Posts Tagged ‘Grandkids’

Spring Break In St Martin: Days 6 and 7

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Baie de Prunes

We found out that this means Plum Bay, at least when you talk to the real estate people, Plum Bay is at the end of the Terre Basse section, down an obscure road. The good news is that it is a great beach, a half mile of sand with 3 or 4 families on it. That perfect blue water you get in the Caribbean, a school of small fish for visual interest - and very small breakers.

There is a place to park just a few yards from the beach, and that is about it. No restaurant, no beach bar, nobody hanging out selling stuff.

The smart people, ther regulars brought beach umbrellas or little shelters. Not something we had in our place, but there must be a way to come up with the basics. This was a nice beach day.

Baie de Prunes

Baie de Prunes

 

Snorkeling

The best snorkeling is at a  man-made attraction on the Dutch side near Phillipsburg.  The trick is what is underwater. It started with the debris from a big hurricaine that hit St Martin in the 90’s. The top of an historic fort ended up in the water, cannons and all. Fish followed and a destination was created.

 Some of the smart people figured that if nature could do this once every century or two, snorkel promoters could speed the process up by towing wrecks and similar underwater attractions to 30 feet or so of water. A little kayak trip and your there.

George set the pace, free diving to touch the wreck 25 or so feet down.

Underwater King

Underwater King

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Spring Break in St Martin: Day 5

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Hanging Out

The best thing about renting a house with a good pool is that the family can hang out, swim, play cards, take pictures and play games. We had the right setup. And Anna, who is in the family tradition of gadget gurus, took the lead as the photographer. We were able to download from the digital cameras into the “family” laptop to see what we had – and free up more space for the next round of shots. Quick and easy.

Places Please. I'm taking a picture.

Places Please. I'm taking a picture.

Mike and Michele hanging in the pool

Mike and Michele hanging in the pool

Two Days Work Poolside

Two Days Work Poolside

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St Martin Spring Break: Day 6

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

St Martin Restaurants

 It seems like every French speaking chef with itchy feet and a yen for warm weather has found his way to St Martin. This includes some Quebecois, a few Italians and refugees from Paris and Lyon.

Mario’s Bistro

 Our highlight was Mario’s Bistro, open for dinner only at the Sandy Ground Bridge on the outskirts of Marigot. Situated along an inlet about 200 yards from the beach, Mario’s had its own aquatic show, with a school of good sized tarpon swimming over the underwater lights and feeding on the brine shrimp that were in the water. Their menu and service was a match for the top French restaurants in Philly and (maybe) New York.  So were the prices, but it was all worth it.

We liked Marios Bistro, but there were a half dozen very good, expensive restaurants in Marigot and Grand Casse, which is about a 30 minute drive around the island from our place. Michele and I stopped in Grand Casse to check out the restaurants for lunch on Wednesday. Nice spot, with a  great looking beach, tiny hotels, not much parking and a handful of high end restaurants, some open for dinner only.

Grand Casse Beach from La Shore

Grand Casse Beach from La Shore

We ate at La Shore’s restaurant – a great lunch. La Shore is a very French feeling place, a polished restaurant right on the beach with aspirations to become a spa and boutique hotel.
Casual Restaurants and Beach Places
 
We found some good casual restaurants too. They all took good care of the kids, making sure that there orders were in and out quickly. Boucaniers and Ma Ti Beach, both on the outskirts of Marigot, got high marks. French, Creole, Italian, french fries. It’s all good.
Moroccan
And for something exotic, we all went to Le Marrakech, a Moroccan restaurant in Marigot. All French influenced and all good.
You won’t go hungry in St Martin. the restaurant scene is an important part of the attraction.

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Spring Break on St Martin: Day 3 and 4

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

The French Side

Croissants and Coffee, with WiFi on the side.

I’m always impressed by the portability of good French cuisine. Whether it’s Montreal, Bora Bora or Marigot in French  St Martin you can count on a good croissant and quality coffee.

Michele and I got off to a relaxed, late start on Monday morning and drove into Marigot to confirm the French breakfast quality. There were a bunch of choices. Convenient parking and a view of the sailboats in Marigot’s harbor decided for us.

Breakfast in Marigot

Breakfast in Marigot

The coffee and croissants met expectations for French style. The big change was that everyone seemed to have a laptop. Free Wifi, convenient electrical outlets and island sunshine made a”virtual office” for what I took to be a mix of local residents and working vacationers. This has a lot of advantages over commuting to the office at home.

 

 

 

 

 

The Dutch Side

 According to the guidebooks the population of St Martin is reasonably evenly split between the French and the Dutch sides of the island. But each side has specialties.  Most of the best restaurants and beaches are on the French side. Most of the practical necessities are on the Dutch side. Practical necessities start with the airport and include real food markets.

20 years ago buying food for a week’s stay here was an adventure, even with plenty of restaurant meals factored in. Now the selection in the markets on the Dutch side is a lot closer to what we are used to at home. Heiniken and gouda cheese is in good supply. Inexpensive (and some expensive) wine from France, South Africa, Argentina and Chile is readily available.   And I learned that there are more varieties of yogurt stocked here than I knew existed. Bottom line, you can feed six people the snacks, breakfasts and a couple of dinners here without going totally native.

 

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Spring Break on St Martin: Day 2

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

 

 
First Day in the Sun
First Day in the Sun

 

Baie Rouge

25 years ago Baie Rouge was almost our own private beach, with one or two other families spread out along about a quarter mile of sand. It has changed a little – more people on the sand for sure. More people meant there is now a beach bar and “restaurant”, with a friendly local staff and an outstanding musician. We got non-stop American standards from Sinatra to Sixties classics – and a muted trumpet in between. The music has to be a weekend only event and comes with the blender drinks that always seem like a good idea for the first 24 hours of vacation.

Sunburn

Fair skinned grandkids, what seemed like a lot of sunblock (?), and plenty of energy in and out of the water turns out to be the formula for a little sunburn and some worn out little Hoeys. 

Around the House

Terre Basse is a rocky piece of land, not all that

Gecko???

Gecko???

hilly by St Martin standards. The area around each of the houses here is nicely landscaped, based on what we could see from the road. Our place was certainly well maintained, with a resident cat and a resident caretaker in a house just down the road. Cat aside, the biggest wildlife we saw were lizards, Gecko wannabes.

St Martin Landscaping

St Martin Landscaping

 
 

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Arriving in St Martin: No Hassles

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

The six of us, three generations of Hoeys, worked our way through the checkpoints in the Philadelphia airport with only the normal amount of aggravation. I’m temporarily wearing a knee brace, so I got the full treatment from the TSA team when I went through security – but it was very competently done – actually made me feel like something out of line would be spotted.

Carry Ons Only

We had a washer and dryer in the house, so our plan was to pack light. Bathing suits, tee shirts and sandals for the day time. And no need for jackets in even the best restaurants. We settled on one shared laptop – the house had a good  wifi connection - and the kid’s ever present DS’s for in flight sanity.  It helps that the temperature was, as predicted, between 75 and 83 for the entire week – and no rain. We were all set.

St Martin Airport

A four hour flight, don’t stop at the luggage carousel because its all carry on, and by mid afternoon we were meeting the St Martin rental rep for a 15 minute drive to the house. Everybody is friendly, speaks American English and takes dollars (or Euros or ?).

House and Cars Are  Ready

Part of the rental agency service is an initial supply of the essentials in the refrigerator – beer, soda, coffee, chips and bread. We pre-ordered just enough to take us through one breakfast. The other big time saver was the rental car. We had two Toyotas waiting for us at the house when we got there. (Two was a lot more practival than one car big enough for six and gave us the flexability to split up during the week).

IMG_4293

The Grandkids Approved

We had a good idea what to expect from our on-line research, but the grandkids were in wide eyed explorer mode. It was an instant hit, starting with the pool.

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Spring Break House Rental in St Martin: Planning the Trip

Thursday, March 25th, 2010
February 2010 in Philly

February 2010 in Philly

Need Spring Break

Winter 2010 in Philly was the incentive. More snow than we had seen since we lived in upstate NY. We needed a family getaway over spring break.

House Rentals Work Well in the Islands

Michele and I had had good experiences with “extended family” house rentals over the years. Baie Rouge area in St Martin in the 80’s. Near Sandy Lane on Barbados a few years later. We found some good choices and good restaurants off season in Turks and Caicos about 10 years ago and thought about going there again.

Direct Flight to St Martin from Philly

Once we got into the details we found out that direct flights were available from Philly to St Martin, but not to Turks. And our house rental service suggested that we look at the options in the Terre Basse section on the French side of St Martin, not too far from the (very exclusive) La Samanna Hotel.

There are dozens of new, upscale houses with pools to choose from in Terre Basse. We wanted 4 bedrooms so that each of the grandkids had their own room. And a decent sized pool with space to hang out was essential. We rented a house named “Clare de Lune” ( sounds more upscale than a street number, and is not much harder to find).

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Riviera Maya and Chichen Itza on Spring Break

Friday, August 14th, 2009
Chitzen Itza the Day Before the Equinox

Chitzen Itza the Day Before the Equinox

Three generations of Hoeys headed for the Riviera Maya about 50 miles south of Cancun. It was spring break for George and Anna and the end of winter for the rest of us. There were more than enough 8 and 10 year olds in the pools and on the beach at our hotel to keep the kids amused and intrigued for all of their waking hours.
Being good parents/grandparents we needed to make this a special experience for all. We had been to the Mayan site at Tulum on earlier trips and read about, but had never seen the bigger one at Chichen Itza. First step, we called the AMEX Vacations office and lined up a good van and driver. We connected with a college educated guide who made a big difference in our understanding of what we were seeing.
 

The Drive across Yucatan

Once we got away from the beach we saw that this part of the Yucatan is pretty nasty. It was hot. The land is primarily limestone and there are no rivers and streams that run above ground. So we saw very few farms, not much vegetation bigger than bushes and not many people for an hour or so. Then it was another hour on the main road. There has been a lot of road building here recently and most of the roads are decent.
The drive is absolutely worth it. The site is huge and well maintained by the Mexican Government. Dominating the center of Chichén is the Temple of Kukulkan. This is a spectacular step pyramid, one of the biggest man-made structures in the world when it was built by the Mayans somewhere around 800 AD.

 
Spring Equinox and the Serpent

The design is connected to the Mayan calendar. Each of the four faces has 91 steps to the top platform. Counting the top platform as an additional step gives a total of 365 steps.
This calendar connection matters at spring break time. We were there just two days before the spring equinox. This is show time at the pyramid – and the day that draws some big crowds. On the spring and fall equinox the angle of the afternoon sun creates shadows that appear to slither down the steps on the side of the pyramid, ending at the big stone serpent’s head at the base of the stairs.

It is almost as memorable a day or two before and after the equinox and not crowded. Two days ahead of the crowd, it’s a great place to take pictures.

 
A Long Half Day Stop

While this is spectacular, there is a whole city here, reclaimed from the jungle. Temples, the Great Ball Court, lots of stuff.  The Cenote Sagaro, at 200 feet across, is one of the largest of the sinkholes that occur in this limestone country. We spent a half day here, were worn out at the end, and could have done more. The grandkids enjoyed it and so did the rest of the family.

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