day 4

Anse Marcel Beach

we originally headed to Orient Beach which is the party beach and "THE place to stay" on the island. we almost booked a condo on this beach and we are SO SO SO glad we did NOT! it was so crowded. the layout chairs were lined up and down the entire beach and they were 5 rows deep. the view wasn't anything spectacular so we left. it was referred to as the carnival beach but there was just hoards of people. they did have a lot of fun stuff like parasailing {which i am surprised we got out of there without doing it}. it looked like a blast, it is something nate and i have always wanted to do and thought it would be spectacular on St Maarten. kate fell in love with it~ maybe on a future honeymoon :)... i'm just sayin' . after that headed to Anse Marel which is at the north end of the island. it was such a quaint beach. it was so secluded and nice. the snorkeling was great. nate and i saw all sorts of things we had never seen. we saw a water snake, star fish, and other fun things that we actually recognized. there is an amazing Radisson right on the beach. we met a family that was staying there and they let us in to their pool to swim for a little bit. it was great. ej could play a little better in these waves and dug and dug in the sand. again, we were among the french so the topless women were something we still were not use to.

kate and i explored on our own out into the water and had a blast. i was so glad she was able to come with us and enjoy St Maarten with us. this night after dinner on our patio, i am pretty sure we chatted outside for a few hours. i would totally stay on this beach for any amount of time at a later visit. the roads to get to this part of the island were sketchy at BEST. they were so steep we didn't know if our little Hercules {the car} was going to make it. we definitely had to turn the air conditioning off and slowly, slowly make our way up. Hercules was a CHAMP!

amazing gelato place by our resort.... stopped by a few times.....

dinner that night-

our dinner view, again. nate playing around with settings on our camera.

and one last one from the beach of the day................