Philipsburg is the capital of the Dutch side of the island – Sint Maarten. It is also where the cruise ships dock, and it’s filled with jewelers, clothing stores, bars, t-shirt shops, and everything else that a cruiser could want. After parking on the sidewalk (1) we went for a stroll along the beachfront.

Zelda and Meteo are experienced cruisers, and she knew where the stores are. So we strolled over to Front Street, which has jewelers, clothing stores, liquor stores and everything else that you might possibly want to buy on your vacation. All duty free!

Despite spending almost an hour driving the 10 miles to Philipsberg, we stayed for less than an hour. Sally bought something (2) – a nice Lilly Pulitzer pocketbook. I don’t think Zelda or Mateo bought anything.

By then we were hungry, but rather than wander around in the heat looking for a suitable bar to eat in, we headed back to Maho for lunch. We ate in The Deli. We all got hero sandwiches and we were all satisfied.

Since we ate lunch late, the rest of the crew didn’t want to go out for dinner, preferring to eat left overs from prior meals that they had squirreled away. I always prefer to go out, and went back to Maho for a pizza later in the evening. Here are some shots from the town after dark.

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(1) Parking is very difficult in Philipsberg. There are allegedly parking lots, and there were signs for them, but no sign of them. I did in Philipsberg as the Philipsbergians (??) do.

(2) Sally and I rarely buy anything when we travel. Years ago we found that much of what we bought on vacation was just an impulse purchase whose desirability faded pretty quickly.

After running around the island on Thursday, our little group decided that Friday was a day to spend at our hotel “La Sammana”. It’s really very nice, but one of the best features is that all of the rooms face the beach and the Caribbean. The little bit of water that we adjoin is called “Baie Longue”, and the beach called “Long Beach” (1). Not sure why Google has one in French and the other in English.

I’m not even sure what makes it a bay. There’s a bit of land at one end, but the other end has no obvious demarkation. In any event, there are different boats anchored here everyday. This makes it even more picturesque.

We had a very leisurely breakfast, then some of us went down to the sauna beach. The temperature was about 90, as was the humidity. So despite the umbrellas, I felt that it was beyond my comfort level and declined to participate. My contribution was to take down a bunch of junk at 7:30 am to “reserve” three lounges for the others. There are lounges up and down the length of the hotel, although not enough for every guest so there’s always this need to mark your territory early. Despite all of the chairs near our section of the beach being so marked, I never saw more than half of them occupied.

I stayed in the air conditioned room, reading and occasionally venturing out to the balcony to enjoy the view and take these pictures.

We all just snacked lightly through the day, so by late afternoon we decided that an early dinner was in order. I collected a number of prospects to circulate to the group (thank you, Trip Advisor) and we settled on Mr. Chow in Maho, across from the pizzeria where I ate the night before. Asian Fusion was what they said, and it was very good (3). Some of us even brought leftovers back to the hotel. We went across the street to a little dessert shop and had ice cream, and sat at a sidewalk table for a while in the evening. Very pleasant.

Maho has a one-block long commercial strip with about a dozen bars, a couple of restaurants and some souvenir and clothing shops. I posted one of the bars yesterday. All of the clothing stores are oriented towards women for some reason (2).

This morning I am sitting on the balcony to our room enjoying the mild weather, the sound of the waves, and the quiet of the beach.

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(1) The main street that the hotel is off of is called Rue Baie Longue.

(2) Yes, I know that two of the mannequins are male, but pretty much all of the merch is for woman.

(3) Sally says “excellent”.

First, I need to apologize for the number of typos in the prior posts this week, not to mention mixing up the dates and days of the week. I promise to do better (1).

We have been discussing for a while now whether or not to rent a car while we are on St. Martin. The major disadvantages are having to park it every time you go somewhere. And the cost. And some people really don’t like driving very much, especially in strange (to them) places. They hate getting lost. All valid points.

One advantage, which in my mind significantly outweighs those disadvantages, is that taxis here are anywhere from $20-40 per trip on the island; thus dinner out can run $80 just for the taxi. The car rental is only a bit more per day. And if you make more than two trips on a day, you’re already ahead.

Second, you get much more flexibility. No waiting for the taxi to come. No problem changing your mind if you arrive somewhere and don’t like it. While you do have to find a parking space, that usually isn’t a real problem.

And finally, I like driving. I always have. I’ve driven all over the US and Canada, all over Europe, in Australia and New Zealand. On several Caribbean islands. No stress, no worry. And with our phones’ GPS apps, it’s easier than ever to find somewhere (3).

So today we (4) rented a car and went exploring to find somewhere to eat lunch. Just by eating outside of the hotel we pretty much paid for the cost of the rental. And we got to visit three areas (2), and found a nice place with typical tropical ambiance for lunch.

I went back to Cupecoy in the evening for dinner. Like many places, it has much more atmosphere after dark (3).

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(1) In the past, Sally played a major role as Editor of all posts. She has not been fulfilling that role this week as I foolishly imagined I could write two sentences with no mistakes.

(2) Our first destination, Simpson Bay, didn’t work – because we went down a dead-end street by mistake and gave up. But I wasn’t fazed; we simply adjusted our plans and went to Cupecoy instead,

(3) As it turned out, I couldn’t get a cell signal coming back to the hotel from dinner – so no GPS. Fortunately I was able reconnect when I was half way home and finish the trip successfully.

(4) Did I mention that Zelda & Mateo, our traveling companions from the Med cruise, are with us on this trip? Always good to have them around.

As the title says, I took a walk on the beach. Later we sat by one of the pools. The bay where the hotel is attracts sailboats and day-trip boats for swimming, snorkeling and other water sports.

A little excitement after the plane landed. Immigration control was not well explained but we made it through. We had to review several rooms before settling on one. But where we wound up is really nice, and the views are spectacular (as you would expect from a tropical island).

That’s all for now.

So our day started as planned and in schedule. Up until the dark, quick breakfast and close bags, uber on time, arrive at the airport 2.5 hours before departure

Got through security quickly. Bought some snacks for lunch, then Sally had a very nice Belgium waffle with fruit.

Waiting at the gate, hear a garbled announcement but our name is called. This is a first for me: the plane is “empty” but everyone is clustered in the front – like our row 9 seats, which we paid extra for. We are summarily moved to row 22. The gate agent said we can call JetBlue for refund.

I try calling, but after waiting, they offer a link to chat. Ok, I can chat. After answering a bunch of questions from a bot, I’m transferred to another page asks for my credit card to continue.

I’m not going to ruin the vacation by being aggravated, but ….