St. Maarten and Family Fun!
Every family has its own traditions. Some families tour various baseball stadiums around the country, while others cook pancakes together on Saturday mornings. My family's tradition involves summer vacations! From a young age, my parents and grandparents made a point to take me to new and exciting places and exposed me and my brother to many different cultures and situations. Even as adults, we vacation together every year and enjoy traveling to a new location. This year we decided on the beautiful island of St. Maarten in the Netherland Antilles. After researching various places, we decided on Villa Suzanne as our home during our stay. Located on the border of the Dutch side of St. Maarten, the villa overlooks beautiful Dawn Beach. Each completely private bedroom had an en suite luxurious bathroom with walk-in shower. It was beautifully decorated and a nice surprise was the owner's photo with the Dalia Lama. That was unexpected! We spent the mornings having breakfast and enjoying coffee overlooking the infinity pool and beautiful Caribbean ocean with the tradewinds wiping away any hint of stress. Most evenings were spent playing cards, retelling stories of the day, and always involved plenty of laughter!!
During our time in St. Maarten, we bravely navigated the island - which is an adventure itself! There are no marked maps of the island and no street names. Just signs to point you in the general direction! My brother became very proficient at following where it looked like we were on a road and navigating us to our destination. And no, a GPS didn't even pick up a road!
We spent our 
days lounging by the private pool, walking on Dawn Beach and snorkeling on its beautiful reefs. We journeyed on a slightly bumpy boat ride to St. Barths where we swam and shopped. And during a brief afternoon sprinkle, had pina coladas while getting caught in the rain!! We embarked on a catamaran to Anguilla and spotted an island with one house on it. My brother's life goal is to move there! 
I finished my scuba diving certification prior to this trip and my brother and I dove for the first time together which was an adventure all its own.
But the best part of our family tradition is the memories we make. It's probably rare a family can spend 7-10 days together every summer, in a foreign country, and no on argues or gets upset. We truly enjoy each other's company and there is nothing but lots of laughter and love. I think as the years pass, my brother and I both realize how special this time is with our parents and we're fortunate to look back at all the travels, memories, and hilarious adventures that have happened along the way. So here's to our summer of 2009 trip and all the wonderful travels yet to come!
