Lets start Tuesday May 6th over...<br><br>Got up and meet Patty with my group and we were off to Marigot to catch the ferry over to Anguilla. It started to rain right before we got on the ferry but the sun was shinning in Anguilla. The ferry ride wasn't too bad..the last 5 minutes were the roughest and the diesel fuel smell was getting to me. We got a cab and asked to go to Shoal Bay East to Uncle Ernies. Our cab driver was 82 years old and had soemthing like 15 kids! Amazing! He drove about 15 miles per hour which was a nice change of pace from the drivers in St. Maartin. Raymond meet us at the beach and set us up with chairs and umbrellas. The beach was BREATH TAKING to say the least. Patty & I went for a walk (stopped at Uncle Ernies first for two rum punches) down the beach and around the bend..saw quite a few piping plovers which are endangered here in Rhode Island. Stopped at Uncle Ernies and picked up two more rum punches on the way back. THe color of the water drew us in and we then fell into sand gravity! Raymond did his best and kept us quite entertained. We decided to have lunch at the restaurant at Shoal Bay hotel (the name again escapes me) and it was quite good. Had another rum punch and back to the beach! Tough Day. At 3 pm our driver came back and picked us up and brought us back to the ferry. Did not want to leave. I will definately come back here the next time I come to S t. Maartin and spend at least two days unwinding before hand. Went back to the Pelican to shower and change then meet John & DIane at the beach bar for a drink before heading over to Hot Tomato's for the TTOL party. Dickys first batch was a little weak but he made up for it on the second. Ordered a pizza and then had dinner with John, Diane, Patty & Mary. Very good. Called it an early evening since John & Diane so garciously offered to take us to Bikini Beach with them the next day.<br><br>Wednesday . Meet John & Dian at theri town house at the Pelican and off to the beach we went with a scenic tour along the way. John had a Mr. St. Maartin card so we got free chairs if we had lunch at Bikini Beach. The card was also good for a free rum punch at lunch too! Spent the day vertical except for a walk down to CLub O and back. John and my aunt went a got henna tattoes (a turtle for her and a dragon for John) Very nice. We left the beach around 4pm to stop at teh grocery store and get supplies for the night. Went to John & Dianes townhouse for the sunset and bread, cheese, pepperoni and veggies for dinner (with Caribs of course). It was a spendid night and had Etna icecream for desert. Very yummy!)<br><br>Thursday. Decided to hang by the pool for the morning and J.D. & John and Diane came over . Popped some more Caribs and had munchies. The girls wanted to go back into town to do some more shopping so off we went with plans to meet everyone at Peg Leg Pub for Happy hour! SInce I really didn't want to shop I just tagged along with them (they designated me as their barginner). I was getting bored and hot so I went into a store to buy some waters. I handed the lady a 10.00 bill since I had nothing else smaller for the 2.00 purchase and she hands me back 3 ones. I said, I gave you a ten, she says no you gave me a five. I said, no i didn't cause if I had a five, I would have given it to you. She then gets her manager who says they have to close out the drawer and count it to see who's correct. I said go ahead. IT then took her 15 minutes to count the drawer with all the change. Then she starts adding it up on a calculator and says, I think I made a mistake and starts to count the drawer alkl over again!! I wait..now mind you, she hasn't done a x or z report yet on the register to come up with a figure for total sales. After she spends another 15 minutes counting the drawer, I lost it. Told her to keep her money, it wasn't worth the 8.00 change I should of gotten and left the store. How was I to even know once she counted it that she was being honest? Of well, lesson learned, there are shady people everywhere and I didn't want it to ruin my impression of the people and the island. Plus, happy hour was calling. Met up with the gang at Peg Leg and had some great 1/2 price appetizers and drinks. Got a big hug from Sean (aka Shaggy) and then we went off to dinner at some restaurant that is on a dock (help with name JD?). Dinner was good and the Pub Crawl came in for a stop. JD & his wife were leaving the next day so we said our good byes and headed back tot he Pelican. John and Diane took us to Bikinin Beach again on Friday and we had another wonderful day. This was our last day on the island and we enjoyed it imensely and were sad to see our vacation come to an end.<br><br>Saturday: Packed upa nd left the Pelican at 10 am for checkout and hoping to get to the airport, check in and get rid of our luggage. No such luck, the Delta counter doesn't open till 11 am. Waited as first in line for an hour and then checked in. Was not impressed with their so called "security" check of my luggage nor the fact that it's done in front of everyone else that was in line.Want upsatirs and had some lunch and drinks and watched some planes come in. The lunch was very good at the restaurant. Went back down stairs, bought come more booze & cigs and then waited in line for security check. Again, seemed pretty lame to me. I even handed my lighter over to the inspector and he said thats ok, keep it! Our flight was a little late taking off since a certain group of girls were having a late lunch at Turtle Pier<br>
<br><br>But, all said, it was a great vacation and if I've said it once, I'll say it again, the people from TTOL are the GREATEST and it was a pleasure meeting everyone and everyone that took care of us and carted us around with them, YOU"RE THE BEST!