About Bailey, St. Maarten, Vacations

Arriving in Sint Maarten!

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Airport viewWe arrived in Sint Maarten late Saturday afternoon. Pam and I were separated on the plane by about 15 rows. But we both claimed to have the worst screaming kid right beside each other! haha

Anyway, we got here safe and sound. They have some weird rule where you can’t get your rental car at the airport! You have to line up outside and wait for an over crowded shuttle bus to take you to a little station so you can wait in line to be assigned a car, so you can then go wait in line to get the car!

The roads are something right out of a horror movie! WoW – they could use a BIT of paving! Dodging potholes seems to the national sport. Although we’re quite a ways from the airport, we managed to get to the resort without major incident, although Pam claims her kidneys will never be the same.

Driving to Oyster Bay We got here as it was getting dark, so had no time for the ocean, although we have a swell view out of our room over the ocean. The rooms are nice, with some nice artwork on the walls. The beds are comfortable, and the smallish kitchen is well-equipped, and enough for our needs.

We had dinner at Beau Beau’s, which is a short 90 second walk from our suite. Pam and Maggie and Tim had the ribs and pronounced them good. They have the annoying habit of adding a 15% gratuity to the bill, which is pretty standard in most restaurants we’ve been to in the Caribbean. The waiters then tell you that they don’t really get any of that, and want an even bigger tip. sigh What can you do?

Tomorrow we’re gonna hit the ocean out front here and see what we can see.

Internet is very expensive here, so my updates might be not as regular as usual. We’ll do our best!

Commentary, St. Maarten, Vacations

Arriving in Sint Maarten!

Leave a comment

Airport viewWe arrived in Sint Maarten late Saturday afternoon. Pam and I were separated on the plane by about 15 rows. But we both claimed to have the worst screaming kid right beside each other! haha

Anyway, we got here safe and sound. They have some weird rule where you can’t get your rental car at the airport! You have to line up outside and wait for an over crowded shuttle bus to take you to a little station so you can wait in line to be assigned a car, so you can then go wait in line to get the car!

The roads are something right out of a horror movie! WoW – they could use a BIT of paving! Dodging potholes seems to the national sport. Although we’re quite a ways from the airport, we managed to get to the resort without major incident, although Pam claims her kidneys will never be the same.

Driving to Oyster Bay We got here as it was getting dark, so had no time for the ocean, although we have a swell view out of our room over the ocean. The rooms are nice, with some nice artwork on the walls. The beds are comfortable, and the smallish kitchen is well-equipped, and enough for our needs.

We had dinner at Beau Beau’s, which is a short 90 second walk from our suite. Pam and Maggie and Tim had the ribs and pronounced them good. They have the annoying habit of adding a 15% gratuity to the bill, which is pretty standard in most restaurants we’ve been to in the Caribbean. The waiters then tell you that they don’t really get any of that, and want an even bigger tip. sigh What can you do?

Tomorrow we’re gonna hit the ocean out front here and see what we can see.

Internet is very expensive here, so my updates might be not as regular as usual. We’ll do our best!

St. Maarten

Arriving in Sint Maarten!

Leave a comment

Airport viewWe arrived in Sint Maarten late Saturday afternoon. Pam and I were separated on the plane by about 15 rows. But we both claimed to have the worst screaming kid right beside each other! haha

Anyway, we got here safe and sound. They have some weird rule where you can’t get your rental car at the airport! You have to line up outside and wait for an over crowded shuttle bus to take you to a little station so you can wait in line to be assigned a car, so you can then go wait in line to get the car!

The roads are something right out of a horror movie! WoW – they could use a BIT of paving! Dodging potholes seems to the national sport. Although we’re quite a ways from the airport, we managed to get to the resort without major incident, although Pam claims her kidneys will never be the same.

Driving to Oyster Bay We got here as it was getting dark, so had no time for the ocean, although we have a swell view out of our room over the ocean. The rooms are nice, with some nice artwork on the walls. The beds are comfortable, and the smallish kitchen is well-equipped, and enough for our needs.

We had dinner at Beau Beau’s, which is a short 90 second walk from our suite. Pam and Maggie and Tim had the ribs and pronounced them good. They have the annoying habit of adding a 15% gratuity to the bill, which is pretty standard in most restaurants we’ve been to in the Caribbean. The waiters then tell you that they don’t really get any of that, and want an even bigger tip. sigh What can you do?

Tomorrow we’re gonna hit the ocean out front here and see what we can see.

Internet is very expensive here, so my updates might be not as regular as usual. We’ll do our best!

St. Maarten, Vacations

MORE free wifi

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At JFKNice to see New York’s JFK airport has free wifi too. It’s not sponsored by Google either. It seems to be from Jetblue.

The Jetblue flight was nice. The seats were roomy, with enough leg room. Could have been more, but really, it was sufficient. Much better than the last Delta flight we took.

JFK is a nice terminal. Lots of shops with reasonable prices. And just TONS of people. The complete opposite of SeaTac airport. We messed up on our reservations, and only booked seats for the Seattle-New York leg, so Pam and I are sitting rows apart, in the middle. sigh.

We had a neat “breakfast stromboli” which comes in about eight styles with eggs and veggies and assorted meats baked in a pizza dough. Hearty and delicious.

We’re patiently waiting for our 10:30 flight into St. Maarten. It’s booked solid.

St. Maarten, Vacations

Free wifi at SeaTac

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Pam and Maurice Yep, Google is good for something. They are sponsoring free wifi in the SeaTac airport!

So we made it – we’re waiting for our flight in the Africa Lounge… we’re having a smallish beer – Tim is having the Pale Ale and I’m having the Amber Ale. Both very good.

Maggie and Tim Nice drive down from Vancouver, but the traffic was bad going through Seattle – no surprise there – Friday night rush hour. But wow – this airport is EMPTY. There is no one traveling. Wow. Never seen anything like it at all. This airport was more crowded after 9/11!

Hopefully that means we’ll get great deals everywhere!

We’re flying Jetblue – first time we’ve flown with them, so we’ll see how it goes. Was not too impressed with the check-in staff. She seemed a little confused. And we are not seated together on the flight into St. Martin (we’re flying into New York first…) which is most annoying since we booked the flight AND our seats over a year ago!

They are calling the flight for first boarding – it’s 9:30 PM – right on time. we’ll talk to you from New York.

Commentary, Holidays

Merry Christmas or Season's Greetings?

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There is always a large, and very vociferous, debate about how to greet someone over the Christmas Holiday season. Many feel that Merry Christmas is too Christian, and offends the Jewish, Buddhists, and Islamic communities. They feel that Western culture does not take their feelings into account.

Merry Christmas!This may be true. But do Islamic countries allow Christians to celebrate their faith, openly, and without persecution in primarily Islamic countries? The answer, of course, is a resounding no. So should we be sensitive to their needs, in primarily Christian communities? The answer, of course, is a resounding yes.

Why the discrepancy? Simple. Because we can. We are freedom loving people. We don’t want to offend people; we want to welcome them to our communities and to our lives. If they choose to NOT celebrate our customs and traditions, that’s fine. I don’t celebrate the Islamic Diwalli Festival of Light either. I don’t greet people with Happy Diwalli. In fact, despite living in a community with a significant Islamic community, I have yet to be greeted by those of the Islamic faith with such a greeting.

Christmas is celebrated on an ancient pagan holiday. It is not a faithful representation of  the day of the birth of Christ. It is merely when we celebrate it, much like we celebrate the Queen’s birthday on some weekend in May. So why do we feel the need to express ourselves in such a way? Frankly, I do not object to people greeting me with Merry Christmas. But I also do not object to people greeting me with Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings either. The latter two are more inclusive, embracing Jewish Hannukah, Islamic Diwalli, and even pagan celebrations of the New Year.

Surely, the whole point of this holiday is one of inclusion, celebration of family and friends, and thoughtful reflection on the year just finishing. Most of the dissenters are not people of other faiths, but agnostics who wish to remove all religion from any kind of meaningful context in our lives.

Let me be clear – I do not practice any faith, but to suggest I do not have Christian values is silly. Many of the things that make this country great, are because our forefathers were of Christian faith, and preached tolerance and love. To deny this, is to deny our heritage, our history, our life.

So my wish to you is this – Happy Everything! Happy Holidays! Season’s Greetings! And Merry Christmas too! I use all three sayings, and have no hangups about using any of them. I hope you will do the same.

Commentary

Olympic protests

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DOWN with it!Our home province, British Columbia, last week introduced legislation to empower authorities in Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler to enter homes and remove or cover up “unauthorized” signs during the Olympic Games. The Miscellaneous Statutes and Amendment Act states such actions can be taken “without the consent of the owner or occupier.” The proposed law would let authorities remove any sign on a person’s residence or property that doesn’t celebrate the Olympics.

This is an outrage! I had been a quiet supporter of the Olympics in Vancouver, even though I frankly couldn’t care less about any of the Olympic sports, including hockey. But I realize that the Games will showcase our great city to the world, and that’s a good thing. Or is it?

I didn’t watch one minute of the recent games in China. Frankly, I think it was wrong to attend the China games. The reason? They do not believe in giving their people the freedom to express themselves, let alone other basic freedoms we take for granted.

And here we have BC following the Chinese example? DISGUSTING!! This is not the way a democracy works. If the politicians in this province pass this legislation, my yard will become an anti-Olympic sign factory. I will fight this fascism til my last breath.

If the police intend to enter my home to remove these signs, I will resist. I will instruct my dog to attack anyone looking to abrogate my right to free speech. I will use force against any invaders of my property.

If this law passes, there will be violence. People will not sit back and let politicians take away rights for which we have fought and died. We fought the fascists in Europe. We will not be cowed by the fascists in suits in our own legislatures!

Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao