Daytripping in St. Martin's

In a reverse, we took the ferry FROM Anguilla TO St. Martin's for a little change of pace which would be checking out the merch for bargains and curiosities rather than somnambulant in the sand .  Buying stuff is a change of pace, right?  St. Martin's didn't disappoint.

I positively glowed as I walked off of the ferry and looked around.  And it wasn't because we left the roof-covered Ferry, but at all we saw in front of us.    This is a city!  Horns honking, pedestrians scurrying, sidewalk restaurants and bars, duty-free shops galore.  There is an excellent shopping area very near the docks with rows and rows of tented vendors pushing native crafts - place mats shaped and painted like mangos, lemons, bananas - all in very sunny colors indeed. .  Wood carvings (birds and tropical fish) galore - t-shirts!  Three for $10! and more!  Almost everything offered was $10.

We poked around among the vendors offerings, Rosalind and I exclaiming cries of joy at beach cover-ups of excellent quality - $10 each.  The guys raided the t-shirt stands- "3 for $10"with some censorship from the wives.  They were both on the very edge of being too old (and teetering) to be wearing t-shirts with words on them.

Needing to hydrate (tropical sun) we stopped for a beer.  The other three ordered in English, "Gimme a Heineken" but when it was my turn, I said, "Je voudrais, s'il vous plait, une boire - avez vous les boires de pression?" and about the time I hit "s'il vous plait," the young waitress was giving me an enthusiastic thumbs up! ("I'd like a beer, please - do you have tap beers?")  Twice I was complimented on my usage (abuse many would say namely every French teacher I ever had) of the French language.  Clearly they speak as badly there as I do here or anywhere else!

We happened upon a chic-looking restaurant on the second floor which had to have a panoramic view of the street below us.  We enjoyed both a good lunch and a great view.  Then we wandered back to the ferry to Anguilla.  A very good day and what I liked best about it was seeing people!  Traffic - which one doesn't see much of on Anguilla - and further they were driving American-style, not being terrified of a wrong-way driver (in our minds) on a narrow, two-lane sort-of paved road.  Civilization, you can't beat it in my view.