pinel island

ezra's all ready with his life vest on to take the little boat to pinel island - a little island getaway from our island.  we spent the day with cat and bianca and had another magical day in the caribbean.  

it is almost considered high season here, officially starting in december, and the boat was full of tourists ready for their pinel experience.  in fact, we didn't fit on the first boat over and had to wait a half hour for the next one.  fortunately when we got there, we had the little strip of beach to ourselves away from all the restaurant bars and rented chairs and umbrellas where the tourists go.

this was our view to the left 

(i was standing in the water when i took these)

this was our little beach setup

this was our view to the right

(you can see the tourist umbrellas in the distance)

another view toward the beautiful mountains on st. martin

ezra enjoying the sun and sand

this was behind our little tent setup on the beach.

there is a sweeping nature reserve on pinel 

that we explored a bit at the end of our day.

more beautiful views of st. martin's pretty little mountains and puffy clouds

the day was so relaxing with ezra and bianca busy playing together 

i was able to bring my knitting and complete a few rows.

the colors in my yarn could've been inspired by my surroundings. 

toward the end of our day we dried and clothed ourselves ready to walk around the nature preserve.  we should've known to wait with the little ones until the moment we were ready to go.  they both got wet and ezra ended up taking our walk in his underwear - island style!

these two are such sweet little friends.  i love hearing their dialogue and watching their endless games they come up with that they both find immensely entertaining.  activities of the day included jumping in and out of the water, pulling each other up from sitting and falling back down, having a picnic in the tent together, chasing a beach ball, drawing in the sand and watching the ocean wash it away, and chasing each other along the nature reserve path.  

our little explorers leading the way

me, cat, and ezra (who must've fallen behind while trying to get the sand out of his sandals)

here are some of the pretty views we saw from our walking path

i love their shadows in this one

isn't st. martin beautiful?

ezra on board ready to return to our island.  

when the boat departed pinel he said, "it's time to go back to our island.  

it's time to go back to our earth."