St. Maarten

There's a gorgeous beach on the Dutch side of St. Maarten called Maho Bay.  There, the usual sunbathers and swimmers are doing what people on beach vacations do; taking thousands of selfies. Toward the middle of the beach, though, groups of people stand around squinting and waiting, selfie sticks in hand. 
Maho Bay is located steps from the end of St. Maarten's airport runway. About every 30 minutes a faint light in the distance becomes a gigantic commercial airliner flying directly over the crowd and landing way too close for comfort. Then everyone goes back to swimming or sunbathing (like a gigantic metal object didn't just give us all a buzz cut) until the next faint light is spotted. To be honest, I just kept hoping we didn't see an Oceanic Airline plane headed our way.
A couple of times, planes were taking off from the same area and people would stand as close to the runway as they could waiting for the jet blast. Luckily, no one lost their swimsuits. For the record, Teague did not participate in the jet blast experiment. He has too many loose teeth.

Though seeing the planes buzz our noggins was quite mesmerizing, we did drive & explore the rest of the island. All 34 square miles of it. Interestingly, St. Maarten falls under the Kingdom of the Netherlands, however, the island is partitioned by two different nations and has both a French and a Dutch side. 

The island's main industry is tourism; people visit for the warm waters, the snorkeling/diving and year-round tropical climate. It is beautiful and didn't disappoint.

Orient Bay Beach was our favorite, with waves large enough for Teague to body surf and a lovely selection of steel drum Christmas hits being played nearby.

The island of Anguilla is off the coast of St. Maarten.