St. Maarten

St. Maarten (St. Martin) was another stop that I was convinced I would love. It has been on my "must visit" list for a loooong time.

We decided to rent a jeep at the cruise terminal. Probably not the bet decision. When we (finally) got the keys and loaded up, we saw that the gas light was on. Niiiice. Did I mention that he guy we rented it from was totally sketchy?? Oh, and that it didn't have windows (this comes into play later...)? So, we pull in to get gas, noticing that it's pretty spendy, but the island is small and we figured it wouldn't be a big deal. We put $20 in...pull out, and realize that the light is still on. We drive a little ways, and I'm starting to get nervous, so we put another $15 and suddenly the gas gauge pops up. Oh yes, it was just stuck on E previously!! Grrrrr.

We had heard that Islet Pinal is a beautiful place to visit, with great beaches for the kids, so we park the jeep and take the short (crowded and $$) "ferry" over (which was just a tiny boat). We look around and head over to what looks like the best beach for kids (and it was!), get settled in...and got kicked off. Apparently you had to pay for that beach! Yeah, we have paid enough today, thank you very much. So we head to the "public" beach. Not good for kids. Steep drop off just a few feet out, lots of waves, lots of boats. And oh, wait...those look like rain clouds. And they moved in FAST! Torrential downpour, to which we rain for shelter in the little huts that were the only sheltered place on the island. And guess what?? Restaurant patrons only! So we had to buy drinks ($11 each!!!!!). We tried to leave, but the boats don't run in the rain so we were stuck.

Finally the rain let up enough for the boats to run (and this was not a fleeting downpour), and we rushed back to St. Martin. Did I mention that the top was down on the jeep?? Along with having no windows? Made for a fun drive!

Thankfully John persisted (I was ready to head back to the ship!) and we drove around and found another beach at Friar's Bay. It still wasn't perfect for kids since the waves were pretty big, but it was virtually deserted and we stayed there, dried off, and played for a while. After that, we continued our drive over towards Marigot where we found a cute little restaurant (where no one spoke English), and had a delicious lunch. The owners were so nice, and even gave the boys each a keychain from their little gift shop.

After we ate, and I was less grumpy, we drove around the remaining part of the island in the (dried off) jeep until we got back to Philipsburg. The day was salvaged, and we ended up having a pretty good time despite the rocky beginning! At the time I insisted that I never wanted to go back, but now I would rate it slightly above Aruba and it might be nice to give it another try. I really think they have capitalized on tourism a bit too much in some areas, and I was starting to get frustrated and was feeling like we were bleeding money. But apparently the whole island isn't like that since I didn't feel like that during the second part of the day.

Curaçao

Loved Curaçao. LOVED it. I think it was my favorite stop. The cute houses, bright colors, friendly people, beautiful beaches...my list could go on and on.

We started out with a boat ride from the cruise ship to a different harbor near an aquarium and beach. The ocean was a bit crazy...12' swells and let's just say I was working pretty hard to keep my breakfast inside. The boys loved it though, and would shout with excitement at each wave. Thank goodness. I was a little concerned one of them would get seasick given how rough it was, and the fact that we had just eaten breakfast...but no one did, and we got a great view of Willemstad from the water.

We got to the aquarium, got wi-fi which was pretty exciting since we had been completely out of touch until that point, and got to see Snapper the sea lion put on a show. I've never been that close to a sea lion before, and Snapper knew some pretty cool tricks. The aquarium was really cool...they had big touch tanks, a dolphin show, sea turtles, etc. The boys were raring to get to the beach though, so we didn't spend as long there as I would've liked. We did buy a couple of little sand buckets at the gift shop though, and those definitely came in handy for the rest of the trip!

We spent quite a bit of time at the beach after the aquarium. The beach was great for kids...nice and sheltered, and they could all walk out pretty far. Plus, they made friends with a couple of boys from the ship and they spent a lot of time together throughout the rest of the vacation.

I could've spent the whole day at the beach, but we really wanted to see the actual town as well. We dropped the boys off at the ship (they were begging to go to kid's club!) and we spent the rest of the day walking around and shopping.

Curaçao = really really REALLY want to visit again!

Aruba

I was so surprised at which stops I loved the most, and which ones were just okay. I expected to love Aruba. I didn't. Neither did John.

The thing about traveling with kids is that it's hard to know WHY something wasn't spectacular. Our kids weren't on their best behavior that day. A lady on the bus in front of us turned around and yelled at our kids for kicking her seat, which turned me into crazy mom trying to make sure her children were perfect angels. Archer was in a bit of a mood, plus he claimed he had to use the bathroom every 5 seconds (and there weren't an abundance of bathrooms around either). So overall, not great. But it might not have been Aruba's fault!

We went to the butterfly farm, and saw one of the natural bridges. We also went to the aloe plantation (which was lame and definitely not for kids...especially on a day when the machines aren't actually running!!). The butterfly farm was interesting, and the boys enjoyed seeing all the butterflies/caterpillars in their various stages. The natural bridge was pretty, and there were plenty of boulders nearby (but far enough away from the water...) for the boys to climb around on.

We did find a nice beach for kids in the afternoon, and I kinda wish we had just skipped the rest of the day and spent it all at the beach. It was a little crowded, but the water was calm and warm! It was a good way to end the day, and definitely helped give us a good parting impression of Aruba.

I feel like we might need to give Aruba another chance just because I feel like I should have loved it. I guess that's the downside to being somewhere for just a day! But while Cartagena is now on the "definitely want to go back" list, Aruba is on the "go back if we run out of other places to explore" list, and I kinda doubt that's going to happen!