After reading our story, be sure to check out the photos of our trip.

St. Maarten / St. Martin (Dutch/French West Indies)

Well, we are still stuck on "Island Time", but we had a great trip. We flew from O'Hare to Washington DC, and then on a 3 hour and 50 minute flight down to Princess Julianna Airport (SXM) in St. Maarten, Dutch West Indies. The condo owner happened to be down there so he picked us up in his tiny rent-a-car. We had to take two trips, one for the luggage and the second for the people. Luckily our condo was only 5 minutes from the airport. However, there is a rush hour on the main highway every day between 4 and 6. We arrived to free rum punch in the resort lobby, and happy hour had already begun...Caribs were 2 for $3, so we stored our luggage and went out to the beach & pool until our room was ready.

I'll try to keep this short, but we ...