THE FRIENDLY ISLAND - PART UNO

Well this vacation has been an adventure -- that's for SURE!! Let's start from the beginning....

For our wedding present, my grandparents gave us a week stay at the Marriott anywhere in the world. Also, Austin's friend works for Delta, so he got us an awesome deal on flights. The only problem is that they were buddy passes so we had to fly stand by. A word for the wise... standby tickets are NOT worth it. AHHH!

We chose St. Maarten because it was kind of a spur of the moment decision, and it was one of the only closer out of the country places on the Mariott exchange list.

May 2, 2009

Plan A was to fly out Saturday morning at 1:00 AM. Well.... we didn't get on the flight to Atlanta. It was packed because of a problem with another delayed flight. Plan B was to wait at the airport and try to fly out on the next flight at 6:00 AM.

This is us at 3:00 AM. We were sad and tired. PS check out that small bag. Yes, I had to pack everything in a carry on. I can't believe I did it. I tend to overpack.

Then we talked to a Delta person, and she said we probably wouldn't be able to get on a flight to St. Maarten until Monday. Soooo we decided to just go home and go back to he airport Sunday to fly to Atlanta.

May 3, 2009

We got to Atlanta fine on Sunday morning, but our flight to St. Maarten wasn't until Monday, so we had a full 24 hours to kill.

The day time wasn't so bad.

We watched some movies....

...took a little nap ... and played lots of Solitaire

May 4, 2009

The night time is what killed us. We had only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before, so you would think we would sleep better. Maybe we would have if it weren't below zero degrees in there. We only had a tiny blanket that Austin stole from the flight over there. It didn't do crap. We were shaking we were so cold. Plus the lights stayed on. Plus there were a bunch of Mexi's sleeping around us. I like Mexi's and all, but I was scared for my luggage. Oh... and it was just plain uncomfortable. Ugh.... never want to do that again. We almost got 2 hours of sleep (2:30 - 4:30) Just look at us poor little soles. I actually hate this picture. BAD MEMORIES hahah. The good news was that we got on FIRST CLASS on the flight to St. Maarten. We deserved it. It was so comfortable. I slept the whole time. We also got to watch any new releases we wanted. Austin watched Confessions of a Shopaholic and Defiance. I put on Yes Man and then Bride Wars, but I pretty much slept through both of them. We also got a free yummy meal. It was soo good - Chicken, salad, sour dough roll, and a lemon square. I felt so weird in first class, though. I'm not going to lie. We were surrounded by rich people that were all decked out. They were looking at us like we were crazy. We had been in the same clothes for 48 hours with no sleep, and we seriously looked like H. E. double L. Here is Austin enjoying his moment of being a high rolla. I guess I shouldn't add him in my category of bad looking. He still looks good. Boys are lucky.

The first night we got there, we ate at this place called Beau Beau's. It was on a dock that overlooked the ocean. It was so pretty. It also was pouring rain, which was cool. Austin drank lots of Coke. Hello, popaholic husband.

May 5, 2009

Our first day at the pool, I thought I didn't need any sunblock HAAAA. Ummm no, I got so fried. I'm just sitting here in pain right now. This guy came over to us and said, "Oh what kind of camera do you have? The XSI?" and I said, "No, I have the XTI." Then he said, "Well I have the XSI. Do you want me to take some pictures of you guys?" haha were were like, "OK". So he took like a million pictures of us laying out. Full body shots and all. It was pretty awkward. Then he said, "You should put your arm around your girlfriend. Or is it your sister?" Ummm... actually WIFE. Thanks. (Yes, Austin is wearing my girlie sunglasses if you are wondering. He forgot his, and then mine broke, so now we are both sunglassless)

We decided to walk alround by our hotel on the way back from the pool.

Austin got these sandles specifically for this trip, and he loves them. I say he looks like a dad. Oh and we got poured on during our walk also. Basically we have good luck.

Austin especially loves St. Maarten because he says everything is exactly the same as Madagascar - the weather, the pizza, the landscapes, the buildings, the homeless dogs, and everything. The weather is super hot and humid, but it is windy and overcast all day long. It also starts raining at like 3:00 every day. The pizza has the thinnest crust ever. The landscape has plants and dirt with no grass. The buildings are rundown. And they have the ugliest dogs ever.

I loved this door. Our hotel is in the rich part of the island. All these houses have big cool gates and guards by them. This is an entrance to one of the houses.

Okay, this was the weirdest tree we've ever seen.

We are staying at the Oyster Bay Beach Resort on the Dutch side of the island. One side of the hotel overlooks the ocean, and the other side overlooks a big bay area with tons of sailboats. It's sweet.

Last night was Pizza & Pasta night at the resort. Like I said... thinnest crust ever, but just how I like it. MMMM it was so good, and we even had a romantic singer. Check out how bright red my face is. My chest and stomach are WORSE.

We are trying to save money by not eating out every meal, so we went to the convenient store to get some groceries. Everything was super expensive there too, so we've basically been living on sandwiches, cereal, cup of soups, and pringles. The one good buy we found was Pina Colada and Strawberry Daiquiri mix to make Pink Panther drinks like we had in Cancun. Austin is obsessed and makes them all the time.

May 6, 2009

Today was our beach day. We have a beach right next to the resort. It lasted like 5 minutues hahahA. I am not much of a beach person. I hate sand all over me, and I don't like to get in the ocean, so there we go...boring, I know.

This is the view from our condo balcany. Look at that cool bay area. Austin likes to sit out on the balcony and watch the birds. He is intrigued with the birds here. They are huge, and they don't flap their wings...they just soar. Last night at the hot tub, Austin was floating in the water making weird flying noises. I said, "What are you doing?" He said, "Oh, just practicing my flying. I'm pretending I'm a Pelican." Hahah.

This has seriously been the craziest, but BEST trip ever.