the Dutch side.


 There were several round-a-bouts on our tour.
Each one had a statue of a well-known forefather.
This man started directing traffic when there were only 3 cars
on the island! :-)
Now there are thousands! The island imports many
models and residents from neighboring islands
come to St Marteen to buy their cars.
And their KFC! Missed getting a picture of their
Kentucky Fried Chicken Store, but Danny said
folks come by boat and plane to pick up
their bucket of the Colonel's finest!


Pretty waterfront on the French side.
 

Had to pay a buck to use this restroom...
but it was worth it...first class!
 

Our stop on the French side.
A couple from Cincinnati offered to take our picture.
We returned the favor and found out they had visited 
our fair city twice to tour our Air Force Museum!



There were some souvenir vendors and some lovely flowers 
at this stop.
 

This school bus driver drove for many years
and was known for maintaining good discipline
on his bus.


After our tour, we did some shopping and
made our way through an alley to the beach closest
to Front Street in Philipsburg, the main city on the Dutch side.
 That's our ship in the background.


We ate lunch at this seaside cafe...
not sure what the name was, but the view was great!


Saw this replica of a pirate ship as we were
 walking down the beach... cool!


This is Front Street where most of the shops are.
 Notice how narrow it is...and that the street is brick.
The palm trees are nice, too!
 

When we got back to the pier, I thought I should
take a picture of this "old sailor" and his ship!
(He served in the Navy from '67-'71on the
USS Dubuque.)
It's 209 ft high and over 1100 ft long...
a pretty big house boat!! :-)
 

One more post about our trip will include pics of the ship. 
It's a beauty!

9 comments :

  1. Looks like you had a fabulous time in St. Maarten. Ah, the memories your recap is bringing back.

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  2. What a beautiful place, I enjoyed seeing pictures of you and your husband!! The flowers weren't bad either!!

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  3. What a beautiful place. It looks like you had such fun.

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  4. talk about picture postcard perfect, you found it in a lot of these photos. my favorite one is the dollar bathroom... i love those sinks.

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  5. It looks like a very pretty place. Really strange about the telephone situation there. I bet there are not many phone calls. It would be cheaper to walk over and talk to the people not to mention cheaper.

    Very nice pictures! I will be looking forward to seeing more.

    Nice picture of your sailor.

    Will look forward to seeing more pictures of the ship.

    Hugs

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  6. Great set of photos... Looks like you had a wonderful cruise. We took a similar cruise in 2001---so some of your photos brought back memories... Besides the bus tour to the French side, we also took a submersible trip out to some big rock (Creole Rock maybe)... Did you do that too????

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  7. What fun...cruising the Caribbean! We have sailed those same waters with Royal Caribbean..though I can't remember if it was Freedom of the Seas, or not. Beautiful pic's.

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  8. Such a beautiful island! Loved the info you shared about it too. So glad y'all had a great time!

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