St Maarten,

Day five. Go to sleep, wake up and wham, in a new port of call! This time, Dutch St Maarten. Our first stop was to a quaint butterfly farm. Although small in size, there were quite a few butterfly varieties. Here are a few of our favorite photos. Driving through the countryside was enjoyable! I guess, I like to see the culture up close. Not once did we see a school or church. Only a few businesses and homes. The road was really well paved until we turned onto the street leading to the butterfly farm. At that point, we wondered if we would drive into the sea. The road had a pothole every few feet!

After our visit, we traveled to Boo-Boo or Orient Beach.

While Steven spent his time jumping the waves, the others body surfed in the beautiful, warm, turquoise water!

Dave, Jessica, and Kierstin were eager to return to the ship for some more activities. David, Steven and I decided to stay for some shopping. Can you believe the boys wanted to shop with me? Ok..so there was an alterior motive. They learned of "Yoda Guy," or Nick Maley, who built Yoda for Star Wars. He has a shop in Philipsburg with Star Wars memorabilia that they wanted to see. So, before our shopping spree, we shared a crepe filled with nutella and a strawberry smoothie! David found a booklet with all kind of jewelry "freebies" that was being handed out. On our way to the Yoda Guy's shop, we looked for the shops that were giving away free junk. We actually had quite fun turning this into a scavenger hunt! We eventually arrived at the Yoda Guy's shop. Nick was in his shop and was very willing to answer both David and Steven's questions.

On the way up to his studio is a storm trooper replica. He also has an ewok and other "stuff" on display. Steven bought a cool postcard that has a storm trooper enjoying the Philipsburg beach. Surprisingly, David was not interested in buying anything. After our stop here, we decided to continue on our scavenger hunt. Talk about tourist trap haven...Whew!!! Unfortunately for us, we were here on Yom Kippur. Who would have known that the only 2 shops I was interested in entering were both closed for the holiday? Our last stop was to find "The Belgian Chocolate Box." David LOVES chocolate. He was not interested in any other souvenier, only chocolate. So we bought a variety of chocolate for him to enjoy! Beatrix, is the shop owner and she was there to assist David in his selection. How nice and polite she was too! We intended to share the chocolate with everyone that night. However, as we had ample food every night after dinner, we forgot about the chocolates until time to pack. Oh well, we enjoyed them at home ! Who would have guessed that shopping would have turned into such a fun game. Steven was pretty tired at the end and David was kind enough to give him a piggy back to the water taxi!

Once again, we spent the night at the theatre. This time though was a comedian. He was absolutely hilarious!!!! David and I were both laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes. Once again, Steven fell asleep during the show, AND once again, Dave and Jessica left early so they could surf! What surfing fanatics they turned into!