Category — Travel

It must be St. Martin Island Time, we don’t really care what time it is. More highlights of St. Martin: This morning it was road traffic from hell….. but Whatever, french pastries are as good as it gets, waistline is expanding, waves and surf, constant warm wind, a trip to Phillipsburg which is the Dutch side Capital of  St. Maarten (there is shopping for very high end jewelery, watches, clothes), hilly roads, washed out roads…… it’s all part of the Island charm. More on our next update and maybe even some pictures.

Well we have finally arrived and are set up in our Condo at Mt. Vernon. The view is spectacular and the weather has been fabulous. Now, if you happen to discover any typing errors it’s because they do not use the stqndqrd querty keyboard……. it is a French keyboard. Beach is fantastic…………… parasailing, kiteboarding, jet skiis, etc, etc. This keeps it very busy, so tomorrow we are headed off to a quieter beqch called Friars Bay, if we can find it. Roads here qre interesting to say the leqst, we’ll attach pictures later. Must run our time is up.

Well in a couple days we are off to the Caribbean Island of St. Maarten (Dutch Side) or St. Martin(French Side). It is an area of the Caribbean commonly referred to as the French West Indies and it is the smallest island in the world that is governed by two Countries – Netherlands and France. We have a Condo Rented for one month that is just a few steps from Orient Beach. It is part of the former Mt. Vernon Hotel complex. The units have been sold off to private owners and have been renovated for rental or they are being lived in by local residents. The unit we have rented is called SXM Studios and is owned by two brothers Amaury and Thibault. They also own a restaurant in Grand Case that is called Bistrot Cariabes. Hopefully our plane connections will work out as we fly out of Kamloops overnight in Toronto, we are then up real early and fly Toronto to Charlotte N.C. and then from Charlotte direct to St. Martin SXM. We have neighbours and good friends looking after our house and of course we have our tenant downstairs who lives here so that combined with our Chubb Security monitoring system all should be okay on the home front.  We hope to provide weekly updates on our Web Blog however that all depends on us being able to access an Internet Cafe. This trip has been in the planning stages since early last year and so we are both really excited to get going. We can’t wait to experience the beaches, the french pastries/food and of course the warm sunny climate. We both have 5 to 6 books to read and lots of sun tan lotion. If all travel plans work out as expected the morning after we arrive we are hopping on a short commuter flight to the Island of St. Barth’s. Brenda’s brother and his wife have a Villa rented and have been there for almost 2 weeks, so may be able to catch them on their last night in St. Barth’s. They have been to St. Martin a number of times and have been great resources in helping us plan our month long stay. Most of their planning tips involve beaches, french food and vanilla rum……. sounds tough doesn’t it? St. Barth’s is the vacationing hot spot for movies stars, royalty and those rich enough to own a mega yacht, so it should be interesting and eye opening to say the least. Also, during the last week of our stay in St. Martin my sister Donna (Gilligan) and husband Bob (Captain Bob) are arriving for their annual vacation aboard their sail boat SV Bergybit. It will be good to meet up with them and learn from their St. Martin experiences. Check out the link to their Web Blog in the right hand column

It’s Saturday night and we are off to dinner at our good friends Rick and Gayle. Gayle is an excellent cook so we always look forward to dinner at their house. Rick has been doing a lot of home renovations so it will be good to see all the work he has done. David L. (our corling skip) and his wife Elaine are also going to be there. I am sure after dinner we will play a card game or game of some sort. Rick and Gayle are the best gamers we know, they just love friendly fun competition and lots of laughs.

Last Friday we drove to Vancouver to attend a 60th Brithday Party for Fred S. A little more on how we met Fred and Barb later in this post.

To make a bit of a getaway weekend out of the trip we stayed on Friday night at the Blue Horizon Hotel. It’s our most favorite place to stay on Robson Street, close to shopping, restaurants, walking areas, etc. but the best part is the view from the rooms. We usually request an 07 room, it’s on the back side of the hotel so it does get a little less noise, but it still has fantastic views of English Bay, part of Stanley Park and a little tiny bit of Coal Harbour. We have been staying at this hotel for over 15 years and at one time the view of Coal Harbour was unobstructed and at Christmas time you could see the Carol Ships at night. We took along Gramma and Grampa so they could have a bit of a weekend away also. They got some Christmas shopping in, a walk down to the ocean and really enjoyed themselves. We left them at the hotel on Saturday night, we stayed with Fred and Barb then picked them up Sunday morning for the drive home.

So, here’s how we met Fred, Barb and their boys Ryan and Marshall. 1986 was the first year we, as a family, attended French Summer Camp at Kalamalka Lake. We were delayed one day because our vehicle broke down, however we arrived on Sunday, got set up and Jeff was off to his daily camp activities. I was running a fair bit at that time so I put up a notice to seeing if there was anyone interested in a morning jog. Fred showed up and off we went with another fellow. Now for those who know Fred, the word “JOG” is not in his vocabulary. I figured I was a pretty fair runner at that time, I was just around a 6:30 min/mile pace, just at the elusive 40 minute 10K time. Anyway after we had jogged about 5 km out and a were on our way back (we had lost the other guy by this time, he turned back long ago) Fred politely said “I think I’m going to stretch it out the last couple kilomters”. Well all I saw after that was very fast feet, speedy legs and Fred’s dust………. I think Fred had time to run back to the starting point and jog back to make sure I was still alive. It turns out Fred best 10K time was I believe under 35 minutes. We also discoverd that Ryan was in Jeff’s camp group so a family friendship was born. Near the end of the week Fred and Barb kindly offered their home as a base so we could attend Expo 86, we took them up on the offer and have been visiting each other on a somewhat regular basis. A great family and great friends.

A real quick post to remind everyone to check out Jeff & Lindsay’s Web Page. The link is over on the right hand side titled “Uncle & Aunty Sills”, or just click this link www.thesills.net . Their 3 weeks of work/vacation have flown by and they only have a couple days left on their trip to Japan. So the last couple days should be packed with exciting adventures.

Well, we recently got back from a visit to Campbell River to see our friends Ross and Betty-Anne. As always they were great hosts and made sure that we were very well fed and looked after. We arrived late on Tuesday night so had a bit of a chance to visit and get caught up. Then on Wednesday morning they took us on a tour of Campbell River and we ended up at Painters Lodge for lunch. After lunch we stopped by the CAP-IT Store that they own in Campbell River, their son Tyson manages the store and they have a great selection of vehicle customization options…. what a great job they have done in setting the store up. Then Ross and I headed off to Storey Creek Golf Course for Men’s Night; we didn’t play overly well but we had a lot of laughs, a few drinks and a good time. Meanwhile Brenda and Betty-Anne headed back to Painters Lodge and took the small passenger shuttle boat over to April Point Lodge on Quadra Island. The next day Ross and I were off early to golf at Crown Isle, it’s one of the premier golf courses on Vancouver island; we golfed a lot better and had a great day. Brenda and Betty-Anne visited with Betty-Anne’s sister in Fanny Bay and they had a Quilt Display and Garden Tour so this was right up Brenda’s alley. We met for lunch in Comox at Black Fin Pub and then headed back to Campbell River for the afternoon/evening. Tyson, Nicki, Jacob and Linden stopped by for a visit, what active boys they have. We had a good visit and look forward to our next one. The pictures are of #1. Brenda and I on the beach about 2 blocks from their house. #2 Ross, Betty-Anne and Odie in their backyard. #3. Sunrise at the same beach at around 5:50 a.m. on the way back to Departure Bay Ferry.

This years reunion was hosted by Betty-Anne and Ross. They are always the most gracious and giving hosts that anyone could have as friends. This year we were at Horne Lake on Vancouver Island, not too far from Parksville. Betty-Anne and Ross purchased the property with Cabin, Camper, out buildings, etc.  a few years ago and it’s appropriately named “Diddly Squat”. Because you get to do a whole bunch of Diddly and a little bit of Squat………. well that’s the story they tell us from their Australian adventures. Anyway, it’s a great place to just kick back and relax.

This year only Betty-Anne and Ross, Rick and Gayle, Dean and Judy and Brenda and I were able to make the Reunion; Ed was unable to attend as he is supporting his son Danny who is going through a very tough time with childhood cancer. We all had a chance to talk to Ed on the weekend and everyone misses him and all our thoughts and prayers are with Danny and Ed!

Apart from all the regular reunion hijinks where; Someone Gets Wet, Someone Falls Asleep and is Decorated, Too Much is Drank, Too Much is Eaten and/or other Adult Activities, this year we visited Coombs on Saturday to see the Old Country Market and the Goats on the Roof! It was a great adventure and certainly something we have never done before. As always, leaving good friends on Sunday is tough, however we always look forward to next year.

So  it’s early Friday morning and we are in Burnaby at the Executive Inn. We think Dean & Judy are probably still sleeping since they were scehduled to arrive very late the night before. I head off to Tim Hortons for Coffee and Muffins. Side Discussion: How many of you out there buy the 6 Muffin Deal versus just 4 Muffins; since you save the GST etc. and you get the additional 2 Muffins for about $2.00? Anyway, on the way back to the room I run into Dean and he says they are ready to go. So, we check out and meet in the parking lot to combine luggage etc. and then head off to Horseshoe Bay. Brenda and I took the road to the ferry tolls and Dean & Judy went off to park their car. it’s about 8:15 a.m. and we never expected to make the 8:30 a.m. crossing. We moved down the lane and then it looked like we may have a chance of getting on the ferry, we quickly called Dean and Judy; no answer…….. yikes! We finally got through at about 8:22 a.m. and they were at the ticket counter; then we got a call back saying that they missed the cut off time (FYI – Ferry Cut Off time for Passengers is 10 minutes prior to sailing time). So, we are in our car on the ferry (3rd to last car allowed on) and they are stuck in Horseshoe Bay……. next ferry 10:10 a.m. Anyway we were sailing on the new Coastal Renaissance, what a beautiful ship. 

More about Reunion Weekend on the next post.

So, we started off our adventure by driving to Abbotsord and crossing into the USA at the Abbotsford/Sumas Crossing, the wait was about 40 minutes. Not too bad, but we thought we got in a slow line up by tracking our progress against a motorhome that we could have followed. However the motorhome line up came to a halt (they had one car at the immigration gate for about 10 minutes) anyway we flew by them and into Washingtom State. The reason for crossing was that I had to hand in my USA Immigration L1-A that allowed me to work in the United States for the last few months; it’s no longer needed since I am retired.

So we figured we were here anyway and we drove down to Bellis Fair for a quick look see, filled up on some cheaper gas and then headed north to Canada.

Then it was off to the Passport Office in Surrey to renew Brenda’s Passport, so we are ready for our winter vacation to St. Martin. More on that later this year. With out a doubt, It was the fastest passport renewal in recent Canadian History. I dropped Brenda off at the front of the building at about 4:22 p.m. She got to the office in record time; up 9 floors. The security guard closed the line behind her and she went directly to the immigration assistant counter. By this time I had parked the car and got there I had time to pull out my Visa pay the renewal fee and we were out of there by 4:30 p.m. Yowzer!!!

From there we headed to the Burnaby  Executive Inn for the night and to meet up with Dean and Judy for our trip to Vancouver Island and Horne Lake.

Now the excitement really starts……… next post.