Well here we are finally made it and here's a brief report so far.
Day 1: Flight to charlotte, no problem arrived on time.3 hour layover and then we get on plane to have an annoncement that someone didn't get on plane so they had to offload their checked luggage. 25 minutes later on our way and only ended up about 3 minutes late. Meet Leslie for the car and on our way. Got to Royal Palms and are on the 3rd floor. Head out to beach to check it out and it's closed. Wife and daughter already not happy. Get in the car and start driving towards orient, I want them to see a good looking beach. Wow what and adventure driving here is, wife is a little nervous, not too happy with this place I took her to. She's beginning to wonder what we got into. Then I took the correct turn on the advice of someone on here and somehow got us to Dawn beach. All of a suddon when she sees the turquiose water, the world is right again. Had a bbc and continued on to Orient beach for a bite to eat. Wrong, it was about 4 o clock and the soccer game was on. Everything closed. Back to the hotel to clean up and over to Lees for dinner. What a delicious meal with 2 orders of ribs and a hamburger. 65.00 with tip.
Day 2: off to the beach after some pastries from a bakery up by the pelican. 20.00 for 6 a little pricey but very good. We were going to go to mullet but decided to go the other way and went to Pinel instead. Great choice, wife is now ecstatic with this island and already says we will be back! Daughter is also having fun. Spent the whole day snorkling and playing in the water. There was a cruise ship in, but wasn't overly crowded. Back to hotel to clean up and headed over to Skipjacks for dinner. Not great food for what we paid, we liked Lees better. Spent about 100.00
Day 3 went grocery shopping finally and had breakfast in condo. Headed over to Taste of St. Maarten and nothing happening yet,(island time I guess). Went over to Maho and watched the planes coming in and leaving. I went snorkling over by the rocks and was impressed with all the fish over there. Wife is even more impressed with this beach. She just loved sitting in the waves and people watching. Then is happened. I got back from snorkling and she told me the Aquapac camera back we puchased leaked and the camera won't turn on or off!!!! The seam at the bottom has developed a small leak. I think my camera may be ruined. Does anyone know of someone on the island that can take a look at it and let possibly fix it?
Back to the good stuff, not gonna let it ruin my trip and the daughter has her camera as a back up. Back to condo for lunch and off to another beach. This time it was Baie Rouge. Parking was a joke and finally just parked out on the road. Got down there and the wife made the comment that the beaches just keep getting better! I am so glad she's having a good time and also commented how nice everyone is. I snorkled the entire beach and even went over to the big hole and through it off to the right. Our favorite stop so far I think. On our way back got stopped at a DUI checkpoint, I knew what it was, wife thought we were getting car jacked or something, blew 0.0 and on our way. Took her about 5 minutes to calm down after we left.
This morning we have a scuba class at 9:30 this morning then off to the beach again.
I really need some help with the camera if possible though. I'll check back tonight if the internet cafe is open.
Thanks soooo much for all the great info and advice before we left, wouldn't have been as enjoyable without you guys.
