Mike and I arrived here for our two-week vacation on Saturday. I am always amazed at the beauty all around. From the 37 beaches, (not that we have been to all of them!) to the mountains visible from airport road, to our lovely home away from home large oceanfront condo, beauty surrounds us. As I write this, I am sitting on a chaise lounge on our large wrap-around deck, enjoying the breeze, totally relaxed. This is exactly how vacation is supposed to feel.

Mike and I came to St. Maarten for the first time for a week in mid-December 2000. While we had no plans to do so, we left having purchased two weeks in a 3 bedroom 3 ½ bathroom penthouse condo. The only downside to this was that our fixed time is during hurricane season, the end of August and first of September! We have been fortunate most years in having no weather disruptions, although we were here for Hurricane Irma on September 6, 2017. You can read all about that experience in my blogs posted at that time, and in my book, Changing Me From The Inside Out. I decided that if there is any indication of a hurricane again, I will leave on the next flight out! While our hurricane experience had some valuable lessons to teach us, I do not want to experience another one.

Although Mike and I are here alone these two weeks, we have had many family members and friends accompany us through the years. I have been going down memory lane about that, remembering some who are no longer with us other than in spirit. That includes good friends who were more family than friends, Shirshee Davis and Bryan Townsend, as well as Uncle Barry and close friends Anna Upchurch and John Barber. Memories of our times with them here keep them forever with us.

St. Maarten feels like a second home to us. We have our favorite jeweler here, Ron at Joe’s Jewelry in Philipsburg, who is responsible for me loving jewelry. Ron and others greet us each time as if we are family. While Mike and I have traveled a lot and love many places around the world, none feel like home as does St. Maarten. The comfort of going to many of the same places each time we are here, seeing how things have changed and stayed the same, provides a sense of peace.

More to come from beautiful St. Maarten/St. Martin.