The Traveling Huntley's -- St. Maarten

Wednesday,  April 10, 2013

We left St. Thomas yesterday around 5:00 pm.  Upon leaving port we noticed two additional cruise ships in port that we had not seen before.  Shirl and I both were a little under the weather yesterday so we stayed near the port area and did not venture into the main downtown area where the two other ships were docked.

 As many of you know from previous trip comments, I really enjoy a nice sunset. Last night we had the first one of any significance.  

Our ship, which was docked next to the Oasis of the Sea, was the first one to leave St. Thomas. During the evening we noticed another large ship trailing us in the far distance.  Upon entering the port of St. Maarten this morning the Oasis of the Sea was already docked, apparently they must have passed us during the night.

The Oasis of the Sea still in port as we left St. Thomas

An interesting thing happened the other night.  We were in a very large auditorium watching a ventriloquist show when the performer said he needed a couple of dummies in the crowd and pointed directly at me.  I turned around to see who he was pointing at and he said, “don’t turn your head, just raise your hand”.  Obviously  I obeyed and his next question was what was my name and where was I from.  I promptly responded “Roger and from Sequim, Washington”.  At this point several people in the audience clapped and yelled, acknowledging they knew where Sequim was.  For the next few minutes both Sirl and I were the brunt of his program which we enjoyed as it was all in good taste. 

The next evening at dinner, we sat next to another couple and we heard them talking about the previous evenings program and mentioned how funny the person down front on the right side was.  I introduced myself to them and we had an enjoyable evening discussing our cruise experiences.  This couple was from Sacramento, California and had friends that lived in Sequim.  Shirl later said to me that I should have stated that “I sell my autograph”…

This morning, as we sit on our cabin veranda eating breakfast and writing this report, the weather is clear and beautiful as we are docking at St. Maarten.

St. Maarten is only 37 square miles in size and is the smallest land mass in the world to be shared by two different countries.  It is owned by France and the Netherlands Antilles, 

 We are going into St. Maarten and see if we can find some treasures that “someone” can not live without.  She has been awesome however and I have no doubt she will find that precious treasure. 

While she is doing that I will be hunting for a Wi-Fi hot spot where the charge is not too unreasonable.  The ship charges $0.75 per minute while the café in St. Thomas charged $4.00 for all day.  I wish the cruise line would charge a reasonable amount and they would have many more customers using the service and still make a nice profit. 

We are off to do some treasure hunting…

73’s

The Traveling Huntley’s

Shirl and Roger

P.S.  

St. Maarten is a delightful little port with numerous shops full of treasures and "free" Wi-F locations.

They are everywhere.  Nice jewelry, but no bargain prices.

One of the streets lined with shops.

Ships in port.

I received a lecture after taking this one.  

The shopper at work!!

We are off to the ship.

73's again,

Shirl and Roger