Day 4 - Sint Maarten (Saint Marten for you frenchies,no?)

So, we had a really tight schedule in Sint Maarten.

We started the day with a water taxi ride from the pier to downtown so we could do a little shopping. We only had 90 minutes though, because we had to be back to the ship in time for our afternoon beach break adventure. The shopping was interesting - the locals trying to guide people into specific stores were more assertive than I remember from our previous trip. We were mostly unsuccessful in our search, and didn't buy much. That may have been because it was early in the day. I couldn't even find Scott's Carib lady.

Our 90 minutes were almost up and we needed to get back to the ship - we also need to hit the head. We determined the best plan for finding a clean bathroom was to visit one of the bars. So we stopped for a Heineken and a mojito. Only we didn't get a mojito, we got something similar. I was planning to post the recipe here, but have decided to file it away in case we need it as our entry into the KenMar Drink Contest this summer. Just know that it is AWESOME and the other drink contest teams better look out! All in all, a really good bathroom stop!

Next up - Afternoon Beach Break. We made like a bread truck and hustled our buns back to the ship. We had about 20 minutes to change, slather on some sun screen and get down to the dock so we wouldn't be late. Then, we got to stand on the hot concrete dock for another 20 minutes waiting for our ship mates who were not as prompt.

At the end of our 20 minute bus ride, we were on the French side of the island enjouing a beautiful beach, crystal clear water and all the rum punch we could drink. Most importantly - no iguanas! On this point, Susan was a little disappointed. She was really quite take with the little buggers.

Back at the pier, we made one final stop at a shop called Little Switzerland. I wanted one last chance to visit with all of the orphan watches and say goodbuy. While we were there, one of them just kept looking at me as if to say 'please, take me home with you'. And that's just what we did. Susan adopted another time piece and charged me with it's care. Our newest addition is a Tissot with a chronograph and tachymeter. Now, before you get all "how could he possibly need another watch", this fills a great void in my watch collection. Black leather straps, stainless case. And, it's a quartz movement (but I love it anyway). My wife rocks, no? Oui!!

After a complete butt kicking at the 8 PM trivia session, where Susan met her new friend - Appletini, we headed up to the Windjammer for a nice quiet dinner.

After all this, we still managed to get our party on 'til the wee hours of the morning. Not!