Day 1 - The St. Martin Experience

DAY 1:

Joey and I married in Lake Arrowhead, CA on April 2nd, 2016.  I married my best friend.

See? Lake Arrowhead! Look at the love overflowing.

We had to wait on our honeymoon due to our minds being blown from the best wedding of the century in the mountains, and also my post production work on the most recent XMEN film. The plus side is we had plenty of time to research honeymoon destinations. We had a limited budget and the thought of being on a plane for more than 8 hours made us go: bleh. The Caribbean had a lot of great deals and St. Martin looked beautiful and we had never been before and we wanted to jet ski and eat and swim and we were getting so excited!!!

To give just a little sample of the beautiful island to come...

We flew into Princess Juliana International Airport which lands about 10 yards away from Sunset Beach, where we gonna swim and drink later. Visitors will frequent this beach to see the planes land almost directly above them. 

Joey asked for a stick shift from our rental car company, the first stop on the island. The guy was pretty surprised about this and we overheard him in the back say, 'American wants a stick shift!'  Apparently, Americans do not want or know how to drive stick shifts. Joey was a rock star on that thing though. We had the smallest compact car that allowed you to feel every bump on the rundown roads. 

We drove up halfway around the island (which is maybe a 30 minute round trip to get around the entire island, yes it's that small) to Grand Case and got a tiny bit worried. It looked so unfamiliar and we were unsure of our surroundings. The roads were tiny and people walked right out in the street. No one obeyed laws, cars would straight up drive in the other lane playing chicken with you. They would not be deterred.  

Our hotel though, beautiful. Gorgeous private beach and an awesomely large room with a kitchenette and patio that closes totally for privacy. Our room was very close to the water too. We had a great garden room and an ocean-esque view (all the ocean views were sold out..). They also gave us a free bottle of wine with fresh flowers upon our arrival! 

Wine not pictured. Didn't last long.

Beach View at Grand Case Beach Club Resort. Oh this is also OUR beach view, being about 100 yards from our patio. We call this beach: home. 

Roof access of the resort. To my right is a pool and right below me is Sunset Cafe restaurant. This resort had legit views from almost any angle. 

Before venturing outside our resort we needed to get our bearings, we had been traveling a full night at this point and arrived next day in the afternoon.  Had we not been on our honeymoon, we probably would have been grumpy jerks. We ordered lunch at our hotel restaurant, Sunset Cafe, and then swam in the ocean for the first time. Ooo Eee! Was the water amazing! It was a turquoise color and you could see all the way down to the bottom.  

My lunch.

Look at Joey all being happy! The stress has almost sweated completely off his beard now.

You brought a phone into the water? Yes, shut up. 

Later that evening, Joey was starting to act a little off, and the lack of sleep and new surroundings hit him hard. He started driving us to get dinner but still wasn't feeling well. He almost pulled out into the street with an oncoming car. He pulled over and I hopped in the driver's seat and drove without hesitation. I drove stick and it was a little scary but it was nice to step in when needed to help my husband. I drove us back to the hotel but close to the resort I turned down a wrong way street. I needed help and Joey popped back in drivers seat immediately. We are a team. We parked near our hotel at Restaurant Row (I call 'Tasty Ass Food Row') to some lolos which is kinda like food trucks but these are open restaurants with a grill out front and big picnic tables. We split a 'meat platter' which was a box of ribs and sides - rice and beans, corn on the cob, and fries.

Cynthia's - the lolo up front and center. We just ordered 'meat platter', we know what we're doing.

I apologize that I could not take a picture of all of the food before it was eaten. This was the best I could do before I went back to the scarf down fest. 

 It was insanely good. Like so good that we ate to our heart's desire and then we fed some to our new cats. Oh yeah, there are stray animals on the island and a ton of cats at our resort. They immediately honed in on our weak hearts and attacked. We started feeding them, petting them, inviting them inside from day 1. 

We call this one Cooper because he's tall and ginger like our friend Cooper. 

Oh and Joey found HBO!!! We were able to watch the new episode of Game of Thrones! This station is only in the U.S. so this was a rare find and treat. I also watched the new VEEP before we passed out.

Joey's favorite moment of the day: Having to jump in from the passenger seat again to tag in like a flipping great team. 
Laurie's favorite moment of the day: Watching Joey get into the water for the first time. He had pure joy on his face.