Chasing the sun

Looking north on Orient Beach toward Mont Vernon

Let me explain it this way:

Hudson, Fl.: 49°     Myrtle Beach, SC: 37°     Orient Bay, St. Martin: 77°

Those are the temperatures as I write this blog entry (8 a.m. on Feb. 6).

We are in St. Martin.

A few years ago Deb and I created a weather chart. Along the left side we listed places family members lived and places we wanted to explore. Across the top we listed the 12 months. Then we filled in the average high for each month for each place.

Our goal was to be near family and be warm.

Our year in Hudson, Florida, met the last criteria (except for a few unseasonably cold days). Myrtle Beach got us closer to part of the family, but we spent the month indoors. Which was nice but there was no tennis play, no warming walks along the beach.

So now we are trying a winter in St. Martin, where we are assured the kind of weather we want. We are living along Orient Beach in a condo where there are tennis courts.

We are able to walk 10 minutes south along the beach to Coco Beach Restaurant (above). Another 10 minutes gets us to Orient Village, where there are more restaurants, a well-stocked convenience store and a wonderful French bakery.

We’ve barely settled in, yet this feels like an extremely comfortable fit.

Some details: We spent January (very off-season) at the Camelot resort in Myrtle Beach. We paid $790 for the month. We had access to the indoor pool, indoor lazy river, indoor Jacuzzi, and fitness center. There was an onsite laundromat ($2 for a load of wash, $1.50 for a spin in the dryer). There were very few restaurants open in town and Broadway at the Beach was deserted (although we did play miniature golf there with our granddaughter).

I’ll get to the details about our 3-month stay in St. Martin in the next posting.