Because I had not used sunscreen the first couple of days, and couldn’t manage another day in the ocean, we decided to head into Philipsburg, the capital of the Dutch side of Sint Maarten. It has a nice boardwalk that runs along the harbor, with lots of shops and restaurants on one one side. It has a few casinos, lots of jewellry stores, and not much parking!

Pam figured I’d buy a bunch of Hawaiian shirts, but I bought El Zippo!! Not through lack of trying mind you! They just never had my size! Lots of XXL and XXXL (my old size!!!) but none in my size, in the colors I wanted.

We have always bought a glass fish on every Caribbean island we’ve been on, and we looked long and hard for a cool one. After hours of walking around, it came down to a glass shark or one that looked like a file fish. Since I like file fish better than sharks, we grabbed the file fish. Very cool…

We tried to find a restaurant that served Keshi Yena, but no luck. After some exhaustive internet search, it seems to be local to Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. We had numerous recommendations to try the Holland Beach Hotel, but no luck – they did not serve it and the concierge looked genuinely lost when we asked about it.

We asked several locals, and they’ve suggested a couple of Dutch bars on the island and I’m sure we’ll check them out over the course of the week. If you do not know what keshi yena is, it’s a dish made with the hard rind of a hollowed out gouda cheese, with chicken (or beef or fish), olives, some spices and lots of vegetables inserted into the hollow cheese then baked – kind of like a lasagna without noodles. It’s fantastic and Pam and I have tried it on Aruba and Curacoa and we just thought it was available on all the Dutch Antilles islands. But evidently not!

We shopped most of the day, and came back to Oyster Bay for a dip in the ocean. We tried the reef out front of our hotel, and while the view was spectacular, we had some difficulty with the power of the ocean waves! There were lots of fish to see, but wow – the waves were powerful and gave us all we could deal with. I almost lost my mask, my camera and my shorts! Not a pretty sight I can assure you!

We had dinner at Beau Beau’s again. It is a short walk from our condo – like 2 minutes! They had a great Tuesday dinner special. We all started with a salad. then choice of dinner – grouper filet, grilled chicken or a steak, served with rice or potato, with some veggies. Desert was chocolate cake (VERY GOOD). Also included was a glass of white or red wine. All for 25 bucks, INCLUDING tip! You can’t beat that!

Afterwords we headed back to the condo and Pam and Maggie beat Tim and I in a game of canasta. This is the third time that Pam and Maggie have won in the thirty or so years we’ve known each other. As you can imagine, Pam and Maggie were walking on water…. And it definitely needs mentioning on the blog! Congrats ladies!

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be only 30 degrees celsius, so we’re not sure what to do. So chilly! I’ve heard that Calgary has some snow and about minus 30 celsius weather, so I imagine they don’t have much sympathy for us who have to deal with this kind of weather. Still, it’s not easy.

REMEMBER – GO TO WWW.MAURICEO.CA when this site dies. And it will die sooon.

Because I had not used sunscreen the first couple of days, and couldn’t manage another day in the ocean, we decided to head into Philipsburg, the capital of the Dutch side of Sint Maarten. It has a nice boardwalk that runs along the harbor, with lots of shops and restaurants on one one side. It has a few casinos, lots of jewellry stores, and not much parking!

Pam figured I’d buy a bunch of Hawaiian shirts, but I bought El Zippo!! Not through lack of trying mind you! They just never had my size! Lots of XXL and XXXL (my old size!!!) but none in my size, in the colors I wanted.

We have always bought a glass fish on every Caribbean island we’ve been on, and we looked long and hard for a cool one. After hours of walking around, it came down to a glass shark or one that looked like a file fish. Since I like file fish better than sharks, we grabbed the file fish. Very cool…

We tried to find a restaurant that served Keshi Yena, but no luck. After some exhaustive internet search, it seems to be local to Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. We had numerous recommendations to try the Holland Beach Hotel, but no luck – they did not serve it and the concierge looked genuinely lost when we asked about it.

We asked several locals, and they’ve suggested a couple of Dutch bars on the island and I’m sure we’ll check them out over the course of the week. If you do not know what keshi yena is, it’s a dish made with the hard rind of a hollowed out gouda cheese, with chicken (or beef or fish), olives, some spices and lots of vegetables inserted into the hollow cheese then baked – kind of like a lasagna without noodles. It’s fantastic and Pam and I have tried it on Aruba and Curacoa and we just thought it was available on all the Dutch Antilles islands. But evidently not!

We shopped most of the day, and came back to Oyster Bay for a dip in the ocean. We tried the reef out front of our hotel, and while the view was spectacular, we had some difficulty with the power of the ocean waves! There were lots of fish to see, but wow – the waves were powerful and gave us all we could deal with. I almost lost my mask, my camera and my shorts! Not a pretty sight I can assure you!

We had dinner at Beau Beau’s again. It is a short walk from our condo – like 2 minutes! They had a great Tuesday dinner special. We all started with a salad. then choice of dinner – grouper filet, grilled chicken or a steak, served with rice or potato, with some veggies. Desert was chocolate cake (VERY GOOD). Also included was a glass of white or red wine. All for 25 bucks, INCLUDING tip! You can’t beat that!

Afterwords we headed back to the condo and Pam and Maggie beat Tim and I in a game of canasta. This is the third time that Pam and Maggie have won in the thirty or so years we’ve known each other. As you can imagine, Pam and Maggie were walking on water…. And it definitely needs mentioning on the blog! Congrats ladies!

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be only 30 degrees celsius, so we’re not sure what to do. So chilly! I’ve heard that Calgary has some snow and about minus 30 celsius weather, so I imagine they don’t have much sympathy for us who have to deal with this kind of weather. Still, it’s not easy.

REMEMBER – GO TO WWW.MAURICEO.CA when this site dies. And it will die sooon.

Because I had not used sunscreen the first couple of days, and couldn’t manage another day in the ocean, we decided to head into Philipsburg, the capital of the Dutch side of Sint Maarten. It has a nice boardwalk that runs along the harbor, with lots of shops and restaurants on one one side. It has a few casinos, lots of jewellry stores, and not much parking!

Pam figured I’d buy a bunch of Hawaiian shirts, but I bought El Zippo!! Not through lack of trying mind you! They just never had my size! Lots of XXL and XXXL (my old size!!!) but none in my size, in the colors I wanted.

We have always bought a glass fish on every Caribbean island we’ve been on, and we looked long and hard for a cool one. After hours of walking around, it came down to a glass shark or one that looked like a file fish. Since I like file fish better than sharks, we grabbed the file fish. Very cool…

We tried to find a restaurant that served Keshi Yena, but no luck. After some exhaustive internet search, it seems to be local to Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. We had numerous recommendations to try the Holland Beach Hotel, but no luck – they did not serve it and the concierge looked genuinely lost when we asked about it.

We asked several locals, and they’ve suggested a couple of Dutch bars on the island and I’m sure we’ll check them out over the course of the week. If you do not know what keshi yena is, it’s a dish made with the hard rind of a hollowed out gouda cheese, with chicken (or beef or fish), olives, some spices and lots of vegetables inserted into the hollow cheese then baked – kind of like a lasagna without noodles. It’s fantastic and Pam and I have tried it on Aruba and Curacoa and we just thought it was available on all the Dutch Antilles islands. But evidently not!

We shopped most of the day, and came back to Oyster Bay for a dip in the ocean. We tried the reef out front of our hotel, and while the view was spectacular, we had some difficulty with the power of the ocean waves! There were lots of fish to see, but wow – the waves were powerful and gave us all we could deal with. I almost lost my mask, my camera and my shorts! Not a pretty sight I can assure you!

We had dinner at Beau Beau’s again. It is a short walk from our condo – like 2 minutes! They had a great Tuesday dinner special. We all started with a salad. then choice of dinner – grouper filet, grilled chicken or a steak, served with rice or potato, with some veggies. Desert was chocolate cake (VERY GOOD). Also included was a glass of white or red wine. All for 25 bucks, INCLUDING tip! You can’t beat that!

Afterwords we headed back to the condo and Pam and Maggie beat Tim and I in a game of canasta. This is the third time that Pam and Maggie have won in the thirty or so years we’ve known each other. As you can imagine, Pam and Maggie were walking on water…. And it definitely needs mentioning on the blog! Congrats ladies!

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be only 30 degrees celsius, so we’re not sure what to do. So chilly! I’ve heard that Calgary has some snow and about minus 30 celsius weather, so I imagine they don’t have much sympathy for us who have to deal with this kind of weather. Still, it’s not easy.

REMEMBER – GO TO WWW.MAURICEO.CA when this site dies. And it will die sooon.