Dear Luke and Leia,
You guys are going to love what I did to surprise Nana for her birthday — a weekend in St. Maarten! Actually, I secretly planned the weekend, bought the plane tickets and made all the arrangements for a beautiful, relaxing hotel stay and some new and interesting excursions, all without Nana having a clue.
Pack your bag but not telling where your going for a surprise Birthday Weekend in Sint Maarten
I was even going to pack for her, but the day before I decided I should tell her just a little bit about the trip so I didn’t miss packing anything that she may have wanted. Boy, was she surprised and happy!
Our hotel in St. Maarten.
One of the three pools at our hotel.
Segway tour of Philipsburg
After the flight and checking out our hotel, we headed into St. Maarten’s capital, Philipsburg, for our first excursion. This was a first for us, a Segway tour along the waterfront. I had had seen these strange-looking powered cycles in Europe and had wanted to try them, so I thought being in a stunning location was the perfect time.
Linda (Nana) cruising the seaside, Segway style.
Nana took to it just like she did on her horse riding in Bambito. What a blast! We vowed to do this whenever we can. I hope we can take you two on these someday. You’ll want to do it again and again, too.
In Philipsburg
Next up was a stroll through Philipsburg’s city streets and along the marina. Like many other Caribbean islands, Philipsburg was colorful and charming, full of cobblestone streets, interesting buildings and friendly people. We wandered around and through the shops, finally working our way down to the waterfront to enjoy a drink and watch the sun vanish into the sea.
While walking along the beach we found some older kids who had brilliantly half-buried an exercise ball in the sand. They ran and jumped on the ball, sending themselves soaring skyward and performing acrobatic flips. It was a blast to watch their talent.
This does not look like a promising landing.
Sunset in St. Maarten
With so many gorgeous colors painted across a canvas of deep blue sky, the setting sun did not disappoint in delivering a spectacular show. We had a front row seat for the display and enjoyed seeing the many sailboats silhouetted against the backdrop of golden sky.
The brilliance of the sky’s colors enthralled us, beginning with the contrast of the various yellows that the sun cast among the white clouds and the luminous blues of the sky beyond. They gradually gave way to pinks and purples, finally ending in a rainbow blast of all the colors at once.
This was our signal that it was time to find dinner and retire for the evening. We ate marina-side and went back to the hotel for much-needed sleep to rest for the next day.
Day 2 of our weekend in St. Maarten — the water side
The next day Nana’s birthday surprise continued with a boat ride to prime snorkeling grounds in the Caribbean Sea. The reef was fantastic, loaded with plenty of corals and fish.
Nana was excited to finally have a chance to see some leatherback turtles in the wild. I’m sorry I didn’t get any photos of them for you with my underwater camera, but I do have some other photos of the ocean’s life that you might like.
A school of surgeonfish (tangs).
We even got to see a purple-tipped condylactis anemone in the wild, just like the one we had once had in our aquarium back in Florida.
Purple tipped condylactis anemone
I discovered a skate in the sand but just after photographing it a yellow tang caught my attention as it scooted by. (We once had a yellow tang in our aquarium, too.)
Skate partially buried in the sand
Yellow tang quickly scoots by
After a while our boat moved to a different snorkeling spot. We joined others anchored in the peaceful inlet and had some refreshing drinks and snacks before we got in the water.
The sandbar was so big that we could walk a long way. The water color changed from the deeper blues where we snorkeled to a light bright green in other spots.
As the sun was getting low, we headed back to the marina and the hotel to wash up for dinner. Exhausted from both sun and swimming we stayed in for dinner and readied ourselves for the morning trip back home to Panama. All in all, it was a super-fantastic birthday weekend surprise for Nana and a great adventure for me.
See you two soon. Please take care of each other.
Love you bunches of bunches,
Nana and Pap
♥
P.S. – If you have Pinterest you can click the top left of any photos in our story to add them to your Pinterest boards. We would actually like that a whole lot.
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