Exploring St. Martin : Pretty Flowers and Charming Colourful Homes

You might recall that just before we left for our trip we were busy doing yard-work, getting things ready for the cold snowy winter ahead. This involved the raking of fallen leaves, pruning of branches and covering of more sensitive plants in a protective layer of mulch. Garden flowers are not to be seen here again for another five months or so.

While I like 3/4 of our seasons here in Canada (the 4th being winter), it was nice to experience a climate where beautiful blossoms are on display all year 'round.

Exploring St. Martin : The Beach

It is Take Tuesday, the photo series I am participating in, and the prompt for this week is "Something Blue". Hmmm ... Let's see, what have I photographed recently that is blue?

c="http://www.loulou.to/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/wave.jpg" alt="" title="wave" width="640" height="480" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13127">As I mentioned yesterday, we stayed on the French side of St. Martin, more specifically at a hotel which was located along Orient Bay Beach.All beaches on St. Martin are public so they aren't 'owned' by any hotels and you can walk along them freely, and settle down with a blanket wherever you'd like. However if you want to sit in a comfortable lounge chair and have shade from an umbrella, you can rent those from some restaurants and small bars that have them set up on the beach. While our hotel was located across a little-traveled sandy road from the beach (about a minute's walk) they had arranged for their guests to have access to chairs and umbrellas at no extra cost, which was nice.

Exploring St. Martin : Philipsburg

St. Martin is located in the northeast part of the Caribbean, and is one of the smallest islands that is divided between two nations, France and the Netherlands. There is a border between the two sides and each is governed based of the laws of the respective country. For example gambling is allowed on only the Dutch side, and nude or topless sunbathing are only allowed on the French side. The Dutch side is actually called Sint Maarten, while the French is Saint Martin.

And each has their own city. So while we stayed on the French side, we visited the Dutch side, with this trip to the city of Philipsburg.

It was so cheerful and colourful there. We walked the streets and the boardwalk that ran along the ocean.

Our Furry Friends Away From Home

Because today is the day of the week that I usually talk about pets, (and most often about our resident boy-cat Eddie), I will begin my Island of St. Martin vacation story with this post showing you some cute kittens that became our temporary pets while we were there.

They lived at the hotel and were very clean and well cared for. We estimated that they were about 6 months old, and roamed around freely. They would drop by and hang out, when invited, while we were relaxing on the patio connected to our room. If we saw one of them before they noticed we were out there, a little click of our tongue would bring them running right over. Yes, running ... it was quite adorable.

They were all females (though we did see a male who appeared to be the same age but who wasn't interested in people.) My favourite was the little orange-y tabby and Nick's was the furry black and white one. That poor little girl had a black beard!

We never had more than one at any given time, so I imagine they made the rounds, visiting with all the guests of the hotel who also wanted to spend time with them.

We’re Back! : Anniversary Trip to St. Martin

Greetings to my on-line friends :) I have missed you and hope you're doing well.

Nick and I celebrated our lucky 13th wedding anniversary by taking a trip to the island of St. Martin. It was really fun and I have lots of pictures to share, so I hope you like vacation photos!