Landgrens Take on St Maarten

My Parents were here last week! We has such a great visit with them, and a bit of vacation ourselves. I know you're thinking we're on vacation all the time, but it was nice to take a break from school and work and get to relax and play tourist for a bit. On Sunday, after touring the school and beach, we made a fresh fish (bought at the fresh market the day before) dinner and had our friends over as well. Monday we headed to Karakters, at Simpson Bay Beach. We enjoyed a nice lunch, then spent the afternoon in the water and watching the planes just beside us past the sand (not the Maho beach they fly right over). We also saw the first of many rainbows that week.

From Simpson Bay Beach

Tuesday we had a relaxing morning while Owen was in class, then headed to Baie Rouge in hopes of snorkeling. Unfortunately snorkeling was a bust all week, the waves were rough and stirring up too much sand, but we still enjoyed playing in the water. We also went out to dinner with Soc to Patagonia, best restaurant experience on the island! Wednesday we headed out for a fun filled day. We stopped by Sarafina's bakery in Marigot, saw all the markets, including the fish. Then we headed up to the top of the island, Pic Paradis, to get a good view of the island and surrounding islands. We drove most of the way up then hiked the last little bit, had to get a little adventure in there, Grove style :) After our view from the top, we headed to Orient Beach for some wave runners! We took 2 wave runners out for a bit, the water was pretty choppy and we all managed to get some serious air a few times. I think all parties had fun :) Then we relaxed on the beach for the rest of the afternoon and the guys played with boogie boards for a while. After the beach was Jimmy Buffett Rib Night at our local restaurant with some friends, overall a pretty fun day.

Thursday we went on the radio with Soc in the morning then went into Philipsburg for the afternoon, the Allure of the Seas was in port and my parents hadn't seen the new huge cruise ships yet. Unfortunately we couldn't get very close, but it was still neat to see from the boardwalk. We did a little walking around and a little shopping, this was one of the only parts of the island they had seen before, so we didn't spend too much time there. That evening we had a nice dinner on the lagoon at Skip Jacks followed by a last trip to Carousel, which my parents totally loved. Friday we spent the morning at Mullet Beach before packing up and heading to the airport. We had lunch and said our "see you soons" and just like that the week was over. Or so we all thought :) My parents incoming plane had a medical emergency on the way to St Maarten and the plane was grounded because they did not have back up medical supplies for the outgoing flight. So 5pm Friday, Owen is playing volleyball, I'm catching up on homework, and there's a knock at the door. My parents flight had been postponed until Saturday afternoon! So we headed to the hotel the airline put them up at, had dinner and hung out for a bit. The next day we had brunch, dropped their bags back off at the airport, and hung out back at our apartment for a bit. This time their flight, which ended up getting delayed a couple hours, was able to take off.

Top of Pic Paradis

So that's the rundown of the Landgren's visit to our little island. Everyone had a really great week and it was a lot of fun to show them the island from our point of view. Thanks for coming to visit!! Here are a few pictures from their visit, the last one is from a wedding at the Summit on Saturday, thought they'd like to see it. I'll post some more on our Picasa site next time I'm at the school, with fast internet. Enjoy!

                                                          

Borrowed from a friend