St. Maarten - Friday, 11 February 2005

St. Maarten is a small island that is half Dutch (St. Maarten) and half French (St. Martin).  The border between the two countries is marked by markers next to the road, and everyone travels freely back and forth.
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We found that we didn't like St. Maarten nearly as much as the other islands.  It was very dry, desert-like.  We took a tour in the morning, which was pretty mediocre.  Much of the time was spent on the bus, although we stopped at two pretty places for pictures.
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We were left at Marigot on the French side for 45 minutes to shop.  This was actually kind of fun, with lots of open-air booths around a fountain.
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There were several nice views, and a beautiful beach near the deep-water docks, created from the sand dredged for the docks. 
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We returned to the ship and took a 2-hour nap!  We ate lunch and lounged on deck chairs to read books.  The sunset while leaving the island was quite cool-looking, especially when another cruise ship sailed into the stream of sunlight on the ocean.
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Dinnertime was our second formal night; the first being on Monday.  Continuing to try new things, I had pheasant and cold soup again: strawberry cream with almonds.  At dinner, my husband Lanny gave me a beautiful topaz necklace for our 25th anniversary.  We went to watch the comedian after dinner (the third one we got to see), then went to check out the champagne waterfall, which was not as interesting as it sounds.